The Sporting Heritage Community Grants are supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the amazing players of the National Lottery through out current funding project – Sporting Heritage – working to keep the nation’s sporting stories alive!
In this latest round of funding, we had an overwhelming request for support, with over £75,000 requested, of which £65,000 met or exceeded criteria. With less than £20,000 in the funding pot we had to make some very difficult choices and we are so sorry to have to disappoint so many brilliant applicants.
The following outlines the projects we were able to support during this round:
Ballymoney Museum
NW200 Motorcycle Helmet Collection, Ballymoney Museum
This project is focused on the motorcycle road racing collection within Ballymoney Museum. As Ballymoney is the home of the famous motorcyclist brothers Joey & Robert Dunlop and William and Michael Dunlop, they have a large collection of motorcycle road racing artifacts and images especially relating to Ireland’s largest outdoor sporting event the North West 200 (NW200) and the Dunlop family. Within this collection is a large donation known as the Bert McCook – Bert built up the collection over the years thanks to the generosity of riders and fans.
This project aims to provide public access to the collections and remove items from storage back into community spaces. There will also be a small exhibition to give the history of the collection its significance to Ballymoney Museum and the town. The project will specifically work with members of the local community who haven’t been engaged with its work before, and use sport as a driving factor to reach new and different audiences.
Find out more: Ballymoney Museum Website / Facebook Causeway Coast and Glens Museum Services
BEAP Community Partnership
BEAP Community Partnership play a pivotal role in fostering sporting heritage among young people, emphasising the deep connection between sport and the community’s identity. The project will focus on preserving the Bangladeshi community’s football heritage through oral histories, archival collections, and memorabilia. This includes interviews with former players, coaches, and fans to document personal stories and experiences, alongside showcasing photographs, match programmes, and trophies from local clubs. The project will have a lasting impact by fostering intergenerational connections, preserving local sporting heritage, and inspiring pride in the community’s identity. The creation of a digital archive and commemorative booklet will ensure these stories are accessible for future generations.
Find out more: www.beapcp.co.uk / Facebook @beapcommunitypartnership
Belfast Library and Society for Promoting Knowledge
The Linen Hall is the oldest Library in Belfast, an archive, and accredited museum, renowned for its unique Irish & Local Studies collections. The Linen Hall holds a range of sports material, covering disciplines such as soccer, GAA, boxing, golf, and rugby. In recognition of the central role that sport plays at both a local and national level, a dedicated Sports Archive is being collated to celebrate the importance and diversity of Northern Ireland’s sporting community. However, much work is needed to ensure the preservation and accessibility of this heritage.
This project will act as a blueprint to preserve, enhance and promote the numerous strands of the Sports Archive, and will focus on the Swimming Collection. The project will work with local communities to build its contemporary collecting objectives and increase awareness and engagement with new audiences.
Find out more: www.linenhall.com / Facebook @TheLinenHallLibrary
Chester in the Community
The Seals Archive is a new project that aims to preserve and celebrate the rich sporting heritage of Chester Football Club. This will begin with a combination of archival work, oral history collection, and the creation of an online portal to improve access. The project will engage Chester FC fans of all ages, local schools, and the wider community. It will also seek to engage older audiences through reminiscence sessions and intergenerational sessions. The project will deliver community events, workshops with former players, screening of historical match footage, and storytelling sessions, interactive exhibitions: both physical and digital, and encourage the local community to contribute personal items and memories.
The project will preserve and share Chester FC’s heritage, fostering a deeper understanding of the club’s historical significance to the city. By creating educational and interactive resources, it will engage diverse audiences, encouraging intergenerational connection and pride. The archive will serve as a valuable cultural asset, promoting the social and historical importance of Chester FC in local and national sporting history.
Find out more: www.community.chesterfc.com / Facebook @CFCCommunityTrust
Commonsense Initiative
1996 GB Lioness’s 3rd Test Shield Sydney. Courtesy Julie Cronin
Working in partnership with Literacy Kicks, this project will celebrate the history of women’s international rugby league. Focusing on the 1996 Great Britain tour of Australia, it will develop a bespoke lesson which will work with local schools and primary school children to share information about the obstacles, barriers and success of this inaugural journey linking it to social history of the time. Pupils will write their own newspaper articles on the subject, and the development of the content and resources will form the basis of a pilot project which we intend to replicate in other areas of local heritage.
Find out more: www.womeninrugbyleague.org.uk / Facebook @womeninrugbyleague
Edinburgh Leisure
Silverknowes Golf Course, Edinburgh Leisure
Edinburgh Leisure’s golf heritage project will celebrate the rich sporting history of Edinburgh’s six golf courses, highlighting the city’s profound connection to golf dating back to the 15th century at Leith Links. The project will engage with local golf courses and with members of the local community who may not see golf as part of their every day lives. This project will preserve and celebrate the grassroots history of Edinburgh’s golf clubs, and document the social and cultural significance of local sporting communities. It will create a lasting archive of Edinburgh’s golf heritage and promote intergenerational understanding of the city’s sporting traditions.
