organisation
The National Lottery Heritage Fund
Grants awarded
£531k · Hastings Borough Council — · "Restoring Hastings West Hill Funicular"
"The Hastings West Hill Funicular Restoration will secure the long-term future of the Grade II listed Lift and reintroduce it as an inclusive, welcoming gateway to the West Hill. The project will conserve historic fabric while unlocking the site’s full potential through fully accessible carriages, step free routes, intuitive wayfinding and improved visitor facilities. Reliability upgrades will protect a vital public transport link between the Old Town, seafront and West Hill’s heritage landscape, supporting active and sustainable travel and widening participation for families, older people and people with additional access requirements. Stronger physical and interpretive connections to Hastings Castle and the planned West Hill Café and Visitor Centre will create a coherent, high-quality heritage experience that encourages exploration, understanding, and longer dwell times. By improving access, safeguarding heritage and strengthening operational resilience, the project will support the long-term transformation of Hastings into a unified, resilient heritage destination, accessible year-round for residents and visitors."
£40k · Don't Watch That CIC — · "Tim & Barry – Digitising the Hidden Archive of UK Underground Culture"
"Tim & Barry have been at the heart of the UK’s underground music scene since 2000. In 2007, we became the first UK creators to produce content directly for YouTube, pioneering a new way of sharing music culture online. Through video, photography and interviews, they documented the birth and evolution of grime, dubstep, UK funky and other scenes - long before these movements were embraced by mainstream media. Our archive is a unique record of 25 years of grassroots creativity, capturing the voices and stories of underrepresented communities whose work has shaped British culture. Without urgent action, this irreplaceable record of both music history and the early internet era risks being lost to deterioration and obsolete formats. In collaboration with leading cultural institutions, including the BFI, V&A and LCF, we will digitise and preserve this archive, making parts of it publicly accessible for the first time."
£79k · Hastings Traditional Jack In The Green —
"Hastings Traditional Jack in the Green (HTJITG) revived in 1983 reimagining a 17th-century custom. Our work is community-led, with each generation developing the tradition in new directions. One of the UK's most loved May Day celebrations, we gather over 20,000 people from diverse communities annually and bring folk traditions and heritage arts to 2,000+ participants. With 6 inclusion partners, e.g. Eggtooth, Baird Academy, we’ll deliver 18+ workshops with neurodivergent young people, Ukrainian refugees, Black/Brown and LGBTQ+ communities, exploring our shared heritage. We’ll develop the tradition of processional giants, passing on giant-making skills to the next generation. We are introducing 400 young people to Morris dancing and testing enthusiasm for a Junior Morris side. This project is capturing, recording and preserving our history before those responsible for re-establishing Hastings’s annual greening retire; and the rich histories in their heads are lost."
£36k · Home Live Art Limited — · "Hastings Queer Underground - Now and Then"
"Home Live Art (HLA) supports a number of local, volunteer-led working groups in Hastings through its programme 'Good Stuff in Hastings' which has four priorities: Black Power, Queer Power, Senior Power and Environmental Power. The purpose of these groups is to give control/agency back to residents over decision-making, to improve local infrastructure and build a more inclusive/equitable town. This project will support the Hastings Queer History Collective (HQHC) to begin developing an infrastructure to support the identification/collection/preservation/interpretation of local LGBTQ history. This heritage is at significant risk as there has been a long-term lack of resources/infrastructure/interest from local heritage/cultural providers in preserving Queer culture. HQHC will undertake archival research and take oral histories to uncover/preserve/interpret Queer history in Hastings from 1850-2025, design/deliver an exhibition at Hastings Museum and Art Gallery (HMAG), curate a wrap-around engagement/arts programme and finally archive the project at Bishopsgate Institute for future generations."
