Three more local organisations are set to benefit from “Heritage Starter” grants to support heritage projects, small and large, made possible thanks to the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
This is another set of grants being awarded to small projects in North East Lincolnshire under this scheme, with the other projects covering areas such as Humber sailing vessels and the history of cultural events in Cleethorpes.
Over the next 18 months, the programme aims to encourage people from North East Lincolnshire and beyond to consider what they know, or think they know, of North East Lincolnshire, its people and how North East Lincolnshire has been shaped the world.
Street Name Stories is a project by East Marsh Involve (EMI) CIC that will research the history and stories behind the surnames of people who had streets named after them around Grant Thorold Park.
Steve Beasant from EMI explained more: “There are a lot of really interesting stories about our residents’ ancestors, and with lots of families still having current generations living in the area, it’s a great time to do this. Long-term, we want this to be the groundwork for a much bigger project that will help younger residents to be involved in creating virtual reality experiences about what it was like when the streets they live in were first built, and share stories, recordings and photos with a wider audience.”
The Untold Stories and Memories of The West Marsh is a project by the West Marsh Development Trust to develop an area-based History Group to work with the local community and gather oral history, photographs and memories together.
Alan Burley, from the Development Trust explained: “This project will help us to celebrate the rich tapestry of life in the West Marsh, remembered by the people that live and work here. We are keen to make sure our history is not forgotten, but remembered as it should be. There’s lots of future plans which this will help set a great foundation for!”
Restoring our street pride is a project by Welholme Works. This exciting “green” project will provide planting workshops and growing kits to residents in the Heanage area and explore how gardens looked in the past as well as what they could look like in the future.
Gemma Winter, leading the project, said: “We want our residents to reconnect with each other and where they live by creating and then caring for something with the hope this can continue to grow. We will create a place in the centre where photos of how the streets used to look. We’ll then look at how the area has changed and try to reinstate planted front gardens with a ‘today’ version. It would create a project for families to get involved with which would enable them to learn more about the area that they live in and what it used to look like.”
Cllr Callum Procter, Cabinet member for economic growth, said: “I’m really looking forward to seeing the outputs of these and the other projects in the scheme, particularly as the key golden thread of all of these is pride in our place. I want people to be proud of where they live, proud of their background and heritage, and although these are relatively small individual projects, collectively, there will be a huge bank of knowledge built up. Congratulations to all those that have worked hard to secure the funds!”
The ‘Heritage Starter Fund’ has been made possible with £250,000 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, thanks to money raised by National Lottery players, and aims to widen audiences for heritage and to ensure that heritage plays a key role in helping communities recover from the impacts of COVID19. North East Lincolnshire was selected for a grant as an Area of Focus for The National Lottery Heritage Fund due to low heritage investment and high levels of deprivation.
Article and image from NELC.
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