Anne-Marie Trevelyan, MP for Northumberland, has welcomed the announcement this morning that several sites in her constituency are to be beneficiaries of the mammoth culture funding package announced by the Government.

The Department for culture, Media and Sport announced a package of £1.57billion which would be made available through its Culture Recovery Fund to support heritage and the wider cultural sector during the Covid-19 pandemic. The funding is being managed according to the type of help required.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund and Historic England have worked together to ensure that this significant investment from Government reaches the organisations most in need.  This is the first tranche of funding for heritage, covering grants of up to £1 million, and is part of the £92 million Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage managed jointly by Historic England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Locally, this includes a grant of £21,300 to the Aln Valley Railway Trust.

12 organisations will receive £34 million from the Heritage Stimulus Fund, distributed by Historic England.  This money will support nationally important heritage attractions to restart construction and maintenance on cherished heritage sites to preserve visitor attractions and protect livelihoods for some of the most vulnerable heritage specialists and contractors in the sector.

In north Northumberland, the English Heritage sites of Berwick Barracks and Etal Castle will receive £60,000 and £16,000 respectively. National Trust’s Cragside will receive £21,600 and Brinkburn Mill run by the Landmark Trust will receive £43,776.

Speaking of the news, Anne-Marie said: “This is welcome news for these heritage sites which are important to our cultural heritage as well as key parts of our tourism offering as a county.  I am really pleased they have been able to attract Government funding to help them through these difficult times.”