Fourteen years ago, UK heritage was at a critical point. Many urban parks had degenerated into unattractive, unsafe places. Historic buildings stood empty and neglected. Nature conservationists knew what needed to be done to save threatened habitats but often had little chance of putting these plans into action. Museums in the UK faced a crisis of under funding. Countryside, buildings and museums were dealt with by different organisations with a different remit and different grant schemes.
A historic building in a park containing an important collection would have been forced to seek funding from several different agencies, none of them well funded. Many groups such as youth organisations, minority groups and local communities didn’t have anywhere to turn for funding heritage projects and as a consequence were not able to get involved in their heritage.
Together lottery players, grant recipients and the Heritage Lottery Fund are helping to turn this situation around.
Some fast facts
Since 1994, HLF has awarded over £4.2billion to more than 28,000 projects across the UK - this is the biggest investment ever made in UK heritage.
We have given £1.5billion for the conservation of around 12,000 historic buildings and monuments, including more than 2,700 places of worship.
More than 500 public parks have been rejuvenated with the help of £500million from HLF.
We have given more than £1.3billion to museums and galleries across the UK, including funding for over 270 education posts.
We have helped to conserve more than 150 locomotives, ships and planes with grants worth £108million.
We have bought land equivalent to more than 100,000 football pitches for nature conservation.
We have funded over 2,000 projects to raise awareness of and conserve threatened habitats and species such as the black grouse and horseshoe bat.
We have awarded more than £60million to record thousands of personal stories, creating a lasting legacy of people’s lives.
Projects that completed in the last three years alone involved more than 90,000 volunteers who together gave over two million hours of their time to heritage.
More than 30,000 young people have led projects and learned about heritage through our Young Roots grant programme.
From sedge-cutting to textileconservation, our £7million training bursary programme has revitalised more than 50 traditional skills.