The programme was announced in September 2020, followed by a rapid assessment and ranking process that focused on the heritage value of the applying historic site and the necessity of adapting the organisation’s business model to survive and prosper. In December, 44 grants were awarded to projects across every region of England – 30 of these projects are at sites listed Grade I or II*, or Scheduled Monuments, and represent the highest levels of national and international historic importance. The projects supported range from great houses including Lord Burlington’s neo-Classical masterpiece at Chiswick and Charleston House, heart of the Bloomsbury Group movement, to piers and lidos at Clevedon, Saltdean and Penzance. They include medieval palaces and churches at Fulham, Lostwithiel, Benington and Honiton, and sites of industrial history including mills, coal staiths, and potteries at Warwick Bridge, Dunston, and Middleport. Libraries, theatres and fire stations in Manchester, London, Workington, and Sheffield are also represented.

In every case, the applicants demonstrated their business models had been working prior to Covid, serving communities and acting as custodians of priceless heritage sites, and affirmed a willingness to think creatively and to build fresh models to ensure the historic buildings in their care are open to and used by communities for generations to come. We were delighted to offer this support and grateful to DCMS for enabling it.

In Northern Ireland, the Historic Environment Division of the Department for Communities responded to Covid-19’s sector-wide challenges by developing the COVID-19 Culture, Arts, Languages and Heritage Fund, from which the AHF received a generous grant to support projects that will aid in community recovery and renewal. Fifteen grants were awarded to projects across the country, leading to the largest ever year of AHF investment in heritage regeneration in Northern Ireland. The grants funded project development work, emergency repairs and the development of ‘meanwhile uses’ to test new uses for historic churches, warehouses and townhouses. We were very pleased to offer this critical support to important projects and are grateful to the Department for Communities for making it possible.