Lottery grants announced

THE Cutty Sark tea clipper and an archive that includes letters by Jane Austen and Lord Byron are beneficiaries of a £78 million spending spree by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The awards, to six causes, represent the second-largest outlay of lottery money by the fund to date.

Critics questioned the value of the largest award, £17.7 million, to the National Library of Scotland to buy the John Murray archive. . .

The Cutty Sark, the only surviving tea clipper, was promised £12.9 million to prevent decay that could have closed her within two years. . . The Cutty Sark Trust now needs to find an additional £12 million. . .

Other grants include £15 million to found the Riverside Museum, a development in Glasgow that will incorporate the Museum of Transport. The museum, which will be part of an £800 million project to regenerate Glasgow Harbour, will tell the story of industry on the rivers Clyde and Kelvin.

The Great North Museum in Newcastle will receive £9.1 million for premises to house the collections from the Hancock Museum, the Shefton Museum and the Museum of Antiquities. The new building will house exhibits including the largest collection of artefacts from Hadrian’s Wall.

Full story here. The grants are all well and good, but why did the same Lottery panjandrums find the Macclesfield Psalter unworthy even at a veritable bargain price?

Posted by David on January 27, 2005 9:40 PM