When we recently updated the Local History Online general news page, there was a passing reference to the fact that 'The Local Heritage Initiative programme is coming to an end after 6½ years, during which time the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has awarded £15 million in grants and the Nationwide building society another £1 million. LHI officially closes on 30 September 2006, with the 30 June being the last date for grant applications. LHF will probably continue to award small grants. Once we have more details we will let you know what's happening'.

On reflection, this brief mention seemed less than generous. LHI has been a tremendous success and local history is much the richer because of the awards. So, we delved into Local History Magazine archives and have come up with three 'milestone' news stories dating back as far as 2000 - the first year of the LHI awards. Almost every issue has a paragraph of two about this or that LHI award, but every now and again, we gave the awards some extra attention!.

From the November/ December 2000 issue.

Lottery bids made easy

Some 100 community local history projects have received just over £1,000,000 from the Local Heritage Initiative (LHI) in the first nine months of the scheme, which is administered by the Countryside Agency.

The LHI is intended to make it easier for voluntary local history societies and community groups to obtain the funding needed to ‘investigate, explain and care for their local landscape, landmarks, traditions and culture’, providing the projects are led by local people and supported by local organisations.

There are five categories: archaeological, natural, built, industrial and customs and traditions. Together, the aims and categories should provide every community with an opportunity of some kind. The fact that the LHI is administered by The Countryside Agency should not deter groups in urban areas from submitting funding applications — hence our cover photograph from the Brentham Heritage Society book, Brentham: A history of the pioneer garden suburb 1901–2001.

The success rate for applications is somewhere between 50% and 70%, depending on the region. However, after talking to LHI advisors in the East Midlands and London, it has become clear that the success rate would probably have been much higher had those submitting bids discussed their ideas and proposals with LHI advisors beforehand.

From the many press releases which we have received, we have selected the following examples of successful bids:
The Friends of Bolton Museum, Lancashire, £14,000, to cover the costs of creating a social history of Bolton in the 20th century using oral history, photography and video, to produce a booklet, CD, an education pack, a website and an exhibition.
Residents of Bierton, Buckinghamshire, £15,000, to conserve and restore St Osyth’s Well, and to research and explain to the local community its historical significance to the village.
Bollington Community Association, Cheshire, £9,000, to create an interpretative village trail showing sites of historical or industrial interest, including the reminiscences of local people. The project will involve local schools and a youth club as well as the community association.
Hale village residents, Cheshire, £5,000, to carry out restoration work to Hale Park gates and a millennium history of the park.
Resident of Glenridding in the Lake District National Park, c£8,000, ‘to create a detailed history and exhibition of the village’.
The Derbyshire Childcare Clubs Network, £2,990, ‘to enable children from 10 clubs in and around Chesterfield and north-east Derbyshire to discover the history, customs and traditions of the communities they live in’. The project will involve around 200 children and 40 adults.
The Eyam Map Trading Company, Derbyshire, £4,735, to research and publish a map of the village with the support of local people, which will then be used raise funds for other local heritage projects in the village. Given Eyam attracts some 100,000 visitors a year, the map should be a very profitable venture.
Dulverton & District Civic Society, Devon, c£15,000, for the Exmoor Oral History Project, which will take the audio reminiscence being collected by Society members and fund a professionally produced cassette for sale and use in local heritage facilities.
Glen Parva Parish Council, Leicestershire, £15,903, to research, restore and protect a historic moated site, which may have also have been a Bronze Age settlement.
Brentham Heritage Society, Ealing, London, £7,021, to help research and document the history of Brentham Garden Suburb. The Society raised another £12,000 by selling ‘community shares’ in the project, which involves walks, talks and an exhibition, as well as publishing a substantial history, Brentham: A history of the pioneer garden suburb 1901–2001 (which will be reviewed in our next issue).

As this list reveals, the opportunities presented by the Local Heritage Initiative are considerable and a wonderful opportunity for local history societies everywhere to work with other individuals and groups in their local communities to prepare and submit imaginative an innovative funding applications.

Even if you are hesitant about the idea, remember that the LHI advisers are there to help you submit a potentially successful bid. In addition, even urban communities are covered by the scheme. So, don’t be nervous. Discuss your ideas and then prepare a draft proposal, which you can discuss with your regional LHI advisors before submitting a formal bid for funding.

George May, who led the successful LHI bid by the Eyam Map Trading Company, with Angela Essom of the Countryside Agency and Joanna Lewis from the Heritage Lottery Fund, using a map to survey the village.

From the November/ December 2003 issue.

Lottery ditches match funding

By removing the need for local groups to raise match funding for Local Heritage initiative projects, the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Countryside Agency, who administer the scheme, have made it much easier for local historians to submit Lhi bids.

For bids to be successful they have to be 'led by the community… encourage community members to work together (and) help individuals to discover their potential and extend their skills'. In other words, there is a expectation that local historians and societies will include the wider community in any project they wish to undertake with Lhi funding.

The key to making a successful funding application is consultation and preparation in liaison with your partners and supporters in the wider community and, the Lhi's own Regional Advisers, who will 'see your application through the grant awarding process' and then 'monitor it against set goals'. Despite a simplification of the application form and the accompanying Advice Notes, the process still seems somewhat daunting — which is why the involvement of other groups and individuals in the local community is a good thing.

Ideally, no successful project ever ends, even after the funded outcome has been achieved. All too often, local historians and their societies are very possessive of what they regard as their territory. Local heritage initiatives from within the broader local community, such as community associations, schools and other interest groups should be welcomed as opportunities to engage with more people and increase local awareness of the importance of our local heritage.

Unfortunately, there are restrictions on Lhi funding. Most significantly is the fact that all projects have to cost between £3,000 and £25,000. Nor will the scheme fund one-off event based projects, unless they can demonstrate 'long-term benefits'. Otherwise, anything and everything seems possible!

A community group in Thriplow, Cambridgeshire, is working to discover more about their area's history and landscape. Local volunteers are pictured here examining documents and maps.

From the March/April 2005 issue.

Croydon Town Hall Gardens look idyllic in this undated photograph. Its name was changed to the Queen's Gardens in 1983.

Local Heritage Initiative tops 1,000 grants

The 1000th LHi grant has been awarded to the Queen's Heritage Project in Croydon, South London, to enable local people with learning disabilities to research the history of Queen's Gardens, an 18th century park adjacent to the Croydon Town Hall. The project has been awarded a £16,098 LHi grant, with an additional £3,000 from the Nationwide Building Society and is being facilitated by the London based Action Space, who provide visual arts activities for people with learning disabilities.

As well as meeting weekly in the local studies library, project members will interview park users and make a video of the Gardens. Action Space make the point that 'there is hardly ever (any) reference to the lives of disabled people using and contributing to public spaces'. At the end of June 2005, members will run a series of open workshops to involve the local community in the project and to record their ideas about the heritage of Queen's Gardens.

For more information about the project contact , Sam Haynes, c/o Action Space, Cockpit Arts, Cockpit Yard, Northington Street, London WC1N 2NP, tel: 020 7209 4289.

Stephen Boyce, from LHF, second from left, shaking hands with Project member Delroy Ford. Others from left: Stephen Figbe, Project member, Nichola Charalambou and Jim Hall, both from Action Space.