Grant Funding to Cambridgeshire's John Clare Cottage and Norman Cross
Historic England has awarded grant funding to two of Cambridgeshire’s significant heritage sites.
John Clare Cottage in Helpston, the birthplace of the celebrated nature poet, has received £22,500 to fund urgent investigative works on the Grade II* listed building.
A further £52,500 has been awarded for the acquisition of additional land at Norman Cross, the historic prisoner of war depot near Peterborough.
John Clare Cottage
John Clare was born at the cottage in 1793. His poetry documented rural English life during the enclosure period (approximately 1750 to 1860), when common land was divided for private ownership. His vivid observations of wildlife and landscape make him a pioneering voice in environmental literature.
The Grade II* listed thatched cottage faces concerning conservation issues requiring specialist assessment. The grant will be used to carry out detailed surveys of the building's condition, including investigation of timber decay, the effect of damp on the building and its structure.
The John Clare Trust will use the findings of the survey to develop a long-term conservation strategy for further fundraising and major repairs.
The cottage is open to visitors on selected dates. Find out more about John Clare Cottage Museum, Cafe and Gardens
Norman Cross
Historic England’s grant funding of £52,500 enables the Nene Park Trust to purchase 2.4 hectares of additional land at the Norman Cross site, bringing most of the scheduled monument under unified charitable ownership.
This builds on the acquisition of the main Norman Cross site, announced in June 2025, and funded by Historic England (£200,000) and The National Lottery Heritage Fund (£50,000).
Norman Cross opened in 1797 as Britain’s first purpose-built military prison. It housed around 7,000 European prisoners during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The site contains earthworks, buried archaeological remains and the graves of around 1,770 French, Dutch and German prisoners.
Nene Park Trust plans to open the site as a green space for Peterborough, providing wellbeing benefits for local communities and sharing the story of this remarkable historic place.
This grant funding supports the future of two of Cambridgeshire’s important heritage sites which have stories to tell on a national and international level. John Clare Cottage celebrates a poet who captured the beauty and fragility of the English countryside, while Norman Cross demonstrates and reminds us of the human consequences of war. This funding ensures that those stories survive and that communities can take pride in the remarkable heritage on their doorstep.
Also of interest
