Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what were the terms of the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) grant of £800,000 to the National Trust for the acquisition of over 170 hectares of land at Stonehenge, including the land known as Bow Tie Field.

The National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) has been awarding grants to safeguard the UK’s most important heritage since 1980. As a fund of last resort, NHMF has helped save thousands of the country’s most-loved treasures from being lost forever.

The grant of £800,000 to the National Trust for the acquisition of land at Stonehenge, including the land known as Bow Tie Field, was a time-limited opportunity to secure 168 hectares of land containing 61 archaeological sites, including a substantial part of the Stonehenge Avenue, all under extreme risk of loss due to ploughing. Expert advice to NHMF reflected that if the purchase did not go ahead Scheduled Monuments on the site would be lost completely within 10 years.

The acquisition by the National Trust will enable the restoration of chalk grassland, a priority lowland habitat, achieving significant biodiversity and nature conservation benefits. It will also enable permissive open access for the first time to this part of the Stonehenge landscape.

The £800,000 grant was awarded to the National Trust using the National Heritage Memorial Fund's standard terms of grant as set out on the NHMF's website.