Garden Grows With £10,000 Heritage Lottery Fund Grant

The Dukes has received a Heritage Lottery Fund(HLF) Sharing Heritage grant to help bring a secret garden in Lancaster to life.

How Does Your Garden Grow is an exciting community engagement project led by The Dukes alongside Melling-based Green Close.

It will focus on Lancaster’s Storey Gardens, currently being improved by the Friends of the Storey Gardens with the aim of re-opening the space to the public again.

The project looks back over the 400 year history of the garden area and involves the local community including the two schools closest to the gardens – Dallas Road Primary and Lancaster Girls Grammar.

Work includes collecting memories, however major or insignificant, of how people used the gardens in the past to create a fascinating oral history of this special corner of Lancaster.

The project is already under way and much of the work created will feature in a beautifully illuminated event at the Storey Gardens on the evening of November 7 as part of Light Up The Streets.

Commenting on the award, project spokesman George Harris, said: “We are delighted to have been awarded a grant for this project which will bring all generations together to uncover and share yet more secrets of Lancaster’s favourite secret garden.”

Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund for the North West, Sara Hilton, said: “Sharing Heritage is a wonderful opportunity for communities to delve into their local heritage and we are delighted to offer this grant so that How Does Your Garden Grow can embark on a real journey of discovery. Heritage means such different things to different people, and HLF’s funding offers a wealth of opportunities for groups to explore and celebrate what’s important to them in their area.”

If anyone would like to participate in the community engagement project or has a story to tell about their experience of the Storey Gardens, please contact Green Close at [email protected]

Ends

16/9/14

Editor’s Notes

The Dukes

The Dukes is an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation. The 

Dukes receives regular funding from Arts Council England, Lancashire 

County Council and Lancaster City Council.

The Dukes is the winner of the Lancashire Tourism Cultural Venue/Organisation Award 2013.

Sharing Heritage

Sharing Heritage is for any not-for-profit group wanting to explore their community’s heritage. With a commitment from HLF of £3 million each year, Sharing Heritage grants between £3,000 and £10,000 are available to groups who want to discover their local heritage. Projects can cover a wide spectrum of subject matter from exploring local archaeology and a community’s cultures and traditions to identifying and recording local wildlife and protecting the surrounding environment to managing and training volunteers, and holding festivals and events to commemorate the past.

Heritage Lottery Fund

Using money raised through the National Lottery, the Heritage Lottery Fund(HLF) aims to make a lasting difference for heritage, people and communities across the UK and help build a resilient heritage economy. From museums, parks and historic places to archaeology, natural environment and cultural traditions, we invest in every part of our diverse heritage. HLF has supported almost 36,000 projects with £5.9 billion across the UK. www.hlf.org.uk. Images available on request.