Sunday 8 November 2026

LAHS celebrates a decade of funding local heritage

The impact of one a member's bequest on the county's local history scene

Did you know that in the last ten years, your Society has been involved in fundraising for, and distributing grants, totalling almost £150,000? Our grants programme was reinvigorated a decade ago thanks to an extremely generous bequest from John Scarborough, a local Leicester man who joined LAHS at the age of 21 and supported of the Society for over 45 years.

Over the last decade we've funded research into Leicestershire's towns and villages, special events celebrating notable anniversaries, the acquisition of archaeological Treasure, the archaeology of an Upper Palaeolithic site in Bradgate Park and isotope analysis for the Ketton Quarry burials; we've helped local history groups interpret and explain their heritage to visitors, contributed to building archives from the South Asian community to comedy and football, and created a replica of the Hallaton Roman Helmet. 

Our grants have ranged from £25 to the Century Theatre, Snibston, to the £18,000 our campaigning members provided towards the rescue of the Leicestershire Torc for the county.

If you'd like to apply, either personally or on behalf of an organisation, to one of our three funds - or a prize for your dissertation - we'd love to hear from you.  Visit https://lahs.org.uk/grants to find out more.

If you would like to help the Society continue to champion the history of Leicestershire and Rutland via a bequest, please contact secretary@lahs.org.uk