Cultures and memories
Since 1994 we have awarded £460million to more than 24,100 community and cultural heritage projects across the UK.
What do we support?
We fund projects which help to explore, save and celebrate the traditions, customs, skills and knowledge of different communities.
This cultural heritage is sometimes referred to as intangible or living heritage. This is because it is constantly changing and kept alive when practiced or performed.
We also fund projects which document and share people’s memories. This often involves capturing oral histories and ensuring they are accessible now and in the future.
Project ideas
Our funding could help people:
- research and share oral traditions, such as storytelling or local dialects
- train others in traditional skills and crafts, from dry stone walling and blacksmithing to basket weaving and textile making
- research the origins of culture, such as music, theatre or dance, and create performances influenced by past styles
- share the history and fun of celebrations, festivals or rituals with new audiences, from games and cooking to carnivals and fayres
- capture accounts of traditional knowledge or pass it on, such as woodland management or home remedies
- record the stories of ordinary people through oral histories, for example about growing up, migration or work
- retell people’s memories about a place or event, such as a long-stay hospital, the miners' strikes or the punk movement
How to get funding
If you have an idea for a project, we would love to hear from you.
Projects
RENEWAL: reviving River Lambourn
West Berkshire Council and Newbury Community Resource Centre worked with local people to revive the fortunes of a neglected river.
Projects
Past Times
The history of Odsal Stadium – home to the Bradford Bulls – was protected for future generations as part of this project.
Projects
Brixton's Raleigh Hall Development
The derelict Grade II listed building in Brixton was turned into a permanent home for the Black Cultural Archive’s collection of historical material.
Projects
'Education through Restoration' - Cefn Flight of Fourteen Locks Restoration (phase one)
An ambitious scheme to restore and reopen an historic stretch of waterway on the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal is one step closer, thanks to the completion of phase one of the Cefn Flight of Fourteen Locks Restoration project.
Projects
Ipswich Town Football Archive
A project to make the Ipswich Town Football Charitable Trust archive more widely accessible, and uncovering the heritage of the club through individual stories and artefacts.
Projects
1948 Olympic Games, then and now.
The lives of young people aged 17-20 at the time of the 1948 London Olympics were compared with young people today, in this 2012 project.
Projects
'Celebrating Highgate and Peter Stanford, Birmingham's First Black Minister'
Highgate Baptist Church researched the remarkable life of Peter Stanford, Birmingham’s first black minister.
Projects
Exhibition on gay life and the LGBT movement in Bristol, Bath and the surrounding region
OutStories have collected and preserved the heritage of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) communities of Bristol and the surrounding area.
Projects
Journey from Bangladesh to Birmingham
An oral history project recording the memories and experiences of people who moved from Bangladesh to Birmingham between 1940 and 1971.
Projects
Hadhari Oral History Project
The Hadhari project recorded memories from a local African-Caribbean care group in Derby, which were at risk of being lost forever.
Projects
How I Got Here - Journey to Fareham
The project focused on the exploration of maps and local archive material to illustrate the inter-generational journeys of people, from different cultural backgrounds and communities, who now live in Fareham.
Projects
From Plants to Pills - the history of health in Warwickshire
Local groups from across Warwickshire explored the history of health and medicine, in this community-led project.