Scoping Grants funded in 2025–2026

Association of Wrens and Women of the Royal Naval Services

Project title: AOW Archive Collection from 1917 onwards

The Association of Wrens and Women of the Royal Naval Services (AOW) was founded in 1920 to help women who served in the First World War remain connected and to preserve their collective spirit. The AOW has an extensive collection of items dating back 110 years. These items are unique and irreplaceable, representing the evolution of women in the Naval Services, and changes to the cultural fabric of society.

AOW will use their professional scoping assessment to evaluate the historical value, condition and storage needs of the collection. They will seek advice on a database and appropriate handling and preservation standards. This work is essential to safeguard the collection for future generations and provide access for research and education.

The Ball Clay Heritage Society

Project title: The Ball Clay Heritage Society Archive Conservation and Management Project

The Ball Clay Heritage Society will use their grant to undertake a scoping project of the nationally significant Ball Clay Archive. They will assess the condition, scope, and future potential of a unique collection documenting Devon’s globally important ball clay industry. The project will lay the groundwork for preservation, cataloguing, and wider access, enabling new research, public engagement, and more inclusive histories of labour, geology, and trade. Developed in collaboration with the UKRI-funded research project Winning the Clay, the project will ensure that emerging academic, creative, and community work is grounded in a robust understanding of the archive.

Details from the Ball Clay Heritage Society Archive. Photographs by Becky Nune.

COMPAS Charity

Project title: Baripen Archive

COMPAS Charity, a community-led organisation based in Peterborough, supports marginalised communities through advice, education, and cultural initiatives. Through its Baripen project, COMPAS is working to preserve, catalogue and share unique archival materials documenting Roma history, culture and lived experiences across Europe.

This funding from the Archives Revealed programme will enable COMPAS to scope and assess significant collections, including materials linked to leading Roma activists and scholars. The project will lay the foundations for a publicly accessible archive, helping to preserve underrepresented histories and strengthen community identity, learning and inclusion across the UK and beyond.

Cornwall's Regimental Museums CIO

Project title: Cornwall’s Military History Revealed

Someone from every Cornish family walked through the gates of Bodmin Keep, home of the Cornish regiment, the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry. These days the Grade II-listed Keep is home to Cornwall’s Army Museum with a collection and archive representing 300 years of Cornwall’s military history. Highlights include George Washington’s bible and letters from Florence Nightingale in Crimea and an Officer writing home on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo.

Cornwall’s Regimental Museum will use their scoping grant to complete a condition assessment of the archive after 18 months of closure for repairs. This will enable them to prioritise conservation tasks and understand the breadth, depth and significance of the collection.

Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle

Project title: Unlocking Catholic Heritage: The Hexham and Newcastle Archive Project

The Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle serves Catholic communities across Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, and County Durham. Preserving more than four centuries of Catholic life in the North East, the collection includes bishops’ correspondence, parish and mission records, education papers, financial material, and records of Catholic societies and charities, offering insight into how the Church has shaped, and been shaped by, the communities it serves.

The Diocese will use their scoping grant to gain a clearer picture of the archive’s content, condition, and priorities for development. This will lay the groundwork for future cataloguing, preservation, and access, ensuring that these records can be better understood and shared.

The Finchley Charities

Project title: Scoping and safeguarding the Finchley Charities Archive (1488–1988)

Founded in 1488, The Finchley Charities provides social housing and support for older people, alleviating poverty and improving wellbeing within Barnet. It also strives to meet changing social needs and maintain a strong connection to place and community.

The Finchley Charities holds an unexplored archive of over 800 historical documents relating to housing, education, poverty relief and community welfare. This provides rare and continuous evidence of how philanthropy, governance and social welfare have evolved from the late medieval period to today, but it has never been fully catalogued. This scoping report will offer a professional assessment of the archive’s significance, and identify priorities for preservation and access, digitisation and partnership opportunities. It’s a first step in ensuring long-term survival and unlocking the archive’s value for residents, historians, students and the local community.

