Community heritage

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 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.

Projects
Lost Mills and Ghost Mansions
This oral history project captured the unheard voices of Bradford’s textile mill workers to celebrate the area’s rich industrial heritage.

Stories
Mind the gap: uncovering missing stories from railway history

Projects
Wotta Lotta Culture – The Birmingham Allotment Project
This oral history project has celebrated the communities at the heart of the ‘allotment capital’ of the UK.

Projects
Promoting the Welsh language at Hengwrt Heritage Centre
Menter Dinefwr is bringing local history to life in Llandeilo with an emphasis on the Welsh language, thanks to National Lottery players.

Videos
Inspiration for your heritage project

Blogs
How ‘small’ grants can make a big impact for communities

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.

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.

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

Projects
Family Lines, Family Trails
Using National Lottery money, The Romani Cultural and Arts Company have been able to record, celebrate and preserve the cultural heritage of Gypsy and Traveller communities in South Wales.

Projects
Sharing stories of Black identity and belonging in the South West
We’re supporting the Black South West Network to establish the UnMuseum – a community-led project that reimagines how Black cultural heritage is defined, preserved and shared.

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

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.

Projects
Neurodiversity through the ages
Educating local communities in Grimsby about neurodiversity throughout human history, including – the development of psychiatry as a discipline, the history of diagnoses and how society treated neurodivergent people.

News
Special offers and free entry to heritage attractions this spring

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.

News
Fife’s River Park to see £2.9million investment in people and nature

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.