Pilgrim gains grant from Government’s £1.57bn Culture Recovery Fund. The Pilgrim Heritage Sailing Foundation is one of 445 heritage organisations across the country set to receive a lifesaving financial boost from the government thanks to the £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund to help them through the coronavirus pandemic.
This award will enable us to undertake essential winter maintenance work and further adapt the vessel for Covid Secure operations in the future. It also supports volunteer crew training and digital outreach.
It is vital funding from the Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage and the Heritage Stimulus Fund – funded by Government and administered at arms length by Historic England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Both funds are part of the Government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund which is designed to secure the future of Britain’s museums, galleries, theatres, independent cinemas, heritage sites and music venues with emergency grants and loans.
The Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said: “As a nation it is essential that we preserve our heritage and celebrate and learn from our past. This massive support package will protect our shared heritage for future generations, save jobs and help us prepare for a cultural bounceback post covid.”
The Pilgrim Foundation President, Rod Coveney said: ““This year, in which Pilgrim celebrates her 125th Anniversary as the oldest surviving sailing trawler operating out of Brixham’s historic port, has been uniquely challenging for Pilgrim and her volunteers. The award ensures that we shall be able to undertake essential adaptations below deck to make our overnight accommodation ‘Covid secure’, vital maintenance work to ensure our readiness for sailing and further crew training for our committed volunteers on whom the Trust relies for its operations in 2021. As a result we shall continue to meet the Foundation’s overall purpose: to preserve our heritage for the local community and for visitors from far and wide.”
Ros Kerslake, Chief Executive of the National Lottery Heritage Fund said: “It is absolutely right that investing in heritage should be a priority during this crisis and this support by Government is crucial. Heritage creates jobs and economic prosperity, is a major driver for tourism and makes our towns, cities, and rural areas better places to live. All of this is so important for our wellbeing and will be particularly vital when we start to emerge from this incredibly difficult time. Our heritage is still facing a perilous future – we are not out of the woods yet. But this hugely welcome funding from Government, and the money we continue to invest from the National Lottery, has undoubtedly stopped heritage and the organisations that care for it being permanently lost.”
Pilgrim of Brixham BM45, is a Victorian heritage sailing trawler built in Brixham in 1895 at the yard of J.W.& A Upham. She is fully restored and sails the coast of South West England every summer and out to the Isles of Scilly, the Channel islands and across to Brittany. She is charity owned and operated by the Pilgrim Heritage Sailing Foundation