Arts venue gets £80k to tell its industrial history

The Red Brick Building in Glastonbury opened as an arts venue in 2013

A community-owned venue has received more than £80k to support projects about its history as a sheepskin factory.

The Red Brick Building in Glastonbury hosts events and is a community space for locals.

The money, from the National Lottery, will go towards a project which includes helping school children learn about the site's past and creating a new heritage café.

Alison Horgan, the heritage project coordinator at the Red Brick Building told BBC Radio Somerset: “We’re really delighted to get this money to support our venue."

The site was transformed from a derelict factory

The former sheepskin factory employed thousands of people in Somerset in its heyday but was left derelict for more than 30 years.

Locals saved the site in 2008 and it reopened as a new community venue in 2013.

The money from the National Lottery Heritage Fund will help pay for a new heritage café where people who worked in the former Morlands factory will be able to share memories.

Boxes of artefacts from the site will also be made available for schools to borrow.

'Glastonbury's heritage'

Ms Horgan said: "This building is a really important part of Glastonbury’s heritage and I think sometimes it's forgotten.

"It's really valuable that future generations know about the history and how important it was.

"We are hoping to hear from more former workers to help build up our history."