At our November Trustee meeting, we were delighted to award 13 grants coming to a total of £244,250 from our Preservation and Conservation programme and a grant of £20,000 from our Research, Advocacy and Development Fund. Below we share a little about each grant and its purpose.
Built in 1935 by Lord Berners as the, “last major folly built in the British Isles”, Faringdon Folly Tower stands 100ft tall perched on the 300 ft high Folly Hill in Oxfordshire. Grade II listed, Faringdon Folly Tower is built in the style of an Italian campanile, it can be seen from more than five miles away.
A recent condition survey has identified the need for the re-pointing of the brickwork and stonework; repairing the roof; and restoring all the windows to prevent further water ingress and damage. Our grant of £30,000 will go towards essential repairs so the local community and tourists can continue to enjoy this much-loved local landmark.
Thaxted Windmill has been described as, ‘one of the ten most significant Tower Mills surviving in the UK’. This Grade II* listed red brick tower windmill was built in 1804 and it was in operation for around 100 years. The windmill is At Risk, suffering from extensive internal damp caused by eroded brickwork and open joints, which is causing widespread mould on internal walls, and the interior of the building has had to be propped.
Volunteer led, Thaxted Windmill Trust looks after the windmill and encourages young people to train in heritage building and millwrighting skills, sharing expertise with other windmills in the area. Our grant of £25,000 will go towards repairing the windmill building and its millwrighting machinery.
Trinity Community Arts empowers communities by providing a diverse programme of arts, heritage and cultural projects, activities and events with a focus on improving quality of life, especially for those facing multiple disadvantages. The charity, which has successfully transformed the Trinity Centre, into a successful arts venue is now looking to restore Jacobs Wells Baths into a sustainable hub for youth, arts and community activities.
The redundant At Risk Grade II 1889 building and former public swimming baths, was built c1877. Its striking lively red Cattybrook brick facade represents the ornate Queen Anne Revival style making it a key feature in Clifton’s Conservation area. Our grant of £30,000 will go towards repairs to help stabilise the building.
Jacobs Wells Baths. Credit: Trinity Community Arts
From 1859, Cranleigh Cottage Hospital was the first cottage hospital of its kind in England to offer medical services free at point of use for those that could not afford to pay. The building was originally a hall house and is one of the oldest buildings in Surrey, dating back to 1446.
The volunteer led Cranleigh Heritage Trust aims to restore the Grade II building, turning it into a community hub providing a flexible space for health and wellbeing sessions, community meetings and for local school visits. Heritage displays and a digital archive will record its important place in the history of the Cottage Hospital movement. Our grant of £20,000 will go towards the development plans.
Compton Verney House in Warwickshire is a Grade I listed mansion, art gallery with 120 acres of parkland. As well as putting on exhibitions it runs an extensive educational programme for schools and community groups.
Our grant of £15,000 is to carry out urgent stabilisation work to Compton Verney’s historic Loggia, using specialist conservators. Earlier investigations have confirmed movement in the central panels of the loggia soffit, presenting an immediate threat to the integrity of this significant element. Once preserved this outstanding architectural feature will be enjoyed by the public once again.
Compton Verney House, Credit: Compton Verney House Charity
MacDiarmid’s Brownsbank is a Scottish charity set up to restore Brownsbank Cottage, near Biggar, the former home of the poet Hugh MacDiarmid, acknowledged as Scotland’s greatest poet of the twentieth century. He lived there from 1951 until his death in 1978. The aim of the charity is to restore and upgrade the Grade A listed cottage, re-establish a writer in residence programme, and to promote the work of Hugh MacDiarmid through educational and community creative involvement.
Our grant of £15,000 will go towards professional fees to enable the charity to draw up a detailed costed schedule of works of repairs, with the aim of securing the future of this considerable cultural and socially significant cottage.
Culmore Community Partnership supports urban and rural regeneration in the Culmore area of Derry City, Northern Ireland. The organisation delivers a range of community support services but is in need of a new venue to continue its work. They now have an opportunity to take on the lease for Culmore Fort which will help to preserve a local landmark, constructed in 1600-1649, and create additional community space.
The derelict, Grade B1 listed building will be used primarily for the delivery of mental well-being support for young people and the wider community. It will also be available as a community space. Our grant of £13,500 will support the restoration work.
