15th January 2008

The National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) has today welcomed the news that its grant-in-aid will remain at the current increased level of £10million per annum until 2011. This news comes as a result of the Government’s recent Comprehensive Spending Review.

Commenting on the CSR settlement which will see the NHMF receiving £10 million a year from the Culture Department for the next three years, Culture Secretary James Purnell, said:

"The NHMF is an essential element in our heritage protection regime, making a fantastic contribution to so many cultural fund raising campaigns. Their experience and expertise in this field, together with the speed of their response when needed, has made them truly indispensable. This three year funding deal ensures that the Fund will be able to continue being so."

Carole Souter, Director of NHMF, commented:

“This is extremely welcome news. The sector desperately needs this funding, particularly as demand for support from the National Heritage Memorial Fund continues to be so high. Known as the fund of last resort, the NHMF was created in memory of people who made the ultimate sacrifice. From paintings to landscapes to tanks, the range of exceptional heritage NHMF can help save will remain a forceful tribute for many generations to come.”

NHMF’s annual budget from the Government was doubled to £10million in April 2007 and this increase came at a vital time as demand for support from NHMF continues to far outstrip its resources. Since the beginning of this financial year, NHMF’s Trustees have already considered applications totalling more than £15million.

NHMF has played a key part in the UK's cultural life for over 27 years. The range of national treasures the Fund has helped save recently includes: the Wilshere Collection of Late Roman gold glass and sculpture; Turner’s watercolour masterpiece, The Blue Rigi; an outstanding 2,000-year-old gold choker, the Newark Torc; and Dumfries House and its contents in Ayrshire received a £7million grant - one of the UK’s most important 18th-century classical houses.

-Ends-

Notes to Editors

• The National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) is the ‘fund of last resort’ for the nation’s heritage, coming to the rescue by funding emergency acquisitions in memory of those who gave their lives for this country. For further information about the NHMF please contact Dervish Mertcan or Alex Gaskell at NHMF’s press office.
  Tel: 020 7591 6102 / 6032     Mobile: 07973 613820 www.nhmf.org.uk

Heritage saved by NHMF includes:

• The Blue Rigi, painted in the spring of 1842, is an outstanding watercolour which represents one of the peaks of Turner’s achievement in a medium he made his own. An NHMF grant of £1.89million ensured it was secured and displayed in its natural home at the Tate where it can to be enjoyed by everyone.
• The rare and exquisite 2,000-year-old gold choker known as the Newark Torc was acquired for £350,000 by Newark & Sherwood District Council’s Museum Service, made possible by a £285,000 grant from NHMF.
• The Lakeland Arts Trust (LAT) was awarded a grant of £465,596 by NHMF in order to save a fascinating collection of boats of international importance. This collection, at the Windermere Steamboat Museum, is the most significant of its kind anywhere in the world and includes the world’s oldest mechanically propelled boat (Dolly, 1850), as well as several of the oldest, rarest and most elegant boats in Britain.
• A £2million endowment to the Mappa Mundi Trust allowed this celebrated Mediaeval map of the then-known world to remain at Hereford Cathedral.  Drawn on a single vast animal skin, it is arguably the most famous map of the known Medieval world and it is now the only complete large-scale wall map of its period.
• LNER locomotive No 4472 Flying Scotsman was designed by Sir Nigel Gresley and built at Doncaster Works in 1923. It was the first steam locomotive to officially break the 100mph barrier in 1934 and was sold into private ownership by British Rail in 1963.  The NHMF awarded a grant of £1.8million to the National Railway Museum in York, enabling it to acquire this most loved of steam trains.