Sidney Nolan Trust wins Lottery Heritage Fund grant

Powys County Times

28-05-2025

The Sidney Nolan Trust has been awarded £244,849 by The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
The rural arts charity will use the grant to develop a masterplan for their historic sites.
The funding will support strategic planning, audience consultation, building surveys, and pilot activities over the next 12 months.
These initiatives will contribute to a masterplan aimed at increasing access and audience engagement, as well as realising the potential of the trust's two sites.
The project will cover both the charity's heritage locations in the Welsh Marches: The Rodd, near Presteigne, in north Herefordshire, and the Bleddfa Centre, near Knighton, in Powys.
These sites are integral to the local rural identity and heritage, connecting the England-Wales Borders to the world through art and agricultural histories.
They also preserve and provide access to important natural habitats and offer engagement and participation opportunities in some of the most rural wards of England and Wales.
The Rodd is a 400-plus-year-old estate and working farm in the Hindwell river valley, spanning 180 acres of farmland, woodland, river frontage, and gardens.
At its heart is the Grade II* listed Jacobean Rodd Court and several 18th-century timber-framed barn structures, including the Grade II-listed West Barn.
Rodd Court has been home to artists for over a century and became the final home of leading Australian artist Sir Sidney Nolan CBE RA (1917-1992) in 1983.
The trust, founded by Nolan in 1985, looks after and makes accessible the largest collection of his artwork outside of Australia.
The Bleddfa Centre, founded in 1974 in the remote village of Bleddfa by pioneering theatre director James Roose Evans, comprises community art, social, and event spaces across the former village schoolhouse and converted Hall Barn.
Sophie Heath, director of the Sidney Nolan Trust, said: "It is wonderful to have received this hugely valued support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
"Thanks to National Lottery players, we can take on the challenge of establishing an inclusive, thriving future for our unique places that provide access to inspiring heritage, nature, and creativity in our rural region."
The support from the Heritage Fund will enable the Sidney Nolan Trust to bring in the resources and diverse expertise needed to plan strategically and sensitively to secure the future of these sites.
Without this work, there is a significant risk to the long-term caretaking of this complex and large-scale heritage and landscape.
The funding also protects and enhances the increased access and participation of regional audiences, addressing an acute need.
The communities of north Herefordshire and Radnorshire in Powys are among the 50 per cent most deprived in the UK and face some of the worst indices nationally of geographical deprivation due to lack of access to services.
The project will better protect and make more accessible the important built heritage and landscape the trust looks after through a wide range of expert building and land surveys, a feasibility report, and architectural visualisations.
Staff and volunteers will receive training in species identification and surveys, and the monitoring of flora and fauna will establish baseline understanding and priorities for the future ecological management and improvement of the charity's varied habitats.
There will be events and activities taking place throughout the project at The Rodd, the Bleddfa Centre, and online.
The trust is looking for volunteers across a wide range of activities to get involved and support the project delivery.