Highclere Castle awarded £72,000 grant to help it through coronavirus

The money will be used to stabilise one of the castle's Victorian Glasshouses

HIGHCLERE Castle, the home of TV series Downton Abbey, has been awarded £72,000 as part of a £103 million rescue fund to help heritage sites in England through the coronavirus pandemic.

The £103 million includes £67 million to 433 organisations who applies for grants of less than £1 million each to help them survive the pandemic.

A further £34 million in funding will be distributed to 12 bodies including English Heritage and Historic Royal Palaces to restart construction and maintenance and their sites.

Owner Lord Carnarvon confirmed that the money would be used to “help stabilise” one of the castle’s Victorian Glasshouses.

He said: “We are very grateful for the recent grant we received from the DCMS Covid Rescue Fund which will help stabilise one of our wonderful Victorian glasshouses and also assist with some overhead costs incurred during the spring lockdown period.

“Like many other heritage attractions, we’ve had a very difficult year to date with the closure of the castle for over three months in the key spring period resulting in loss of ticket and other onsite revenue.

“We were pleased to welcome visitors in a much quieter than normal way from 12th July to 16th September and are operating small Covid compliant tours this autumn and leading up to Christmas.”