Find out more: www.edinburghleisure.co.uk / Facebook @EdinburghLeisure
Leander Amateur Swimming Club
60th Anniversary Event, Leander ASC
The ’60 Years – Still going Strong’ Project will focus on Leander Amateur Swimming Club and it’s rich history and ongoing contribution to the sporting landscape in Northern Ireland. Leander was established in 1964 by Bobby Madine along with Nancy and David McCullagh. The club recently celebrated its 60th anniversary through an event to mark the occasion. In planning this event, it became evident that there was a significant amount of club history and heritage that could become lost if not appropriately captured, showcased and stored. This project will focus on the creation of an online archive to celebrate and share the history and heritage of the club to include photos, videos and newspaper cuttings. It will collect oral histories and engage with the local community to bring alive this important sporting heritage. The project will serve to inspire the continued development of the club and the power of sport to change and enrich the lives of people of all ages from all backgrounds and ability.
Find out more: www.leanderswimming.com / Facebook @leanderasc
Morton in the Community
Morton in the Community Event
This project will work with Alzheimer Scotland to celebrate and preserve the rich 150-year history of Greenock Morton FC. By blending storytelling, archives, and memorabilia, the project will not only document Morton’s legacy but also make it accessible and meaningful, particularly for individuals living with dementia and their families. The project will draw together oral histories, archives, archives, and memorabilia to create weekly reminiscence sessions and culminate in an exhibition. The project will have a significant impact on all participants attending by giving them a sense of purpose and pride in their local club and will also integrate wider community into the programme at our year end showcase event, which will include a developed timeline showcasing key milestones of GMFC.
Find out more: www.mortoncommunity.net / Facebook @MortonCommunity
Museum of Bath at Work
Visit by museum volunteers and staff to Bristol Tennis Court at Clifton College
Everyone for Tennis! A History of Tennis in Bath from Indoor to Outdoor. This project will engage with residents of Bath in helping to create an exhibition through delivering a programme of oral history interviews, requests for photographs and objects relating to the playing of lawn tennis (and indoor Real tennis). The project will work with local clubs, local community groups and with local businesses central to the development of tennis in the city. In addition to the exhibition, the project will deliver a programme of activities to engage new audiences in the museum from local communities and which will include the playing of tennis on contemporary courts in historic costume, tutoring workshops and lectures explaining the development of the game, the creation of clubs and the local manufacture of tennis balls.
Find out more: www.museumofbath.org/on-court / Facebook @BathAtWork
Project Farsley
Project Farsley is community led co-created arts organisation based in the neighbourhood of Farsley in west Leeds. All members of Project Farsley are volunteers and work in consultation with the community to deliver public artwork and events that celebrates the area and the people within it. After extensive community consultation, the history and heritage of local sporting figures has been of huge interest. The project will explore two fantastic sporting heroes from Farsley and capture one of them in a mural. Raymond Illingworth CBE, an English cricketer, cricket commentator and administrator, and Sandra Rider, a senior world champion table tennis player who is still competing in her 70s. The project will draw together the local community to discuss the place of sport within the area, and not only deliver this project but consider where sporting heritage can impact on wider community activities.
Find out more: www.lovefarsley.org / Facebook @ProjectFarsley
Rotherwas Together
Rotherwas Together was formed in 2018 to bring together the many groups and individuals who were interested in the Munition Factory site’s history, present use and future. Through a series of community engagement projects, it was clear that sport was a central factor throughout the years, in particular its impact on women and girls. The project will develop the understanding of this story working with the local community, and bring it to a wider audience reaching a different demographic and bringing the Rotherwas story to people who may not have encountered this before.. The hope is that that taking the exhibition to libraries, schools and events across the county, it will inspire girls in particular to take part in sport and maintain their involvement as a result of the pioneering women of Rotherwas.
Find out more: www.rotherwas.com / Facebook @rotherwasrofproject
Rugby Art Gallery and Museum
Schools workshop at Rugby Art Gallery and Museum.
Delivering this project alongside the Women’s Rugby World Cup, it will raise awareness with local schools and the local community as a whole, the impact that women have made to the sport of Rugby Union. The project will bring the children and young people together to celebrate the history as a town. It will share local stories as well as case studies from around the world to inspire and expand young people’s understanding of the birth of the game to include the role of women.
The project hopes to shed new light on unrepresented or forgotten female figures from the past and bring their stories to the forefront of discussion during this celebratory year. The legacy of this work is the establishment of a new local history workshop for local schools which we can deliver on and off-site, which explores our local sporting heritage in a new light with a focus on historical social change and inclusivity.
Find out more: www.ragm.co.uk / Facebook @ArtsInRugby
Street Football Wales
The “Street Football Wales Homeless World Cup Hall of Fame” is a digital project designed to celebrate and document the achievements of Welsh Homeless World Cup players, highlighting their resilience, skill and personal journeys. By involving current and former players in the design, branding and storytelling process, this project will become an authentic space that shares the players’ voices, stories and triumphs of up to 80 players who represented Wales. Workshops will allow players to shape the Hall of Fame’s visual identity, empowering them to narrate their experiences in their own words and media. The result will be a player-driven tribute that resonates deeply with audiences, encouraging understanding and empathy.
Find out more: www.streetfootballwales.com / Facebook @StreetFootballWalesOfficial
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