Image: The Ripon Workhouse (c) Ripon Museums
A total of 15 projects across the country will share £30m in celebration of the organisation’s 30th anniversary
15 newly funded projects have been unveiled as part of a £30m funding package announced by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
The announcement comes as the organisation marks its 30th anniversary, and includes museum transformation projects and the protection of vital river habitats.
Among the projects to receive funding is Ripon Museums in North Yorkshire. It will be provided with £2.5m for the “Ripon Museums: Inspiration for a Fairer Future” project, which will focus on essential repairs at The Workhouse Museum and manage 8,700 artefacts from the Prison & Police Museum. This initiative aims to enhance visitor experiences, attract diverse audiences, and preserve local heritage, with the intention of engaging with an additional 4,000 visitors.
In London, £4.6m has been allocated to the restoration of Crystal Palace Park, a 200-acre Grade II* listed Victorian park. The project aims to secure the future of this vital green space, including the restoration of the park’s famous 170-year-old dinosaur sculptures, which reveal what pioneering Victorian scientists knew about these prehistoric creatures. The funding will also support the creation of a new information centre and a destination playground.
Regions and their projects
| Region | Project Name | Funding Amount |
| Essex | Back on Track: Tilbury Riverside Station | £4,478,310 |
| Hertfordshire | Reimagining and revitalising Watford’s Museum and Heritage Service | £2,454,347 |
| Staffordshire | Making Available the Heritage of All Saints receives | £558,268 |
| Across Scotland | Riverwoods: A Blueprint for Riparian Woodland Recovery | £1,834,114 |
| North Yorkshire | Ripon Museum: Inspiration for a Fairer Future | £2,573,493 |
| Carlisle | Project Tuille: Breaking Down Barriers | £4,453,582 |
| Cheshire | The Synergy Project | £1,009,930 |
| London | Restoring the heritage of the iconic Crystal Palace Park for all | £4,696,649 |
| Kent | Whose Hoo (Hoo Peninsula) | £2,943,041 |
| Exmoor | Exmoor Pioneers: Past, Present and Future | £1,227,803 |
| Chichester | Downs to the Sea: Recovery & Resilience in Wetland Habitats | £1,693,187 |
| Llanystumdwy | Menter y Plu | £1,055,089 |
| Wales | Reimagining Margam Castle | £900,030 |
| Belfast | Nerve Centre: Power Plants | £255,172 |
| Bushmills | Reading, Writing, Restoration: Bushmills’ Old School Project | £29,000 |
Another significant project is the restoration of Tilbury Riverside Station in Essex, which will receive £4.4m. This historic site holds particular significance as the arrival point for HMT Empire Windrush in 1948, which brought over 800 members of the Windrush generation to Britain. The project aims to revitalise the station, creating a community hub that will boost the local economy and reestablish Tilbury as a cultural destination.
In Scotland, £1.8m has been allocated to the Riverwoods project, which seeks to address the declining health of the country’s river landscapes. This initiative will focus on creating thriving river woodlands and reversing the decline in riverside habitats, benefiting species such as freshwater pearl mussels and Atlantic salmon.
Other notable projects include £1m for saving Menter y Plu, a 200-year-old community pub in the village of Llanystumdwy, Wales, and £255,172 for the Nerve Centre’s Power Plants project in Belfast, exploring biodiversity loss through art.
Collectively, these projects are expected to create 87 jobs and apprenticeships, as well as over 620 volunteer roles, amounting to over 10,000 volunteer hours. The initiatives are also expected lead to the redevelopment of over 1.06 million m2 of land and the planting of over 100,000 trees. The National Lottery Heritage Fund anticipates that these projects will see a forecasted audience of 1.28 million in the coming years.
Eilish McGuinness, Chief Executive, The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: “These wonderful projects demonstrate the astonishing breadth of heritage that people value and want to pass onto future generations, from a Victorian workhouse to the famous Crystal Palace Park dinosaurs, and from one of the UK’s historic ports to our precious riverside habitats.
“Our funding benefits all parts of the heritage ecosystem, including visitors, volunteers and the communities which surround it, and I cannot wait to see what the future brings as we work to deliver our vision for heritage to be valued, cared for and sustained for everyone, now and in the future.”
