Heritage Lottery Fund

The National Lottery Heritage Fund is the largest dedicated funder of heritage in the UK.

Since its creation in 1994, The Wildlife Trusts have worked closely with the National Lottery Heritage Fund to connect people to nature and each other, save precious wildlife-rich places, create new woodlands, wetlands, meadows and many other habitats and protect rare and endangered species.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund has invested a total of £7.1bn in 40,000 heritage projects. The hundreds of Wildlife Trust projects across the UK supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund have benefited thousands of people from all walks of life – helping them to experience the joy of wildlife in their daily lives; from children and young people to older generations; from those living in urban areas to those in the countryside, or by the coast.

Players of the National Lottery are helping Wildlife Trusts throughout the UK give a new lease of life to wildlife and wild places, and ignite the passions of individuals and communities to care for the wildlife on their doorstep.

 Stephanie Hilborne OBE 

The Wildlife Trusts

How the Heritage Fund supports us

£50,000 for the River Calder Project promoted the natural heritage of the river Calder, to communities in Calderdale, Kirklees, and Wakefield. This projected improved access and interpretation at three sites and trained local volunteers to work on wildlife sites along the river. The project also provided land management advice to landowners along the river, to help improve conditions for wildlife.

£50,000 for Wild Went Water Voles Project helped the future of water vole populations in parts of the Wakefield. The project worked with landowners to improve the management of the water courses, benefiting a range a wildlife and reducing pollution. Through training and support, local people helped by with surveys and habitat restoration for water voles. There was also a series of public events to help inform and celebrate the amazing local wildlife.

£335,000 for Skills For Wildlife project delivered high quality environmental training opportunities to young people aged 16-19.  This included year-long, full time traineeships which offered a range of work-based and vocational opportunities for learning and skills development and completion of a full NVQ (Environmental Conservation or Land based Operations) and other certificated training. The traineeships were mainly based at Derbyshire or Yorkshire Wildlife Trust working on nature conservation tasks, but also included opportunities to work with other teams and organisations for a broader experience.

£75,000 for Improving Clifton Beck’s Water Project - Yorkshire is a landscape defined by rivers and one of West Yorkshire’s most appealing natural features. Clifton Beck however had suffered ongoing degradation. Working with communities and land owners, this project worked to urgently safeguard the natural heritage of Clifton Beck and included longer term recover plans.  Clifton Beck is becoming a more valued natural asset with improved space and opportunity for nature to recover, thrive and for the local community to enjoy and take pride in.

£63,000 for Dew Ponds in the East helped to revive and restore a threatened, once distinctive and important feature of Yorkshire’s rural landscape. These ponds were originally created to provide water for livestock in an otherwise dry landscape, but with the arrival of mains water supplied and the decrease in livestock on the Wolds, maintenance of the ponds lapsed and many were lost. Restoring these ponds will benefit wildlife in the area and allow communities to understand more about these important historic features. 

£60,000 to Secure the future of Ashes Pasture Funding helped to buy 20 hectares of land at this valuable and protected wildlife site. It’s an example of traditional upland pasture and hay meadow that has disappeared from most of the Yorkshire Dales. It has an incredible richness of wildflowers, including several species of orchids, globeflower and bird’s-eye primrose. The site also provides a home for ground-nesting waders, such as curlew and has a traditional Dales stone barn, providing a home for barn owls and kestrels.

£474,600 for Staveley Nature Reserve Land Purchase Funding enabled Yorkshire Wildlife Trust to buy the western extension of wildlife-rich nature reserve near Boroughbridge. Funding also supported a community engagement programme, which included events and the planting of a community orchard on the edge of the village. A large arable field was converted to wildflower meadow.

Over £100,000 for Stories in Stone project - a Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust-led landscape partnership project. Yorkshire Wildlife Trust is one of the delivery partners, with funding being used to rebuild stone walls on our nature reserves in the Ingleborough area, install new interpretation, set up volunteer groups and run wildlife events. Part of this project will involve the set up off Mealbank Quarry near Ingleton as a new nature reserve.

£470,000 for Communities along the sands – this project helped to restore the iconic lighthouse at Spurn, which is now open to the public for the first time. The project also provided new infrastructure along the Spurn peninsula including opening up WWI features. This has enabled more people to enjoy and learn about Spurn’s rich wildlife, maritime and social history.  

Empowering people of all ages and backgrounds