G.B. Kent and Sons

Project title: The Marcia Rose Archive

Kent Brushes, a heritage British brush manufacturer established in 1777, will use their scoping grant to explore and develop its historic archive. The project team will assess, catalogue and preserve a unique collection spanning 250 years of brush making. The intended impact is to safeguard this material for future generations, unlock stories of British manufacturing and craftsmanship, and create a foundation for education and brand storytelling.

Glenside Hospital Museum

Project title: Fit for the Future: Archives

Glenside Hospital Museum, Bristol, brings to life the complex history of mental health and learning disability care through its exhibitions and dynamic programming, challenging stigma and sparking important conversations. It holds a unique collection from 1800-2000, including 3,000 photographs, pamphlets, books, oral histories, and research papers.

Many of these items are unique as the social history of care for the poor and vulnerable has not always been valued. The personal collections of pioneering figures such as Dr Donal Early, offer valuable insight into both professional practice and lived experience. The project will unlock the archive’s potential through expert guidance on cataloguing, care, and access.

Historic Environment Scotland

Project title: Campbell and Arnott Architects digital collection

Historic Environment Scotland (HES) is the lead public body for investigating, caring for and promoting Scotland’s historic environment. HES will use its scoping grant to assess the digital archive of Campbell and Arnott, a prominent architectural firm known for modern housing and healthcare buildings across Scotland.

Held by HES since 2010, the collection includes thousands of photographs, plans and documents, much of which remains uncatalogued and inaccessible. The project team will evaluate over 166,000 digital files and legacy drives to inform preservation and cataloguing strategies. This will ultimately enable public access and support the long term safeguarding of Scotland’s architectural heritage.

Polonia Northern England

Project title: PNE Archives

Polonia Northern England (PNE) delivers community-focused programmes that promote wellbeing, education, and social inclusion. This project team will catalogue and unlock unique archival collections, improving public access and preserving historically significant records. By making these materials accessible, the project will support research, community engagement, and a deeper understanding of local heritage, ensuring these stories are available for future generations.

A professional scoping assessment of the archive will help the team to identify its current condition, physical and intellectual accessibility, and thematic strengths. The intended impact is to lay the foundation for cataloguing, preservation, public engagement and future investment.

Sinfonietta Productions Ltd

Project title: London Sinfonietta Archive – Exploring New Music

The London Sinfonietta is the original chamber sized ensemble, formed in 1968, that champions the work of living composers. The archive, accumulated over the past 60 years, contains correspondence with some of the great names of contemporary classical music plus programmes books, planning documentation and administration files that chart the evolution of the art form in the 20th and 21st centuries. This project aims to document and then share the archive with academics and audiences to inspire more people to explore this dynamic and revolutionary music which has inspired and shaped other areas of contemporary culture.

Society of Designer Craftsmen

Project title: Archive of the Society of Designer Craftsmen 1984 -2020 (possible consolidation with the archive of 1887 – 1983)

The Society of Designer Craftsmen (SDC) is a UK charity and one of the country’s oldest multi-disciplinary craft societies, founded in 1887 by leading figures of the Arts and Crafts Movement including William Morris and Walter Crane. This project will scope, assess and attempt to consolidate the Society’s archive from 1984–2020, hopefully bringing it together with its earlier historic collection, held at the V&A, to create an unbroken record of British craft spanning nearly 140 years. Currently uncatalogued and dispersed, the archive captures a transformative period in craft history, from traditional studio practice to digital innovation.

The project will identify priorities for conservation, cataloguing and digitisation, while laying the groundwork for future public access and partnerships. By safeguarding this nationally significant but at-risk collection, the project will unlock new opportunities for exhibitions, research and education, ensuring the stories, skills and legacy of makers across generations continue to inspire audiences today and into the future.

25th Exhibition. The CRAFTS 1957. The Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society.

Tamar Crossings

Project title: Bridging the Tamar Archive

Tamar Crossings provides two crossings of the River Tamar – the Torpoint Ferry and the Tamar Bridge. In 2019, the Bridging the Tamar Visitor and Learning Centre was created to celebrate the engineering legacy of these iconic structures and to reframe the Tamar Bridge as a landmark of national achievement and regional heritage.

