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Hull Maritime is delighted to announce the successful Community Grant projects for 2024.

After a record number of applications to the scheme, we have awarded £10,000 to 10 community groups and residents in Hull and the East Riding to deliver projects spanning dance, historical research, storytelling, theatre, archaeology and more.

The projects will come to life between May and September 2024, with plenty of events and activities for the wider public to get involved in (keep an eye on our website, social media, and sign up to our newsletter to hear more).

Our Community Engagement Officer Emma Smith, who leads the scheme, said: “We received a record number of applications, all of very high quality, from a wide range of people and groups across Hull and the East Riding. It has made the evaluating panel’s work even more difficult, but we’re excited to be supporting so many wonderful projects over the Spring and Summer of 2024.”

The latest round has awarded ten grants and includes:

  • Hull Community Theatre to create a theatre piece, Time and Tide: Songs and Sketches from Holderness, Hull and the Humber. The project will involve community research and reminiscence sessions and the development of these ideas into a production celebrating lesser-known maritime stories and songs from the region.
  • Elloughton-cum-Brough Playing Field Association for a community archaeology project which volunteers can get involved with. The project will expand on historic research around the important role Roman Brough (Petuaria Parisiorum) played in the region's maritime history.
  • Groundwork Hull to work with residents and workers past and present from the Hedon Road Docks area, collecting stories and images which will be used to design and create information boards for a pocket park on a section of the Holderness Drain.
  • BAMEEN for a project working with community members from Sub-Saharan Africa to produce new fish-based recipes related to their heritage, telling the stories of Hull's migrants through cooking and culture. The project will also aim to use locally-sourced seafood and will open up discussions about the food we eat and where it comes from.
  • Hull Fostering Community Hub for a series of maritime themed creative activities, open to looked after children and their carers in Hull and the wider region.
  • Yorkshire Waterways Heritage Society to run drop-in Heritage Workshops at Goole Museum exploring the history of Yorkshire’s waterways, open to all throughout the spring and summer.
  • Dance in Company to deliver seated dance sessions for a range of community groups around Hull, providing inclusive and accessible movement sessions celebrating Hull's heritage with maritime music and reminiscent favourites.
  • Pocklington and District Local History Group to research Pocklington's connection with the sea. This maritime research project will investigate the Pocklington Steamship Company set up by Charles Steels, research the connection of the town to H.M.S. Volage and spotlight the stories of historical nautical people from Pocklington and the surrounding area.
  • Rewilding Youth to run maritime themed workshops for children and young people exploring the history of knots and their use on ships, sea monsters and their origins and maritime music.
  • Hedon Viewfinders will explore the maritime stories of Paull, gathering community stories and photographs about the shrimp fishing industry, boat building, lighthouses and maritime safety.
Hull Community Theatre
Dance In Company Photo credit The Digital Guy Rob Lambert

What have we funded so far?

We’re open to projects and activities that take a broad view on what ‘maritime’ means to our area today.

In 2021/2 we funded eight brilliant projects that all explored, celebrated, or protected Hull’s maritime story in different ways. The projects ranged from community litter picks that led to the creation of new sculptural works, to training volunteers to work on historic vessels, to funding transport for a maritime community reunion, to supporting ‘see shanty’ performances.

In 2023, the Maritime Community Grant scheme was even bigger, funding 13 projects. Round two reached a wide range of community groups and supported many varied and creative projects around themes of heritage, wellbeing and environment. Projects included local heritage research, the creation of information boards for a community greenspace, a podcast, maritime themed murals, a community dance performance and other creative events and activities with maritime themes.

Examples and insights from activities funded in Round One can be seen on our social media channels and on our website blog posts. Read more about those projects here.