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Heritage sites across England receive emergency arts funding

BBC Black Country Living MuseumBBC
The Black Country Living Museum - which gives visitors a taste of ordinary life in the Victorian era - has been awarded £3.74m

The Black Country Living Museum and Lincoln Cathedral are among the latest recipients of government funds to help cultural sites hit by the pandemic.

The museum, which has doubled as a set for TV series Peaky Blinders, will receive £3.74m from the government's Culture Recovery Fund.

The cathedral will get almost £1m towards a new visitor centre.

Other beneficiaries include the Beamish Museum (£975,000) in Co Durham, and the Heritage Centre Brighton (£1m).

The latest grants are part of the government's £1.57bn Culture Recovery Fund, with 22 heritage sites across England receiving a share of £13.5m.

The money will be used for regeneration and maintenance projects that were planned before the coronavirus pandemic, and now face delays or increased costs.

More than 30 cinemas will also share £5m from the British Film Institute.

Cleveland Pools/Tony McNicol Cleveland PoolsCleveland Pools/Tony McNicol
A multi-million pound project to restore the Georgian-era Cleveland Pools, near Bath, is to get £290,000 after work was delayed because of the pandemic

Other beneficiaries include Oxford Hidden Histories, Tavistock Guidhall, Geffrye Museum, Bath Abbey, Tunbridge Wells Cult Hub, The Archway Centre, Swanage Pier, Cleveland Pools Trust and Chester Farm and Wicksteed Park in Northamptonshire.

Also on the list are the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, the Whitaker Experience in Lancashire, The Globe in Stockton on Tees, Mining Institute in Newcastle, Carlisle Cathedral, the Thackray Museum and the Hyde Park Picture House, both in Leeds.

Elsewhere, almost £500,000 has been awarded to the the oldest surviving synagogue in the UK - the Bevis Marks Synagogue, in London.

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said the funding - awarded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund - would help protect "the venues that have shaped our history".

Ros Kerslake, chief executive of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: "These are all ongoing major refurbishment and restoration projects, which have been threatened by the pandemic."

The Black Country Living Museum is currently being used as a Covid-19 vaccination centre.

Before the pandemic, it had been planning "the single biggest development in its history".

Lincoln Cathedral Lincoln CathedralLincoln Cathedral
Lincoln Cathedral is converting the Old Deanery into a visitor centre

Lincoln Cathedral was awarded £973,600 to complete the conversion of the Old Deanery into a new visitor centre, along with conservation work.

Chapter clerk Will Harrison said: "We're incredibly grateful for this grant, [and] we look forward to the day when we can safely welcome back visitors."