Thanks to National Lottery players

A £250,000 development grant has been given by The National Lottery Heritage Fund to help save Jumbo.

North Essex Heritage has received initial support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund for our Jumbo Water Tower, Uncovering the Secrets of our Heritage project. Made possible by National Lottery players, The Jumbo Project aims to restore the unique Victorian water tower and transform it into a financially sustainable heritage and community space for Colchester. The development funding of £250,000 has been awarded to help North Essex Heritage progress our plans to apply for a full National Lottery grant later.

A tall red brick building with a green roof is seen in the distance from a busy High Street of shops and cars, with colourful flags strung across the road.

Simon Hall MBE DL, Chair of North Essex Heritage, said:

“We are delighted to have received this amazing support thanks to National Lottery players. This is wonderful news for Colchester as the grant brings us closer to achieving our ambitions and solving what seemed an intractable problem of how to save Jumbo.”

“Colchester has always loved Jumbo, which is an icon of our city. Now we need everyone to support us as we work towards the full development scheme which will deliver a project we can all be proud of for generations to come.”

“We will now start vital restoration work, make grant applications to other organisations, and develop our proposals and partnerships. We will also seek planning permission and listed building consent.”

The Jumbo Project has already been supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Historic England, the Government’s Town Deal Fund and The Architectural Heritage Fund.