Without a dedicated archivist, the collection of artifacts has expanded without specialist oversight, making a professionally led scoping project essential. This work will establish a strategic plan for cataloguing, managing, and preserving the archive, supporting future accessibility for the public, researchers, academic partners, and schools. It will also underpin future funding applications for a fully managed archive.

Committee on the Administration of Justice

Project title: Scoping Four Decades of Human Rights Advocacy in Northern Ireland

Founded in 1981, The Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) is an independent NGO working to ensure that law, policy and practice comply with international human rights standards. CAJ holds a unique archive documenting more than four decades of human rights advocacy in Northern Ireland.

The archive contains extensive correspondence with international human rights organisations, governments and institutions, records of policing and justice reform, and materials that informed provisions later embedded in the Good Friday Agreement. A professional scoping project will identify, protect and prioritise this material, enabling rights-compliant public access and laying the groundwork for preservation and future digitisation to support historians, academics and researchers worldwide.

Essex Wildlife Trust

Project title: Artists, Writers, Gardeners: Bottengoms Farm in the National Story

Essex Wildlife Trust is the county’s leading conservation charity working to protect wildlife, restore habitats, and inspire people to care for nature through education and engagement. The Trust has been gifted Bottengoms Farm, the former home of writer and naturalist Ronald Blythe (1922–2023). Blythe’s work shaped modern nature writing and our understanding of rural life in East Anglia.

Alongside the house and garden, the Trust has inherited a largely unexplored personal collection believed to include photographs, sketchbooks, maps, and other papers from Blythe’s life. This collection could potentially include material relating to artists John and Christine Nash who lived there before him. Essex Wildlife Trust will use their scoping grant to lay the foundations for future conservation, access, research, and public engagement, and to eventually safeguard a nationally significant archive for future generations.

Feminist Archive (South)

Project title: Securing the future of the Feminist Archive South

The Feminist Archive (South), housed by the University of Bristol’s Special Collections, preserves the history of the women’s movement throughout 20th century Britain. Along with its sister archive in Leeds, it is particularly significant in documenting the history of feminism beyond London. This scoping grant will help the trustees to ensure the future sustainability of the archive and make it accessible to the widest possible range of audiences.

If the women are not free the people are not free.

Pembrokeshire County Council

Project title: The Squibbs Photographic Collection

Pembrokeshire Archives and Local Studies is a local authority service which seeks to preserve and promote Pembrokeshire’s past. The service holds an extensive collection of photographic negatives which captures a broad range of events and activities, including cover images for major news stories from the county. The material’s research potential is severely hampered due to its availability in negative format only. The negatives are at various stages of decay due to vinegar syndrome and this has reached a critical stage in some cases. The scoping grant will lay the foundation for future work to be undertaken.

Rio Centre Ltd

Project title: The Rio Cinema Archive

The Rio Cinema has been screening films since 1909. For over a century, audiences have visited The Rio for romance, entertainment, political solidarity and escape from the daily grind. Today the programme balances bold, boundary-pushing curation, alongside new releases. The collection that will be scoped contains over 12000 35mm transparencies created in the early 1980s by the Rio Tape/Slide project and a substantial collection of cinema programmes, film posters and programming documentation dating back to 1976.

This archive shows how a community cinema was managed, programmed and marketed to diverse community audiences, and a vibrant snapshot of Hackney community life in the 1980s. To date, three academic research projects have drawn on the Rio’s archive, but their collection hasn’t been scoped or catalogued due to lack of organisational resource. A Scoping Report will be a first step to help them understand the material they have and the preservation issues they will need to address to improve access going forward.

Royal Entomological Society of London

Project title: Uncovering 20th century insect science in action

Founded in 1833, the Royal Entomological Society is devoted to the understanding and support of insect science. It holds a world class library and archive collection  on the global history of entomology, and a significant amount of uncatalogued material, currently inaccessible to researchers. This includes records relating to Project Wallace, a groundbreaking entomological research expedition to Indonesia in the 1980s. This project aims to preserve these histories of 20th century insect science and make them accessible to a wider scientific and enthusiast audience, through a programme of conservation, cataloguing, exhibitions and events.

Entomological Society of London. Butterfly Protection Committee. No 1.