The Diving Museum, Gosport, Portsmouth holds a collection of diving equipment (military, scientific and commercial), including the prototype of the Deane brothers’ first diving helmet. It delivers a varied and well-attended in-house and external talks programme and supports many local community projects. It is housed in a Grade II* listed Victorian military battery which was built in 1861 as part of a defensive system called Palmerston’s Folly.
The Battery has issues with damp penetration, condensation and deterioration of brickwork, concrete, steels and stone. Our grant of £15,000 will support the substantial redevelopment building works.
Founded in 1710, Spalding Gentlemen’s Society, is said to be Britain’s oldest surviving provincial learned society. Its earliest collections acquired in the 18th century are a resource for the history of museums and collecting and provincial life in the Enlightenment. Artefacts include early prints, maps, ethnographic collections, textile and costume, 2000 glass plate negatives and medieval manuscripts.
The society is based in a Grade II listed building in central Spalding, in Lincolnshire. It was purpose-built by members in 1911 to house the Society’s collections and includes a museum, library and archive. The museum is closed as funds are being raised for demolition work and replacement new extensions. Our grant of £18,000 is for repairs to the original leaded windows and secondary glazing.
The King’s Theatre opened in 1906. It is a Grade A listed building located in the heart of Tollcross in the southwest area of Edinburgh. Managed by the Capital Theatres charity, King’s Theatre is now closed for refurbishment and set to reopen in 2026. The theatre features a mural painted by one of Scotland’s most ‘inventive and versatile modern artists’, John Byrne (1940-2023). The colourful design filled with theatrical motifs and quotes was painted onto the domed ceiling of the theatre in 2013. It is the largest surviving mural (78.5 sq/m) by Byrne.
The mural has been surveyed and inspected by specialist conservators. The paint layers are showing delamination and cracking and lifting. Our grant of £25,000 will support the stabilisation and conservation work safeguarding John Byrne’s last surviving mural within the King’s Theatre for future generations to enjoy.
John Byrne mural – King’s Theatre, Credit: Colin Hattersley
Culture Perth and Kinross is a charitable trust that has taken on the responsibility for museums, libraries, archives, local history and creative learning in partnership with Perth and Kinross Council. The Trust manages over 500,000 objects in both the Perth Art Gallery and the new Perth Museum which opened Easter 2024 in the old City Hall.
Our grant of £13,000 is for cleaning, documenting and reglazing of 17 old Master paintings and two Pre-Raphaelite paintings currently on display in the gallery with low reflective, high UV filtration glass to improve visibility and reduce the risk of light damage. The paintings are by John Everett Millais, Andrea Vaccaro, Luca Giordano and Giovanni Antonio Galli and form part of the gallery’s Recognised Collection of National Significance. The Gallery’s ICON accredited conservator will carry out the work and the project will also support a three-month conservation internship from Glasgow University.
Ditchling Museum of Art and Craft in the South Downs, showcases local artists dating back to 1900, as well as displaying the work of contemporary artists and craftspeople. Artists featured in the museum include Eric Gill, Edward Johnston, David Jones and Ethel Mairet.
Our grant of £13,000 is to conserve a textile work by Tadek Beutlich, entitled ‘Dream Revealed’. The Polish émigré artist lived in Ditchling. The large piece (225cm x 230cm) represents a bridge between Beutlich’s tapestry weaving and ‘off loom’ textiles and is one of the few examples of this type in the UK. Following conservation, the work will be displayed, for the first time since 1969, in Ditchling museum for six months as part of a Tadek Beutlich retrospective exhibition.
Derby Museum has collections of natural history, archaeology and industrial history, as well as a Designated collection of Joseph Wright of Derby, the 18th century Enlightenment artist.
Our grant of £11,750 is for the conservation of two Egyptian mummies, a 26th Dynasty priest named Pypy-u in a wooden coffin and an early Ptolemaic male Pa-sheri in a cartonnage case. Both have been in the museum collection since 1859. The cleaning and scanning, which will be done in partnership with the University of Lincoln, will reveal inscriptions and colours and help develop knowledge and understanding of the mummies, whilst ensuring their long-term survival and ability to be displayed for the public to enjoy.
All of our recent grants are listed here Recent Grants Awarded.
Feature image – Faringdon Folly