Ironbridge Gorge trust shares culture funding

The Ironbridge Gorge trust's museums house paintings of the industrial revolution

Shropshire's Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust will get a £1m share of £400m emergency government culture funding.

More than £32m will go to organisations in the West Midlands region in the Culture Recovery Fund's latest round.

Birmingham Museums Trust, which has nine venues, was awarded over £820,800.

Other recipients include the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, with £687,700, and the 125-year-old Grade II-listed Wolverhampton Grand Theatre, which will receive £568,357.

A total of 2,700 English culture and heritage venues will share the latest round of the fund.

The Ironbridge Gorge trust, which runs ten museums, is to get £1.14m.

Considered by many to be the birthplace of the industrial revolution, in 1986 Ironbridge Gorge was made a Unesco World Heritage Site.

The bridge which gave its name to the site was the first structure in the world to be made from cast iron.

The Grade II-listed Wolverhampton Grand Theatre will receive £568,357

The Wolverhampton theatre money would help it to reopen and offer "small scale, socially distanced events.. and to return to community engagement activities", the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) said.

Other theatres to benefit include Birmingham Repertory Theatre, with more than £553,600, and the Belgrade Theatre trust in Coventry, which is to receive £485,100.

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra will get £480,000 and Services For Education in the city is among other musical ventures in the region being given cash, with £656,000.

Worcester Cathedral has been awarded £482,900

This is the last major tranche of money to be awarded from the £1.57bn Culture Recovery Fund that was announced last July.

In his Budget in March, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a further £300m for the fund, which is yet to be allocated.

Elsewhere in the region, Worcester Cathedral has been awarded £482,900, with Lichfield Cathedral having £364,400.

Cinemas to benefit include The Red Carpet Cinema, Lichfield, which "screens mainstream and arthouse titles in a rural area with few other cinemas" and is to receive more than £209,600, the British Film Institute said.