We the Curious

Project title: Reflection and Exploration: Bristol’s Harbourside Millennium Redevelopment

We The Curious is an educational charity and science centre in Bristol, welcoming 300,000 visitors annually to experience over 200 interactive exhibits and a 3D Planetarium. They will use their grant to produce a professional scoping report on their archive relating to the Bristol 2000 Millennium project. The archive contains design drawings, plans, correspondence and documents relating to the regeneration of Bristol’s Harbourside, including the largest public art commissioning programme in the south west. These records reveal fascinating details on how the designs evolved, offering valuable insights into the city’s evolution at a key moment in its history.

A scoping report will support the future sustainability of the collection and enable audience engagement through the development of inclusive engagement programmes. These will use the archive as a starting point for creative and critical conversations about the city, redevelopment, and identity.

What if plants took over the city? Sketch or write about how Bristol might transform if trees grew in buses or if vines wrapped around streets. What if the River Avon could speak? Did you know our planetarium is the first 3D planetarium in the UK? We the Curious under construction.

The Windows Project

Project title: Windows Project Archive

The Windows Project will assess and plan access to its unique literary and cultural archives which document over 60 years of poetry, publishing and community arts in Liverpool and beyond. Founded in 1976, The Windows Project delivers inclusive, games-based writing workshops that support creativity, literacy and wellbeing in diverse communities. Their collections include the Small Press Library of over 5,000 poetry magazines and zines, rare Dial-A-Poem recordings from the 1980s, Merseyside Arts Community Arts Assembly minutes, and the organisation’s own archive of events, workshops and publications.

British Institute for Libyan and Northern African Studies (BILNAS)

Project title: From Drawers to Digital: Enhancing Access to the BILNAS Archive’s Maps and Plans

BILNAS supports academic collaboration between UK-based and regional scholars across many disciplines. Its archive, documenting over 70 years of British archaeological work in Libya, includes a significant collection of maps and plans. These unique visual records offer valuable insights into how Libya’s landscapes have been shaped and inhabited over millennia. However, the collection’s current condition, storage, and limited metadata make it difficult to discover and access.

A scoping report will provide an expert assessment of the collection’s condition, cataloguing gaps, and preservation risks. This will enable BILNAS to make informed decisions regarding preservation, access, digitisation, and future investment.

Centre for Armenian Information and Advice

Project title: Hayashen: An archive of Armenian political and social history in London

CAIA, also known as Hayashen, is a charity that has supported refugees and others in need for almost forty years, from those fleeing the Lebanese Civil War and the breakup of the Soviet Union to people displaced by the Ukraine conflict. Alongside advice services, CAIA runs social educational and capacity-building activities for the Armenian community and beyond. This project, supported by an Archives Revealed scoping grant, will survey CAIA’s archives, which include photographs, videos, newsletters, event records, and materials from activist campaigns.

The collection captures both the organisation’s history and the wider story of the Armenian community in Britain, from 1890s anarchist pamphlets published in Hammersmith to records from an Armenian orphanage in Feltham. The findings will inform future cataloguing, digitisation, and public access initiatives.

Down and Connor Diocesian Trust

Project title: The Diocese of Down and Connor Heritage Records Initiative

The Diocese of Down and Connor is the largest Catholic diocese in Northern Ireland, covering Belfast and the surrounding counties of Antrim, Down and parts of Derry. The Diocese holds a significant and under-explored archive documenting over two centuries of Catholic life in the region.

As the sole repository of Catholic Church records in Belfast, the archive includes original episcopal correspondence, parish histories, clergy biographies, rare, printed works, and religious artefacts. It also contains oral histories and records from the “Troubles”, which highlight the pastoral role of clergy during periods of political violence and community upheaval.

This project aims to carry out a professional scoping exercise of the archive to assess its current condition, physical and intellectual accessibility, and thematic strengths. The intended impact is to lay the foundation for future cataloguing, preservation, and public engagement. In doing so, the Diocese hopes to reconnect this hidden but vital collection with researchers, schools, local communities, and heritage organisations across Northern Ireland.

