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Community heritage

Community heritage

The interior of a 1950s hairdresser's shop. A visitor is having their hair styled by a stylist in vintage clothing. A child sits in a high chair next to the visitor.
Credit: Nigel Roddis
Celebrating community heritage can help people come together, feel pride in where they live and save stories and traditions.

Since 1994 we have awarded over £510million to more than 24,600 community and cultural heritage projects across the UK.

What do we support?

We fund projects that are researching, conserving and celebrating the heritage of a community or place.

These projects could include lots of types of heritage, such as people celebrating living customs or improving a historic green space. What's most important is that the project involves and benefits the community.

Project ideas

Our funding could help people:

  • research the impact of a historical event on their town, and share their findings through displays, talks and online
  • investigate the names on a war memorial
  • crowdsource documents and photographs linked to the LGBTQ+ community, creating an online archive and exhibition
  • set up an audio trail around a range of buildings, parks and monuments in a town
  • enable a youth group to research their local history and create an animated film about their learnings

For more inspiration, see the stories below or browse projects we've funded.

How to get funding

If you have an idea for a project, we would love to hear from you.

Explore our available funding
Three people working on the Roma Heritage Project.
The Europia team working on the Roma Heritage Project. Photo: Joanna Rajs.

Projects

Exploring and recording Manchester’s Roma heritage

The Roma Heritage Project will work with local people in Manchester to share traditional dishes and record oral histories from Roma communities.

The left side of the image shows a traditional Traveller wagon, painted with decorative designs, and the right side of the image shows a man leading a pony and trap which a girl is riding
The project held an outdoor fair-style event in June 2023.

Projects

Roma and Irish Travellers: A Shared Story

People from different cultures and backgrounds came together for workshops and celebration events about Roma and Irish Traveller cultural heritage organised by Armagh Roma Traveller Support.

Three musicians with guitars and an accordion and four women dancers wearing traditional Eastern European dress.
Romane Cierhenia are a family group of Roma musicians and dancers from Poland.

Projects

Roma Empowerment Through Heritage

This pilot project trained volunteers including young Roma people to record heritage and ran a Roma cultural heritage festival.

A group of different ages from the Tylorstown community celebrate outside the Welfare Hall, smiling and raising their hands in the air.
The Tylorstown community celebrate outside the Welfare Hall. Credit: Steve Pope / FotoWales.

News

£43million awarded to help communities share skills and learn together

From the Norfolk coast to the canals of Scotland, our latest batch of grants will provide opportunities for people to get hands on with heritage and connect with their area’s past.
The art deco red brick structure of the Iron Duke, with its windows boarded up and with visible damage to the facade.
The Iron Duke before restoration. Credit: Great Yarmouth Preservation Trust.

Projects

Saving Great Yarmouth's Iron Duke

After many years of neglect, one of East Anglia’s most elegant pubs is to be saved for future generations.

People standing in front of a ceramic mural that spells out the words Strong Women
Participants of the Strong Women project with the mural in St Helens. Photo: Radka Dolinska

Projects

Celebrating the social history of women through public art

The Strong Women project aims to capture the untold stories of women in St Helens and Knowsley and celebrate their contributions through street murals.

Four people stand in front of a train engine and hold a progress pride flag
Joanna Jarvis , Imogen Watmore, Ashlynn Hudson-Welburn and Harvey Barker holding Pride banner in front of HST loco in Great Hall, National Railway Museum, (NRM) York. © The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum.

Stories

Mind the gap: uncovering missing stories from railway history

People, Pride and Progress is recording the experiences of LGBTQ+ workers to explore unheard perspectives on railway heritage.
Arthur Berry, wearing a flat cap and holding a script, talks with the cast of one of his plays at the Victoria Theatre, Stoke.
Arthur and cast at the New Vic Theatre by Horace Wetton (1986). Credit: Victoria Theatre Archive.

Projects

Stoke-on-Trent to celebrate centenary of local cultural icon Arthur Berry

Our funding will shine a spotlight on Arthur Berry – poet, painter, playwright, teacher and broadcaster – during a special year for his home city of Stoke-on-Trent.

Leaders of the project pose for a group photo
From left to right: Scott Cuthbertson, Director of The Rainbow Project, Mukesh Sharma, The National Lottery Heritage Fund Northern Ireland NI Committee Chair, Cara McCann, Director of HERe NI and Adam Murray, Community Development Manager at Cara-Friend.

Projects

Creating Northern Ireland’s LGBTQ+ heritage archive

A collaborative effort will record and share Northern Ireland’s modern LGBTQ+ history.

If you query is regarding our application portal, please contact our support team.