The National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) is a non-departmental public body set up under the National Heritage Act 1980 in memory of people who gave their lives for the United Kingdom.
Its purpose is to act as a fund of last resort to provide financial assistance towards the acquisition, preservation and maintenance of land, buildings, and works of art and other objects which, in the opinion of the trustees, are of outstanding importance to the national heritage and under threat.
The Macclesfield Psalter and the entire literary archive of Harold Pinter joined a diverse list of over 1,200 items which have been saved and safeguarded by the National Heritage Memorial Fund for the British nation, including:
- The Mappa Mundi
- The Mary Rose
- Flying Scotsman
- The last surviving World War II destroyer, HMS Cavalier,
- Orford Ness nature reserve in Suffolk
- Beamish Exhibition Colliery
- Sir Walter Scott manuscripts
- Antonio Canova's "The Three Graces"
- Picasso's "Weeping Woman"
- The Nativity, a miniature by Jean Bourdichon
- Thrust2 world land speed record car
- The Amarna Princess, an ancient Egyptian statuette, later proved to be a forgery by Shaun Greenhalgh
- Canterbury Astrolabe Quadrant.
The NHMF is funded by grant in aid from the Government through the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Since 1980 more that 1200 items of national importance have benefited from NHMF grants, securing items which would otherwise have been lost.
In 1993 NHMF was given the responsibility for distributing the share of funding from the National Lottery for the heritage good cause. It does this through the Heritage Lottery Fund.
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