Heritage Emergency Fund Announcement – 22nd October 2020

The Directors and Management of The Great Central Railway are delighted to announce that The National Lottery Heritage Fund have awarded £250,000 of support to the Railway from the Heritage Emergency Fund, which was set up to assist heritage organizations at risk due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Speaking about the news, GCR’s Managing Director, Michael Gough said “This is a huge relief to all of our management, staff and volunteers and comes at a point when the Railway is going through an incredibly difficult and stressful time in navigating the impact of the Covid crisis. Despite the fact that significant hard work has gone into operational recovery with many services now running again, much of what we are able to do to generate essential income is  severely hampered by restrictions, reductions in capacity and significantly increased costs and we are so grateful that The National Lottery Heritage Fund has agreed to help us with our recovery at this crucial time."

Anne Jenkins, Director, England, Midlands & East at The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: “Heritage has an essential role to play in making communities better places to live, supporting economic regeneration and benefiting our personal wellbeing. All of these things are going to be even more important as we emerge from this current crisis."

“Thanks to money raised by National Lottery players we are pleased to be able to lend our support to organisations such as The Great Central Railway during this uncertain time.”