The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has announced it is investing £47m in six heritage tourism projects in England and Wales.
The Apprentice House at Flaxmill Maltings
The funding will go to existing and potential tourist attractions. They include Brecknock Museum and Art Gallery, Powys and Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire.
The Heritage Lottery Fund said the funding “will enhance and promote a better understanding of our heritage while contributing to the £26bn UK heritage tourism economy”.
Chief Executive of HLF, Carole Souter said more than a quarter of all UK holiday activities undertaken by UK residents now involve heritage sites.
“These projects all offer the public the chance to explore and enjoy our rich and complex history. Many of us will be spending our holidays at home this summer, so it’s a great time to celebrate the unique range of things to see and do right here on our doorstep” she said.
Research carried out by the HLF found that heritage-based tourism is now worth £26.4bn to the UK economy.
Flax Mill Maltings in Shropshire has secured the biggest share with £12.8m set aside to develop a complex of 18th and 19th century industrial buildings in Shrewsbury.
The complex includes the world’s first iron-framed building, the ancestor of the modern skyscraper. The grant will be used to restore the buildings for commercial, community and visitor purposes.
Windermere Steamboat Museum in Cumbria has received a grant of £9.4m towards the development of a new museum on the edge of Lake Windermere. The new museum will exhibit 200 years of boatbuilding in the Lake District.
Martin Ainscough, chairman of the Lakeland Arts Trust, which runs the museum, said: “This decision secures a total of £13.4m investment into Cumbria, creating employment and new opportunities for local people.”
The Chester Farm in Northamptonshire, where a multiplex of grade II and II* buildings are currently in disrepair has secured £4m in funding to develop an archaeological resource centre and carry out a series of excavations.
Brecknock Museum and Art Gallery in Powys has been awarded £2.5m towards its restoration and redisplay. The museum has been closed to visitors since 2011 and expects to reopen its doors again in 2015.
Meanwhile, four projects have been granted initial support from the HLF.
They are: the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Exhibition Road building, London (£5m); John Wesley’s New Room, Bristol (£2.3m including £56,200 development funding), Middlesbrough Town Hall (£4m including £299,400 development funding) and Enniskillen Castle, Northern Ireland (£2.5m including £111,200 development funding).
All four projects now have to submit fully developed plans to secure an award at a later date.
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