by Katharine Grice, English Heritage.

Much of the nation’s heritage remains in the care of private owners and the grants that English Heritage offers are a key way in which we protect the historic environment.

English Heritage grants help owners look after some of the most important buildings and sites in the country and they help fund research so we can understand and care for the historic environment better.  We also contribute to the costs of some organisations working to care for the historic environment and to get more people involved in it.

Our priorities are the significant elements of the historic environment at risk and/or activities that strengthen the ability of the historic environment sector to reduce or avoid risk to the historic environment by understanding, managing and conserving.

A current example of a repairs grant is the complex of buildings at Kirkleatham Hall, near Redcar, where urgent repairs are in hand with a grant of just under £300,000.  It was made to secure the Grade II* stable block and a number of highly significant garden structures, enabling further repairs and a long-term future for the site to be worked out.

In the South West, English Heritage will be giving a £200,000 grant towards vital repairs at the Walronds, a 17th century Grade I-listed town house in Fore Street, Cullumpton, which is in a dilapidated state and at serious risk.  This three-storey house was built between 1602 and 1605 and is remarkably unaltered.  This latest grant to the Cullumpton Walronds Preservation Trust comes on top of a £150,000 grant given last year towards the £1.35 million cost of a basic structural repair.  Currently, water is seeping through cracks in the walls; the ornate plaster and woodwork is rapidly deteriorating and many of the windows are in danger of being lost altogether.  Once repaired, it is hoped that the ground floor will open for use by the local community.

A grant has also gone to a father-and-son team to train them in heritage trade skills.  They bought Blenkinsopp Castle, which is a site on Hadrian’s Wall and a 14th century structure that was on the Heritage at Risk Register.  Using the grant in this way was the best solution for this site.  They found they enjoyed the work so much they now specialise in it and have gone on to help restore Shittleheughbastle and, most recently, a dovecote, mediaeval bridge and chapel in Barforth, Northumberland.

In our regional capacity, building programme grants are available for projects which promote the conservation, understanding and enjoyment of the historic environment.  We will give priority to projects and activities which build up the capacity and commitment of local communities to champion the conservation and enhancement of their own local historic environments, or projects which promote best-practice standards for the conservation, documentation, interpretation and sustainable management of the resources of England's historic environment.

For example, we fund a role in the heritage section of the Lake District National Park Authority.  This enables the team to do more work on the Elms project, which helps to identify scheduled monuments at risk and to improve the condition of archaeological sites.

Over the next four years, the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) will gain an additional £50 million for disbursing to its causes.  The range of projects funded by the HLF is broader than the remit of English Heritage, but there will be greater resources available.

At the HLF, the huge response from the recent consultation on what the general public, as well as the heritage sector, considered should be its priorities for grant after 2013 is being digested.  Applicants will see an important change sooner than this, because late last year, HLF announced a relaxation in its minimum levels for match-funding requirements to just ten per cent of project costs for grants over £1 million and five per cent for grants under £1 million.  This is good news for applicants who are finding it hard to raise funds elsewhere.  In some cases, the partnership funding element will be achievable from the applicant's own resources.

This reminds us that public sector grants are only part of the story.  It remains to be seen how far the economic climate will affect the funding of heritage conservation projects from private donations, charitable bodies and foundations at a time when the voluntary sector in its widest sense is being asked to contribute more to the Big Society.  The depression in the property market is making it harder to finance projects where part of the funding is coming from resale or commercial end use.

The heritage sector is fortunate in that there has been more continuity in the main funding schemes and programmes themselves compared to some other sectors.  In that sense it is business as usual.  But anyone planning a bricks-and-mortar heritage conservation project will need to have an eye on the strategic changes in the main funders’ priorities and guidelines.  As ever, it is important to read around the application pack at other news or guidance which may be relevant, and to make effective use of any opportunity for pre-application advice.  Many grant-givers will welcome approaches because realistic advice to prospective applicants at an early stage may reduce effort further down the line by helping to identify good projects that meet their criteria.

For information on English Heritage grants, please contact our regional offices and speak to the Advice and Grants team or visit: www.english-heritage.org.uk.

Note:

The Talking Point article in Heritage Conservation was incorrectly ascribed to Timothy Brooks at English Heritage on the contents page. In fact, it was written by Katharine Grice in English Heritage's Communications Department. You can read the amended article here.
 
An amended version of the funding article from English Heritage in Heritage Conservation 2/2011 is also included here.