Heritage Place

Dudley borough has been named as a new Heritage Place, following an announcement from National Lottery Heritage Fund and Dudley Council today on Wednesday 15 October 2025.

Pictured at Dudley Zoo are (left to right) Cllr Patrick Harley, Leader of Dudley Council, Liz Bates, Midlands & East Director at The National Lottery Heritage Fund, and Cllr Simon Phipps, cabinet member for economy and infrastructure at Dudley Council.

The borough is one of six new places to have been chosen as a Heritage Place by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, with selected locations across the UK set to benefit from a multi-million-pound UK-wide investment.

Dudley will join nine others announced in 2023 – including Stoke on Trent and Leicester in the midlands – as part of the Heritage Fund’s commitment to invest £200m in up to 20 areas across the UK.

It is hoped that The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s Heritage Places initiative, which is aimed at unlocking the potential of the heritage, will connect people to heritage in the places they live, work and visit.

Dudley borough and five other areas join nine locations that were announced in 2023, under The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s plan to invest £200m in up to 20 areas across the UK.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund is the largest funder of heritage in the UK. Awarding funds raised by National Lottery players, since 1994 it has awarded over £9.2billion to more than 52,000 projects.  

Heritage Places aims to play a vital role in supporting communities in the long term during challenging times to revitalise the heritage they care about and to explore untapped possibilities, contributing to local identity, increasing heritage skills and boosting pride in places.

This initiative is part of Heritage 2033, The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s 10-year strategy, which includes other initiatives helping places to thrive including Landscapes Connected and Nature Towns and Cities. Together, these programmes aim to tackle the challenges facing heritage and maximise its contribution to people and places across the UK.