The Knebworth House Education and Preservation Trust (KHEPT) has never in the past succeeded in getting a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Not for want of trying. The charity has put together expensive applications three times since the 1990s and has been turned down every time. Until now, that is. And like buses, two successful applications have arrived at the same time!
The first was initiated by Stevenage Museum, working with Youth Connexions Hertfordshire, North Herts Museum, the Garden City Collection and KHEPT. This is a grant for the project ‘Stevenage and North Herts Suffrage Stories: 100 years of votes for women’, which looks at key players in the national movement who have links with our area, like our own Constance Lytton. Alongside new research, exhibits and a programme of events, a new book will be produced and launched at Knebworth House in the Spring.
The second Heritage Lottery Fund grant is a contribution to the restoration and educational interpretation of Knebworth House’s Watchman’s Tower, which has been derelict since the Second World War. The pigeons that have been squatting in this roofless tower are being moved on, the walls and exterior stucco repaired, and the floors and a staircase reinstated. This will allow visitors a spectacular view from the hilltop, overlooking not only the exterior of Knebworth House, but also St Mary’s Church and the surrounding countryside to the north and east. We will be re-imagining how this view looked at various points in history.
Interior of Knebworth House Watchman’s Tower – until 2018
All here are excited about both these projects, and very grateful to the Heritage Lottery Fund for its support.
Henry Lytton Cobbold
@HenryCobboldKH