THREE exciting heritage projects in North East Lincolnshire are set to benefit from over £590,000 in National Lottery Heritage Fund grants.
- Grimsby Town Football Club memories and memorabilia will be captured and showcased in a touring exhibition;
- Fascinating local heritage news will be share on The Heritage Channel, a monthly magazine show broadcast online;
- The often overlooked Viking history of Grimsby will be celebrated.
All three projects initially received grants through the Heritage Starter Fund scheme, run by North East Lincolnshire Council and funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
The grants were aimed at providing a foundation for groups to develop initial ideas that would help them to develop larger projects in the future. All three projects ran successful pilots through the Heritage Starter Fund and have now taken the next steps on their heritage journey.
Capturing the footballing heritage of Grimsby
£99,400 has been awarded to Grimsby Town Sports and Education Trust for their #RememberWhenGTFC project that will capture memories and collect memorabilia from the club before showcasing them in a touring exhibition.
#RememberWhenGTFC will seek to record stories of Grimsby Town Football Club, and in particular from those either ageing or suffering with dementia.
Key discussion points will be the stadium, in which Grimsby Town have played since 1899; players past and present; people connected to the Club; and poignant home and away games. The memories and memorabilia that are captured will be digitised as part of a new website.
The Heritage Starter Fund grant allowed the project team to pilot an exhibition of Grimsby Town FC memorabilia at the reminiscence hub in Freshney Place. They found that the visitors – numbering over 3,000 – were not only there to see the display but share their own memories too.
Graham Rodger, Community Officer at Grimsby Town Sports and Education Trust, said: “By completing the pilot through the Heritage Starter Fund, we were able to collect data and knowledge to support a larger National Lottery Heritage Fund bid. Without a doubt, completing the pilot project made our application much stronger – we’re looking forward to a much larger scale collection of memories to share and digitalisation of items to preserve and share worldwide through a dedicated website.”
Broadcasting North East Lincolnshire’s rich local heritage to wider audiences
Hammond House Ltd have secured £248,600 to set up The Heritage Channel, a monthly magazine show dedicated to sharing local heritage news through online broadcasts.
Having completed a successful pilot of the show thanks to a Heritage Starter Fund grant, the team at Hammond House will now be able to host the show on a monthly basis.
It will give the communities of North East Lincolnshire the opportunity to discover some of the fascinating coastal heritage that is on their doorsteps. Former and current residents will get the chance to learn more about their history, including stories about the fishing industry, seaside festivals and historic sites and buildings.
The project will also provide training and workshops for local people so that they can produce content for the channel. It will aim to particularly engage young people, disabled people, and other disadvantaged groups in the hopes of increasing interest in heritage of the area.
Ted Stanley, CEO of Hammond House said: “We are grateful for this opportunity to continue broadcasting the Heritage Channel programmes which proved so popular during the recent Heritage Starter Fund pilot. I was delighted to see the level of interest in heritage subjects from the people of North East Lincolnshire with some programmes attracting over 80,000 viewers.
“We are also looking forward to providing support to other heritage organisations in Lincolnshire by telling their stories, developing skills in video production for staff and volunteers, and helping them secure funding for their projects. A very big thank you to all the people who play the National Lottery for making this possible.”
Uncovering Grimsby’s little known Viking heritage
£250,000 has been awarded to Visitor Economy, Services and Retail (VESR) CIC to unlock Grimsby’s often forgotten Viking history to be explored and celebrated by the town’s residents and those visiting from much further afield.
Over 1000 years ago, Grimsby was the gateway between the Viking Kingdom of Jorvik and the rest of the Viking world; with archaeological finds in the area suggesting it was an important trading port during the 10th century with links as far as the Middle East. Today, the port town is much more well-known as a fishing port, and its significance as a medieval port and Viking settlement are often overlooked.
In fact, the name Grimsby derives from the Viking name Grim, a legendary figure who rescued the Danish prince Havelock as a child and brought him up in exile. The local significance of this legend is suggested by its depiction on the medieval town seal of 1201 that predates the earliest written sources.
VESR CIC will aim to bring that Viking heritage back to the fore with Great Grimsby’s Viking Journey – a year-long celebration of activities for people to discover legends, learn skills and express their shared Viking identity in exciting ways.
The pinnacle of the programme will be a brand new three-day family festival, GRIM FALFEST. The festival will see over 100 Vikings, complete with long ships, descending on Grimsby, as well as a host of Viking-related fun to get hands on with heritage.
VESR CIC’s latest project builds upon the work they did with their Heritage Starter Fund grant. The Heritage Starter Fund allowed them to build on their original idea of exploring Grimsby’s Viking heritage and recruit the team of Heritage Lincolnshire – the county’s history charitable organisation – who will now deliver the project.
Julia Thompson, Chair of VESR said: “Grim the Viking is back! Thanks to The National Lottery Heritage Fund, we have been able to grow our project and create this brand new celebration of our town’s Viking heritage and continuing links with Scandinavia. We hope everyone will have fun meeting Grim and his Vikings.”
National Lottery Heritage Fund investment in North East Lincolnshire
The ‘Heritage Starter Fund’ which all three projects initially benefitted from, was made possible with £250,000 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to money raised by National Lottery players, the initiative aimed to widen audiences for heritage and to ensure that heritage plays a key role in helping communities recover from the impacts of COVID-19 within North East Lincolnshire. 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.
Commenting on the awards and the success of the Heritage Starter Fund scheme, David Renwick, Director, England, North at The National Lottery Heritage Fund said:
“Thanks to National Lottery players, we’re delighted to see that these three projects have graduated from the ‘Heritage Starter Fund’ and have progressed to more ambitious plans in sharing the rich heritage of North East Lincolnshire. The Heritage Starter Fund gave organisations an opportunity to explore the heritage that really matters to the people of North East Lincolnshire, and we’re really excited to see how these projects take the next steps on their journey and to see the impact they will have on the communities in the area.
“North East Lincolnshire is home to incredibly varied and fascinating heritage, but in recent years the area has not received the funding to showcase these stories more widely. Here at The National Lottery Heritage Fund, we’ve committed to ensuring that areas which have not benefitted from high levels of investment are given the opportunity to use their stories to bring communities together and instil a real sense of pride of place for people. We hope the success of these projects will encourage more organisations in the area to come to us for funding.”
Cllr Tom Furneaux, Portfolio Holder for Culture, Heritage and the Visitor Economy at North East Lincolnshire Council.
“Our Heritage is incredibly important and working in partnership with the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Heritage Lincolnshire we have enabled three local organisations to help to celebrate our roots, shared memories and stories that have shaped Grimsby, Cleethorpes and Immingham. I’m passionate about helping to preserve that heritage for future generations.
“These three projects together will help bring people together and showcase in fun and engaging ways to celebrate our shared heritage.’
“It’s great to see these projects grow from the Heritage Starter Fund and the connections made at the NEL Heritage Network, alongside other exciting culture and heritage projects across the Borough and I look forward to seeing more about these in the coming months!”
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