Nevill Holt Opera House Awarded ‘Life-Line’ Grant

The Nevill Holt Opera house has been awarded £85,000 from the government’s Culture Recovery Fund.

The attraction near Medbourne is one of 96 arts organisations in the East Midlands, and just over 1300 nationwide, to be given a share of £275m, to help them deal with the impact of the pandemic, which has seen theatres and other venues closed since lockdown in March.

Annie Lydford, Manager Director at Nevill Holt Opera spoke to Hfm:

The Nevill Holt Opara Theatre

Leicestershire County Council has also been awarded a grant of £71,500 from the fund, which will go towards its schools programme at heritage sites across the county, including Harborough Museum.

It is having to be adapted in light of social-distancing and other changes to make the venues covid-secure.

Meanwhile, Leicester’s Curve Theatre has been awarded nearly £1m and £46,000 has been handed to the Northampton and Lamport Railway.

A spokesman for Northampton Steam Railway Ltd (the NLR’s operating company) said the money will help cover expenses incurred during ‘lockdown’ between March and July.

“Funds will also be used to carry out essential repairs and renewals that were planned for this year but put on hold when our income dried up. Without this funding we faced a real prospect of not being able to run trains anymore because we did not have the resources left to undertake this vital work before deterioration reached a point of becoming a safety issue.”