HMS Caroline during the First World War

Industrial, maritime and transport

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Industrial, maritime and transport

Our funding celebrates the innovative buildings, transport and technology that helped to shape the modern world.

Thanks to National Lottery players, since 1994 we’ve invested more than £520million in thousands of industrial heritage projects across the UK.

We want to help more people conserve their local industrial heritage. Our funding can help pass on to younger generations the skills to look after it.

What do we support?

Projects we fund include:

  • printing presses
  • pumping engines
  • windmills
  • historic ships
  • locomotives
  • natural landscapes transformed by industry

Project ideas

Our funding could help people:

  • uncover and record people’s memories of our industrial past
  • give a disused site a new purpose
  • restore and maintain operating machinery
  • reveal the history of industry in your area
  • explore the nation's network of canals
  • provide staffed visitor facilities and learning resources
  • help young people learn new skills and care for their heritage

How to get funding

Find out whether your project is eligible for funding.

Volunteers of the Don Catchment Rivers Trust
Volunteers of the Don Catchment Rivers Trust

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River Rother to be reclaimed from industrial blight

Thanks to a National Lottery grant of more than £450,000, two centuries worth of industrialisation are to be reversed around the River Rother in Derbyshire.
A model of a boat on water
A model of the Skylark IX floating at Dunkirk shore on the 75th anniversary of Operation Dynamo

News article

Dunkirk Little Ship to set sail again

A Dunkirk Little Ship that saved 600 lives is itself going to be rescued thanks to National Lottery funding and the passion of a local community group. The restoration project will allow recovering drug addicts to learn new skills by working with a specialist boatbuilding team.
Richard Bellamy, Pennaeth CDL yng Nghyrmu
Richard Bellamy, Pennaeth CDL yng Nghyrmu Patrick Olner

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Diving in to heritage at Pontypridd Lido

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The Great Light has been modernised and converted to solar power
In 2014 the optic was removed and the lighthouse was modernised and converted to solar power. It now brings to life the story of lighthouses in Belfast and beyond

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Great Light is the latest attraction unveiled in Belfast's Titanic Quarter

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Three miners

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25 years: Restoring the prosperity and pride of Blaenavon

Blaenavon: a community reborn Perched high on a South Wales hillside, Blaenavon is a community forged from the heat, smoke and dust of the Industrial Revolution. Its ironworks and coal pit provided the majority of the town’s residents with employment until 1980. The town's shops, churches, chapels,
Blaenavon

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25 years: Voices from Blaenavon

For over a quarter of a century, The National Lottery has been a major catalyst to revive and regenerate communities across the UK through heritage. We visited Blaenavon to see how National Lottery funding has helped this once beleaguered post-industrial town revive its fortunes and restore its
Paul Barnard

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How working internationally can boost tourism for heritage organisations

The Historic Dockyard Chatham has always worked internationally , but on a relatively small scale. We stepped this up considerably in 2017 through our project commemorating the 350th anniversary of the Medway Raid. The Medway Raid - a history It was 1667, during the Second Anglo-Dutch War. The Dutch
Union Chain Bridge

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Future of the historic Union Chain Bridge secured

For 200 years the Union Chain Bridge has crossed the River Tweed, connecting Fishwick in Scotland to Horncliffe in England. Thanks to National Lottery funding, crucial repair works beginning early next year will ensure this link continues. To celebrate the cross-border project, His Royal Highness
Mosaic

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Unmissable openings this autumn

Wherever you live - or whatever you enjoy doing - this autumn sees an exciting array of National Lottery-funded attractions opening across the country.