British Heritage Lottery Fund launches ‘First World War: then and now’ grants programme

The Heritage Lottery Fund is launching a £6 million small grants fund to help communities mark the Centenary of the First World War.

The programme was launched at the House of Commons today, from which Centenary News will be reporting.

The fund will make available at least £1 million every year for the next six years until 2019 to help mark the Centenary.

Grants between £3,000 and £10,000 will be provided by the Heritage Lottery Fund to help communities and groups across the UK “to explore, conserve and share their First World War heritage and deepen their understanding of the impact of the conflict”.

Speaking at the launch of the programme at the House of Commons today, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Maria Miller MP said: “It is completely right that we mark the Centenary of the First World War with a national programme capturing our national spirit and saying something about who we are as a people”.

“But what we do also needs to help create an enduring cultural and educational legacy for communities. The HLF grant programme announced today will play a big part in this, and builds on the substantial investment they have already made towards the Centenary”.

The new funding is also eligible to be used for conserving war memorials.

Centenary News will be providing further details from the launch event at the House of Commons later this week.

To read the full press release, visit the Heritage Lottery Fund website here.

Date of press release publication: 15/05/2013

Images courtesy of the Heritage Lottery Fund website.

Posted by: Daniel Barry, Centenary News