£189k · Hastings Borough Council — · "Hastings West Hill Lift Restoration & Improvement Feasibility Project"
"The Hastings West Hill Funicular Railway (‘Lift’) serves as a heritage experience and transportation link, attracting up to 100,000 visitors per year and connecting Hastings Old Town and the seafront with Hastings Castle and the West Hill. By undertaking this project, a comprehensive assessment of the current condition and long-term maintenance requirements of the lift, tunnel, stations, carriages and surrounding area will be conducted. This project will provide crucial insight into the condition of the asset and produce feasibility reports and designs to develop a strategy to ensure it remains a functional and an integral part of the heritage site. The project will be aligned with the £3m Town Deal Castle and West Hill Café Project; a redevelopment of the Café above the lift, and improved access to the Castle. The two projects together have the potential to create a pioneering and pivotal heritage focus and attraction for the town."
£16k · ATEAB Funds — · "A Town Explores A Book 2025: Gideon Mantell's Iguanodon"
"Marking the bicentenary of Sussex palaeontologist Gideon Mantell's naming of the Iguanodon species, St Leonards-on-Sea's community participants will explore this heritage relevant to the town from Jan-March 2025 through creative workshops with festival book, 'Iguanodon'. It will feature an annotated, fun version of Mantell's scientific paper and its illustrations. Pages for participants to add their own drawings will sit alongside details of the locations in St Leonards where palaeontologists Samuel Beckles, Mary Buckland and Charles Dawson who lived in town later in the C19, found dinosaur fossils . The book style will be that of an accessible field guide with interactivity. Art produced in the workshops will form an outdoor art trail for the spring school holiday with narrative information incl. the site of the find 'Iguanodon Hollingtoniensis'. A festival map will detail the trail and national #Iguanodon200 events & museums where the St Leonards' finds are displayed today."
£250k · Hastings Contemporary — · "Time and Tide: the intangible cultural heritage of the Hastings fishing fleet"
"This major project co-designed with one of the most disenfranchised working-class communities in England – Hastings’ fishing community – will document, celebrate and raise awareness of one of Europe’s largest, oldest beach-launched fishing fleets. This is a culturally rich and historically important area, where traditions pre-date 1066. In the face of the growing environmental crisis and an ageing workforce, the fishing fleet is on the cusp of extinction. Working in partnership with Hastings Fishermen’s Protection Society, we will empower the fishing community to share their stories and cultural traditions, ensuring they are passed on to the wider community and future generations. From Hastings Contemporary’s unique position flanked by the fishing community on the beach, we will harness our artistic and participatory expertise to find new, creative ways to share this rich industrial and cultural heritage, preserving and showcasing cultural traditions and sounds which are at risk of being lost."
£10k · Lifesize CIC — · "Cinque Ports Project"
"Cinque Ports Project"
£5.0m · The Parochial Church Council of the Ecclesiastical Parish of Holy Trinity Hastings — · "Holy Trinity Hastings: Heritage@HTH"
"Holy Trinity Hastings: Heritage@HTH"
£10k · Southeast Communities Rail Partnership CIC — · "Railway Heritage Project"
"Railway Heritage Project"
£10k · ExploreTheArch Theatre Company LTD — · "Four Courts Community project"
"Four Courts Community project"
£89k · Msl Discover —
"MSL Discover: Tressell's Children"
£10k · Hastings Traditional Jack In The Green —
"Hastings Traditional Jack in the Green Fortieth Anniversary"
£249k · The PCC Of Christ Church With St. Mary Magdalen And St. Peter And St. Paul St. Leonards-On-Sea — · "Urgent repairs to the to the exterior of the church with the associated engagement project"
"Urgent repairs to the to the exterior of the church with the associated engagement project"
£250k · His Place — · "Make a Joyful Noise - Saving Robertson Street Congregational Church, Hastings and its Music Heritage"
"Make a Joyful Noise - Saving Robertson Street Congregational Church, Hastings and its Music Heritage"
£10k · ExploreTheArch Theatre Company LTD — · "Marie In The Margins Workshop Tour"
"Marie In The Margins Workshop Tour"
£10k · ATEAB Funds — · "150th anniversary of Gensing Gardens"
"150th anniversary of Gensing Gardens"
£8k · Hastings & St Leonards Society — · "West Hill (Hastings) Local Heritage and Community Festival Project"
"West Hill (Hastings) Local Heritage and Community Festival Project"