Entelechy Arts

Entelechy Arts was originally established in response to the ‘care in the community’ act and took a radical approach to co-creating work with isolated people and artists. The Entelechy Arts Archives function as both an analysis of Britain during a period of profound change, but also as a means to challenge assumptions about people’s worth and indeed vulnerability. They will use their scoping grant to explore imaginative ways of creating an accessible and inclusive archive, bringing a new multi-sensory perspective to their aural and visual content.

Gwent Archives

Project title: Exploring Steel Town: The Ebbw Vale Steelworks Archive

This collection is the only intact steelworks archives in the UK, representing over 200 years of iron and steelmaking from its beginnings in 1789, to the rolling of the world’s first steel rail in 1857, through successive ownership (including British Steel and Corus) and fluctuating fortunes and to its eventual closure in 2002 and subsequent demolition. Gwent Archives will use their grant to produce a scoping report which will provide an overview of the content of this very large collection, to aid a future application for funding to catalogue and make accessible this important resource.

The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce

Project title: What, When, Where? Scoping the RSA

The Royal Society of Arts (RSA), a charity committed to enriching society through ideas, innovation and practical action, is home to an internationally significant archive spanning from 1754 to the present day. Covering more than 270 years of design innovation and social progress, the collections feature connections with renowned figures including Marie Curie, Charles Dickens, Benjamin Franklin and Stephen Hawking, while also showcasing the grassroots ingenuity celebrated through the RSA’s historic premium award schemes.

This project will undertake a comprehensive review of the archive’s Collections Management System, identifying gaps, inconsistencies and opportunities to enhance access, navigation and usability for researchers, students and the wider public. The resulting scoping report will inform future policy, planning, cataloguing and engagement strategies, strengthening the RSA’s ability to share its heritage more widely than ever before.

The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB)

Project title: Archive of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings

The archive of The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) – founded in 1877 by designer William Morris and architect Philip Webb – is one of the oldest collections of material in the UK dedicated to buildings conservation. The archive’s casework files, photographs, plans and architectural drawings form an invaluable resource for researchers, including architects, conservationists, and design historians. They are a unique record of buildings that may have changed over time or even been destroyed. The archive also contains letters from key historical figures, including designers, architects, writers and politicians.

Bradenstoke, Wilts., Before and During Demolition. Protect your ancient buildings. The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings has worked for over fifty years to save them and needs your help.

St Malachys College

Project title: Echoes of the Classroom: Scoping St Malachy’s College Archive

St Malachy’s College, founded in 1833, is the oldest Catholic grammar school in Belfast and currently serves over 1,000 pupils. The College holds a rich and unique archive that includes school registers dating from the 1850s, personal diaries, staff and student memoirs, school magazines from 1926 onward, rare booklets, pamphlets, and manuscripts.

These materials collectively offer an unparalleled insight into the educational, social, and religious life of Belfast’s Catholic community, particularly during a time of significant political and societal change. Through funding from the Archives Revealed Scoping Grant, the College will undertake its first professional assessment of the archive.

The project will identify and describe the full extent and condition of the collection, informing future conservation, digitisation, and access plans. By making the archive more accessible, the College hopes to support new research, educational use, and community engagement, particularly through its growing cross-community work with other schools and heritage partners.

Stills Centre for Photography

Project title: Stills Centre of Photography – 50th Anniversary Archive Project

Stills Centre for Photography, established in Edinburgh in 1977, was the first gallery in Scotland dedicated to photography. Stills is working to preserve and increase access to its archive – a unique collection documenting almost 50 years of photographic exhibitions, artist collaborations, and the evolving role of photography in Scotland and beyond. The archive includes prints, films, posters, artist correspondence, and audio-visual materials, much of which remains undigitised.

Opening this collection will enhance public engagement, highlight key photographic milestones, and inform future programming ahead of Stills’ 50th anniversary in 2027, fulfilling the founding vision to preserve, share, and celebrate the history of photography for generations to come.

Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway Supporters Association

Project title: Operation “Goofy”

The Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway Supporters Association (RHDRSA), established in 1967, aims to preserve artefacts, images and the stories of people who rode or worked on the railway line, or those who just loved watching the trains go by. RHDRSA will use their grant to seek professional advice and ensure all their items are archived and stored in a secure manner.

