Harrow Museum secures £3.6m Heritage Lottery Fund grant

Harrow Council recently announced that they have been awarded £3.6million from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for the ‘Headstone Manor & Museum’ project. The funding will be used to restore the medieval Headstone Manor building, the 16th Century small barn, the 18th Century Granary and build a new welcome centre. The Manor House will become the home for Harrow’s historic and nationally important collections, including items from the Kodak factory and Whitefriars glass factory and archaeological finds from the Roman period. Headstone Manor is a historic grade I listed building, which dates back to 1310 and was once, albeit briefly, owned by Henry VIII.  The site itself dates from 825AD and has one of the last remaining medieval water-filled moats in the country along with one of the earliest surviving timber framed buildings. The HLF grant will allow Harrow Council to significantly transform the 1,200 year old heritage site and improve the facilities for the thousands of visitors who come each year.  With the help of this funding the new museum will open in the summer of 2017 and will tell the story of the people and places across Harrow.  It will also host a whole new programme of family activities, special events, conservation days, festivals and educational school visits. For more on this story, read the next edition of My Pinner & Hatch End News out on April 17.