What the fund does
The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) was set up by parliament in 1994 to give grants to a wide range of projects involving the local, regional and national heritage of the United Kingdom.
The HLF's work is wide-ranging. In addition to the more familiar building repairs and conservation work, it also buys equipment, land or buildings which are considered important to the UK's heritage.
The Fund also has a remit to increase participation in heritage projects – especially among communities which have not been involved in heritage before. This includes improving access to sites, skills and materials, and increasing people's understanding of how the UK's heritage is recorded and protected.
As the Fund's name suggests, the money it distributes comes directly from the National Lottery. Since 1994, over £3.5 billion has been awarded to more than 18,000 projects across the UK, although many of these grants are comparatively small. Last year, four out of five grants were less than £50,000, many of which went to small community groups.
At the other end of the scale, the HLF's largest ever grant was a massive £26 million to restore the historic Kennett and Avon canal which runs between Reading and Bristol.
The projects that receive funding are as diverse and varied as the UK's heritage. They encompass protecting endangered species, transforming public parks and woodlands, improving and looking after museums and other collections and helping community groups to engage with their past.
It even helps to preserve the vital traditional skills required to preserve the UK's heritage.
In partnership with national and regional heritage bodies, the HLF has introduced bursary schemes that preserve heritage skills such as flint-knapping and pargetting, dry-stone walling, hedging and ditching. The aim is to teach old skills to a new generation of apprentices – helping save these skills from the threat of extinction.
Activities such as traditional wooden boat building in Chichester Harbour, stonemasonry at St Paul's Church in Bristol and dry-stone walling in Northumberland National Park are just a few examples.
The HLF has a £7 million bursaries scheme running enabling individuals to enhance heritage skills through further work placements in heritage sites.
Griff Rhys Jones, presenter of the BBC's Restoration series, said: “The future of the UK's heritage relies on the skills of many thousands of individuals. We sometimes think that money is most needed for bricks and mortar, but its people who put bricks and mortar together. HLF is making a huge contribution by investing in those people whose skills make restoration possible.”
If you would like to find out more about Heritage Lottery Fund Traditional Building Craft Skills Bursaries, go to: The HLF bursaries page.
