Fiona Spiers, the Heritage Lottery Fund’s Manager for Yorkshire and the Humber, puts the region’s success down to the enthusiasm of its inhabitants. “The heritage of Yorkshire and the Humber is one of the area’s greatest assets and provides a great sense of identity to everyone who lives in the region.

“Since 1994, we’ve supported over 1,300 projects in Yorkshire and the Humber, and the most recent are a great example of the depth and variety of heritage we can support. They range from projects supporting local museums to restoring our industrial heritage, conserving historical buildings and protecting the area’s beautiful landscape.

“Lottery funding for our heritage can bring masses of benefits to the region, opening up the area to tourism, regenerating cities and the countryside and making sure that everyone can enjoy their heritage for generations to come.”

The grants announced include:

St James’ Church Grimsby
Grimsby residents will soon be enjoying learning much more about their heritage through a £233,800 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. St James’ Church in Grimsby has been awarded the grant to fund a ‘Heritage Access and Learning’ project that will enable people to find out much more about the rich heritage in Grimsby and to bring the local community together.

A Learning Development Manager will be employed to work with the church to recruit volunteer heritage guides and assistants as well as developing a learning programme that will involve all members of the community from school children to the elderly.

Together with other heritage sites in and around Grimsby, St James will also create a number of joint and overlapping initiatives, such as heritage walks, ghost walks and signposting of tourist attractions and other churches.

Abbey House, Whitby
Visitors to Whitby will soon have the chance to be able to sleep as close to the historic Abbey as you can get as a result of an HLF grant of over £1 million to the Youth Hostels Association for England and Wales (YHA). The grant will be used to restore Abbey House to its original glory, and create a 100 bed YHA flagship Youth Hostel.

YHA will conserve the historic fabric of the Grade 1 listed Abbey House and remove the unsympathetic alterations carried out in the early 1980’s. The surrounding Grade 2 listed gardens will also be restored, ensuring that visitors will have a truly unique place to visit and stay in Whitby.

Middleton Railway, Leeds
Middleton Railway is one of the most historic railway sites in the world and is based at, what was until the early 20th century, the heart of the Locomotive building industry - Leeds.

Middleton Railway is run by a committed group of volunteers who have accumulated a large collection of locomotives and archival material. This attracts a large amount of visitors every year even though it isn’t possible to view all the rolling stock and other materials as they just don’t have the space.

However, this will soon change as HLF has granted Middleton Railway an award of £737,000 to create better visitor and education facilities at their current site to ensure that more people can see this fascinating collection and learn more about their local heritage and the heritage of the railway.

Beningborough Hall, York
Beningborough Hall in York is to benefit from an HLF grant of £414,500 to ensure that visitors can appreciate the fantastic portraits on display even further with improved hanging and display space, a new IT study room and interpretation space.

Beningbrough Hall currently has over 120 portraits hanging in its richly baroque decorated interiors which are on loan from the National Gallery. The artists included in these displays range from Gainsborough to Reynolds, Ramsey and Keller. However, little has changed in the displays since they were first mounted in 1979 and this grant will ensure a number of things can be altered.

Access will be improved and new displays and spaces for interactive learning will be created on the top two floors of the building to ensure that a wide range of visitors will be able to enjoy the Beningborough experience, from schoolchildren and University students to the elderly and disabled.

St James’, Warter
The redundant church of St James, Warter in the picturesque Yorkshire Wolds contains monuments and stained glass windows by leading figures in the arts and crafts movement.

A grant of £498,500 has been awarded to the Yorkshire Wolds Buildings Preservation Trust to enable it to restore and repair the fabric of the church and conserve its contents. The grant will also ensure that visitors can access the church and its historical contents easily, and displays and information boards will be provided that relate to the history of the church and the surrounding area. A part-time Development Officer will also be employed to develop the educational, cultural and heritage use of the building for the community.

Hackfall
Hackfall, near Ripon, is a fascinating place which comprises the remains of William Aislabie’s mid-eighteenth century designed ‘Green Garden’. This Grade 1 Listed Garden also incorporates four listed buildings and an ancient woodland, designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

The Hackfall Trust and the Woodland Trust have been awarded a Stage 1 Pass with a grant of £51,000 to enable a range of development work to be undertaken. The Trusts wish to partially restore and consolidate the original historic landscape features, conserve the ecology of the site and make the site more accessible to the public through the employment of a Project Officer, an improved path network, interpretation, website, an education programme and audience development work.