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.

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

News article

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

Visitors to Belfast’s Titanic Quarter can learn more about lighthouses and their role in the maritime and industrial development of the city, following today’s official opening of The Great Light.
Volunteers of the Don Catchment Rivers Trust
Volunteers of the Don Catchment Rivers Trust

News article

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

Blog

Diving in to heritage at Pontypridd Lido

Last week the much-loved Pontypridd Lido re-opened after almost a quarter of a century. Our new Head of HLF Wales, Richard Bellamy, explains why its story is so important to him.
Mosaic

Story

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.
Jodrell Bank

News article

Jodrell Bank named as new UNESCO World Heritage Site

Other newly designated World Heritage Sites for 2019 include the Royal Building of Mafra in Portugal and Risco Caido and the Sacred Mountains of Gran Canaria in Spain. Heritage Minister Rebecca Pow said: "I am delighted that Jodrell Bank has become the UK’s 32nd UNESCO World Heritage Site. The
Scarlet tiger moth

News article

Million insects saved as part of £8million of National Lottery funding

A million bugs Oxford University Museum of Natural History’s British Insect Collection has over a million specimens from the 18th century to today, including some that are now extinct. Spanning nearly the entire history of British entomology, the collection is vital in understating the extent and
Ship

News article

Launch of £100million Heritage Horizon Awards

The Heritage Horizon Awards will invest £100million over the next three years in ambitious, innovative and transformational projects that will revolutionise UK heritage.