Cloughey Heritage Group
The Old Meeting House and graveyard at Cloughey

Funders & Supporters

Heritage work is built on partnership.

Grants, professional support, community fundraising and volunteer effort have all helped Cloughey Heritage Group move projects forward and care for the heritage around us.

Acknowledging support properly

Funders and supporters — properly acknowledged.

The organisations shown here have supported particular pieces of work or programmes connected with Cloughey Heritage Group. Their inclusion does not mean they fund every CHG event or activity.

This page is a permanent record of confirmed support and will be expanded as CHG verifies earlier grant records and any associated publicity requirements.

Explore our supporters: Building & heritage grants · Events & workshops · Local sponsors

Confirmed grant support

Funding that has helped move the work forward.

These awards are supported by public grant records or by CHG's own funding records and relate to specific pieces of work or programmes.

2024Grant support

The Pilgrim Trust

Development and design work · Old Meeting House

The Pilgrim Trust awarded Cloughey Heritage Group funding to support development and design work, including the work of the conservation architect. The grant was intended to put the Group in a stronger position to seek the much larger capital funding that will ultimately be required.

The Trust described the longer-term ambition as restoring the Old Meeting House as a community hub that can help reduce rural isolation and attract visitors to the area.

2022–23Village Catalyst support

Architectural Heritage Fund / Village Catalyst

Early project development · Old Meeting House

Cloughey Heritage Group received support through the Village Catalyst Programme to test ideas and develop a sustainable future use for the Old Meeting House.

By 2022, the Architectural Heritage Fund (AHF) was publicly describing the Meeting House as one of the Village Catalyst projects it was supporting and helping CHG explore uses aimed at tackling poverty and isolation. AHF's wider Village Catalyst programme is specifically designed to help rural organisations bring disused historic buildings back into use in ways that respond to community need.

Village Catalyst is a partnership involving the Department for Communities, the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, the Architectural Heritage Fund and the Northern Ireland Housing Executive. We record that partnership here as the delivery structure for the programme rather than presenting the organisations as four separate grants to CHG.

2023/24Small grant

Live Here Love Here Small Grants

Graveyard care · Old Meeting House

CHG received support through the Live Here Love Here Small Grants Scheme, funded in the borough through Ards and North Down Borough Council's Recycling Community Investment Fund and delivered by Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful.

The public project report records funding for bulbs, flowers, shrubs, a shed and tools as part of the work to bring the graveyard back under control and make it accessible again for families visiting graves.

Historic supportCommunity grantNational Lottery Awards for All

National Lottery Awards for All

Grant support to Cloughey Heritage Group

Cloughey Heritage Group has received grant support through National Lottery Awards for All. The award is acknowledged here without publishing a grant amount. Further historic detail will be added only when it can be matched confidently to CHG's records.

Events & community activity

Support that has helped CHG bring people together.

Alongside the larger heritage grants above, a number of organisations and programmes have supported events, workshops and community activity delivered by Cloughey Heritage Group.

Event and workshop funders confirmed by CHG’s Events Team, including support for community, arts and wellbeing activities.

Event supportArts & heritage

Arts Council

Events and creative activity

Support connected with arts and community activity organised by Cloughey Heritage Group.

Event supportLocal heritage

Ards & North Down Heritage

Heritage events and activity

Support for heritage-focused activity and events delivered for the local community.

Workshop supportCreative activity

Ards & North Down Creative Workshop

Creative workshops

Support connected with creative workshop activity delivered through CHG.

Community supportEnvironment & place

Live Here Love Here

Community and environmental activity

In addition to its support for graveyard care, Live Here Love Here has helped CHG deliver community-focused activity.

Event supportCommunity

Housing Executive

Events and community activity

Support connected with community events and activities organised by Cloughey Heritage Group.

Project supportHealth & wellbeing

Health and Wellbeing CLEAR Project

Health and wellbeing activity

Support for activity intended to bring people together and promote community wellbeing.

2026Workshop support

Age Friendly Creatives Workshop Programme

Creative workshops for older people

The 2026 Age Friendly Creatives Workshop Programme for Cloughey Heritage Group Ltd was supported by the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust, FFP Ards CIC and the North Down Federation.

Local sponsors

Businesses that have backed CHG events.

Local business support has also helped CHG stage events and community activities. We are grateful to Centra, F Watson Agricultural, MCC Fuels, Beauty Boutique, Chip Buddy and Gym'n Swim for their sponsorship and support.

These acknowledgements relate to particular events or activities and do not imply ongoing sponsorship of every CHG project.

More than money

Professional support matters too.

Large heritage projects depend on specialist advice as well as grants. Conservation architects, engineers, surveyors and other professionals help CHG understand the building, meet statutory requirements and develop proposals that can be assessed properly by planners and future funders.

That expertise turns local ambition into a credible conservation project while keeping the historic character of the Old Meeting House at the centre of the work.

Historic view of Cloughey Main Road and shoreline

Community support

Some of the most important support never appears on a grant certificate.

CHG's work also depends on people giving their time, sharing photographs and memories, attending events, buying tickets, supporting fundraisers, helping with practical work and spreading the word about what the Group is trying to achieve.

Volunteer effort has been particularly important in the graveyard, in heritage research and in the organisation of community events. Fundraising events also provide unrestricted income that can be used where smaller day-to-day costs arise.

That local support is not secondary to the grants listed above — it is what makes the Group capable of turning funding into visible results.

The next stage

The major funding challenge is still ahead.

The grants already received have been important development steps, but they do not fund the full restoration of the Old Meeting House.

CHG will continue to seek appropriate heritage, community and capital funding as the project progresses through planning, conservation and technical development. Future awards and additional historic support will be added as CHG records are verified.

For businesses, trusts, organisations or individuals interested in supporting the Group's work, please use our Contact page to get in touch.

Our approach

Credit where it belongs.

CHG is grateful for every contribution. We also want our acknowledgements to remain accurate: a past grant does not automatically make an organisation a sponsor of a later event, and a programme partner is not necessarily the same thing as a direct funder.

Keeping that distinction clear allows us to thank supporters properly while giving visitors, funders and the community an honest picture of how each project has been supported.