The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has celebrated its 18th birthday with £22.5million of funding for six projects across the country.
Heritage Alliance writes:
A community arts centre in Hoxton, east London, an arboretum in the Cotswolds and Hastings’ fire-damaged pier are among the recipients.
Since its foundation, the HLF has committed over £5billion to over 33,000 heritage and community projects, making a huge difference to communities and people across the country. This tradition was continued with the announcement on 22 November of the 500 recipients of the ‘All Our Stories’ funding – £4.5million aimed at helping communities explore their local heritage.
Designed to coincide with the BBC series ‘The Great British Story: A People’s History’, All Our Stories will see an investigation of fascinating local heritage – from the lost pubs of Salford to the history of Raleigh bicycles in Nottingham and the stories of the Chinese community of Swansea.
Speaking at the announcement of recipients for All Our Stories at the Museum of London, historian and Great British Story presenter Michael Wood applauded the successful projects as the ‘possessors and generators of history’, saying that history ‘is what makes us communities. History gives value and meaning to our present’.
All Out Stories is now closed, but it has been announced that a similar programme, Shared Heritage, awarding grants of between £3,000 and £10,000 for small, local-focused community heritage projects will be launched in February 2013.
For the Shared Heritage initiative see: LINK