Oldham Local Studies and Archives

Project title: Hold the Front Page: Chronicling Oldham Life

Oldham Archives has held The Oldham Chronicle collection since August 2017 when the newsroom closed and the last Oldham Chronicle newspaper came off the press.

For many years, the Oldham Chronicle was the town’s main source of news. The collection now holds many fascinating local stories and covers all aspects of the newspaper’s operation and reach. The Chronicle archive is 77.3 cubic metres in size, which would fill around three quarters of a double decker bus, and consists of the firm’s own business records, photographs, negatives and glass slides dating back to the 1930s, as well as news cuttings covering key people, events, places, communities, crime and sport.

This scoping grant will enable Oldham Archives to expand existing audiences, work with new communities and harness the skills and knowledge of volunteers. By gaining a better understanding of how the collection’s content relates to Oldham’s diverse communities, they will build a stronger plan to make the collection more accessible and apply for further funding.

Prospect Community Housing

Project title: Sentinel Community Newspaper Archive

This project will enable Prospect Community Housing, a community-based housing association, to develop a more strategic approach to the Sentinel Community Newspaper Archive’s long-term care and ensure that all the material can be fully shared.

The Sentinel Newspaper was the voice of Wester Hailes. Its archive of newspapers, photographs and negatives tells the story of the area, capturing both the challenges of living in an outer ring housing estate, and the emergence of a strong dynamic community that fought for change.

When the newspaper folded, Prospect Community Housing saved the archive by giving it a home. Their core business is the provision of high-quality social housing, but they also aspire to help build a strong community. A Scoping Grant will help them identify how to preserve this local resource and highlight the value of community led action today.

Westmorland and Furness Council

Project title: Scoping the collections of Joseph Hardman, Lakeland photographer

Joseph Hardman’s photographic collection documents the changing face of the Lake District from the 1930s to the 1960s. With over 5000 glass plate negatives and 11000 photographs, the collection is an important record of how agriculture and rural traditions changed and sometimes disappeared in the mid to late 20th Century.

The collection is held by three organisations: the Lakeland Arts Trust, Cumbria Archive centre and Kendal Library. Some of the collection has been digitised but there is no unified catalogue to Hardman’s photographs, hindering access. The scoping grant will enable these organisations to work with a consultant and identify the best approach to making the collection accessible, through a unified catalogue, digitisation strategy, volunteer participation and community engagement. The consultant’s report will be a road map to sharing this important collection with a wider audience.

SIN Cru

Project title: Diggin’ in the Crates: Counter-narratives through UK Hip Hop

SIN Cru is a Hip Hop arts organisation, founded in 1995, working across youth and community engagement, artist development, and dance theatre. As they approach their 30th anniversary, they will undertake a vital scoping project to assess and activate their extensive archive, which documents three decades of UK Hip Hop culture.

In collaboration with an archivist from the C-DARE Coventry University network, this project will develop sustainable archival processes and outline a dynamic public engagement strategy. The collection, spanning Blackbooks, photos, videos, vinyl records, costumes, and creative outputs, captures the lived experiences and artistic practices of intergenerational UK Hip Hop artists.

This initiative aims to preserve fragile materials, amplify underrepresented voices, and ensure the archive serves as a living, evolving resource. By formalising access and usage, SIN Cru hopes to empower artists, educators, and researchers, embedding its legacy into the cultural fabric and inspiring new generations through Hip Hop’s powerful counter-narratives.

Falls Community Council

Project title: The Dúchas Archive

Falls Community Council is a community development organisation set up in 1974 to work for economic justice and social inclusion for communities in West Belfast.

The Irish word Dúchas means heritage or ‘the experiences that make us who we are’. The Dúchas oral history archive was established by the council in 2000 to record personal experiences of The Troubles in nationalist West Belfast. The Dúchas archive has over 300 recorded oral history interviews most of which have been transcribed. About two thirds of the interviews have been gathered through partnerships with other organisations across Belfast resulting in ten collections within the archive.

