For the first time, the Historic Houses Foundation has received direct funding from Government as part of Historic England’s Heritage Stimulus Fund. A £3 million stimulus granted to the Historic Houses Foundation will allow us to support 18 individual projects in England from Devon to Northumberland.

Funding for repairs to the frame of one of Britain’s most evocative pieces of late 19th century art will allow its loan from Kelmscott House in Gloucestershire through the summer of 2020.

The Historic Houses Foundation often works alongside larger national charities in making a major restoration project happen. This was the case when, in 2020, English Heritage turned its attention to urgent work required to secure Belsay Hall in Northumberland. 

Roof repairs at Stonor Park, Oxfordshire will secure both part of the West Wing and the attic quarters used as a secret base by St Edmund Campion in 1581 for his Catholic mission into Elizabethan England. The work will be supported by the Historic Houses Foundation.

Combermere Abbey in Shropshire received two grants from The Historic Houses Foundation (then Heritage Conservation Trust), between 2011 and 2015, for the cleaning and restoration of important paintings. The 2015 grant was for the Bird’s Eye View of the Abbey in 1730 by the Dutch artist Peter Tillemans.

One of the delights of Britain is that our long history has allowed the survival of charming little pockets of the past in out-of-the-way places.  The Historic Houses Foundation has sought out Tickenham Court in Somerset - just the sort of place you would never expect to find hidden from the rush of the 21st century.

The Historic House Foundation is helping to fund essential repairs to the roof of Kelmscott Manor in Gloucestershire at the start of a major programme of restoration which will continue until 2022.

Funds have been granted to the National Trust by the Historic Houses Foundation for the restoration of the West Staircase, part of a major restoration project at Seaton Delaval Hall which will open up new parts of this palace of the English Baroque to visitors.

The formal parterre at Bodrhyddan Hall in North Wales was designed by W E Nesfield in 1874. The scrolling beds of box converge on a central pool , flanked by two shallow stone bowls lifted up on the bills of three stone pelicans. Urgent repairs to these charming garden features will be funded by the Historic Houses Foundation.

Part of the Historic Houses Foundation’s grant capability is dedicated to the restoration of works of art in historic houses open to the public.  An initial 3 month funding phase by the Historic Houses Foundation has seen the newly restored tapestry-hung bedrooms again open to the public at Doddington Hall in Lincolnshire.