Railway Heritage Trust awards over £3million in grants for only second time

The Railway Heritage Trust (RHT) has handed out its 78^th and final grant of the current financial year – taking the total for 2019/20 to £3.1m.

It is only the second time in its 35-year history that the RHT, which assists in the preservation and upkeep of listed structures on Network Rail (and the Historic Railways Estate), has given grants over the £3m level.

The grants have ranged from £225 for some BR-style station signage at Worksop, to £192,000 to help restore the derelict station master’s house building at Bury St Edmunds – work that is still in progress.

RHT gets £2.5m a year from Network Rail for work on their estate and £200,000 from Highways England for work on the Historical Railways Estate.

Some money was carried forward from last year, which is why such a large figure has been awarded.

Among some of the other projects which the grants have helped fund includes:

• Painting of 3 underbridges in Manchester.
• Renewing fascias at listed 1950s Harlow and Broxbourne stations.
• Provision of a walkway over Bennerley viaduct on the Notts / Derbyshire boundary.
• Restoring the level crossing keepers cottage at Ingatestone as a local museum.
• Restoration of Rewley Road Swing bridge in Oxford for transfer to a local trust (the bridge is separated from the railway, and derelict.  This will make it a local feature.
• Relocation of turntable from Hither Green to Rother Valley Railway – This will provide a turning facility for steam engines. on Network Rail in Kent, which does not currently exist.
• Canopy repairs at Llandaff, Cardiff.
• Transfer of redundant footbridge at Alton to a local group.

Andy Savage, Executive Director at the Railway Heritage Trust, said 11 of the 73 Network Rail funded grants, and both the Highways Agency funded grants, were for £100,000 or over.

He said: “I get great pleasure out of seeing derelict buildings restored and brought back into sustainable use, as well as the improvements to heritage features on the railway.

“After ten years in the post, I still get a thrill at visiting completed projects where there was dereliction, and is now a thriving enterprise that reveals and uses the wonderful built heritage resources of our railway.”

Visit www.railwayheritagetrust.co.uk for more details.

Photo credit: Railway Heritage Trust