Although it has been used and interpreted, more cataloguing, archiving and preservation is required to make the archive publicly accessible.

Kent Police Museum

Project title: The historic collections of Kent Police Museum

Situated in an operational Edwardian police station in the historic market town of Faversham, The Kent Police Museum explores the history and development of one of the UK’s largest police forces, which dates from 1857.

First assembled in 1957 to celebrate the centenary of the Kent Police, the museum now holds over 10,000 photographs, 5,000 documents and newspaper articles and many other artefacts in its collection. Due to this considerable growth, many of the holdings are unlisted, unlabelled and poorly stored.

The Archives Revealed Scoping Grant is vital in helping the museum fully assess the contents of their collection which is currently stored across multiple sites. Internally, it will help improve documentation and storage, as well as ensuring the ongoing preservation of the historic collection. Kent Police hope to gain a greater understanding of what they hold so they can improve and deliver outreach and community activities to the wider Kent community.

Light Music Society

Project title: Seeing the Light: Creating a sustainable music heritage organisation for the 21st century

Based in Bolton, the Light Music Society (LMS) is passionate about music as a living resource. Lancashire composer, Ernest Tomlinson, established the Library of the Light Orchestral Music in the 1980s when he discovered that the BBC had begun disposing of its light music archive.

This membership society now holds the nation’s largest collection of light-orchestral music, plus dance band parts, piano music, show scores, and more. The library receives music donations from across the country and lends music out to orchestras and performers, both professional and amateur.

LMS is seeking to safeguard its unique heritage for future generations, to bolster reputation, and to strive for equality, diversity and professionalisation. Project outputs and impacts will include strategic planning and frameworks, records management, archiving, digitisation, and transformation of storage and research areas at Victoria Hall.

LMS is also seeking to decolonise archive collections by collecting global and grassroots music, to provide access to collections online, to undertake sustainable marketing, and to grow membership. New audiences in the North-West and beyond, including local communities and grassroots musicians from diverse backgrounds, will have the opportunity to attend events, live concerts and professional development masterclasses, to engage with archive stories, and to enjoy music.

Ouseburn Trust

Project title: Scoping the Ouseburn Trust Collection

The Ouseburn Trust is an independent charity, working towards a vibrant, diverse and sustainable future for Newcastle Upon Tyne’s Lower Ouseburn Valley. In partnership with volunteers, the local authority and the business community, the Trust delivers a vast range of projects which sit under four key themes: heritage, community, property, and the environment.

The Trust’s collection is a unique and wide-ranging record of the changes taking place in the area over the past few hundred years, from cradle of the industrial revolution to thriving urban village. Crucially, it tells the story of an intensive heritage-led redevelopment that took place from the 1980s that has become an important urban planning landmark and an exemplar of place-based regeneration.

Ouseburn Trust will produce a scoping grant that will help them survey the organisation’s history and role in the regeneration, make the social history of the valley more accessible, and continue to collect stories sustainably. The collection consists of photographs, oral histories, and key planning documentation that help tell a story of huge change in the once predominantly working-class East End of Newcastle, but it needs help with accessibility and coherency.

Emily Toth, Heritage Programme Manager for Ouseburn Trust, says: “We are thrilled to receive an Archives Revealed scoping grant as we approach the Trust’s 30th anniversary in 2026. This is invaluable in helping us care for our collection, connect us with other collections of national and regional importance, and improve access to researchers.”

Derry City and Strabane District Council Tower Museum, Northern Ireland

Project title: Unlocking The John Hume Archive Collection

The Tower Museum team have extensive experience working with archive and museum collections. John Hume’s significant political and personal archive dates between 1960s-2000s. The collection consists of documents created and received during John’s time as a political representative in Northern Ireland.

The collection includes references to civil rights, the Troubles, international affairs and British and Irish relations. The documents include draft and final speeches, policy documents which are often noted and edited, correspondence, publications, photographs, and ephemera collected at various events. The collection contains evidence of John’s roles and responsibilities throughout his career and is recognised as having significant value for a range of audiences.

A Scoping Report for this collection will help The Tower Museum team assess potential timelines to develop the collection and integrate the archive into wider engagement plans.