National Lottery Funding Boost For Lancaster Slave Trade Project
Art workshops were one part of the first stage of Facing The Past last year
The National Lottery Heritage Fund has given significant backing to Facing The Past 2, a major project reflecting on Lancaster’s links to the transatlantic slave trade.
T
he £242,979 project will build on the work of Facing The Past 1 which took place last year.
This significant funding boost, made possible thanks to National Lottery players, will strengthen the public understanding of Lancaster’s connections with the slave trade. The project will achieve this with a festival, a digital trail, training for primary school teachers, heritage and arts organisations across the district, and undertaking further research into this important history. It will also create 16 freelance roles. 182
Lancaster Priory Commissioning Group (LPCG) is steering the project, bringing together a wide range of community, heritage and faith groups from across the city including Lancaster Black History Group. LCPG chair, Andrew Nicholson, said: “We are very grateful to The National Lottery Heritage Fund for this generous grant which will enable us, through a variety of ways, to make the people of Lancaster more aware of our city’s historic involvement in the Atlantic slave trade. Importantly it will spur us on to recognise and resist modern slavery and contemporary abuses of human dignity however and whenever they occur.” David Renwick, Director, England, North at The National Lottery Heritage Fund said: “We’re proud to support
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Facing The Past 2 in exploring Lancaster’s links to the transatlantic slave trade. It is important we look at all aspects of local heritage, including those that can be difficult, to help people better understand their history and broaden understanding in the wider community. Thanks to National Lottery players, we are able to support these stories being told.” The 14-month project, which begins this June, will involve commissioning research on Lancaster Priory Church, where enslaved people and families involved in the slave trade were baptised. There are also memorials to slave traders inside and outside the Priory. As part of the project, expert historian, Dr Melinda Elder will produce a booklet and interpretive panels for the Priory. www.lancmag.com
