HMS Victory and Mary Rose receive £6m from Heritage Lottery Fund

HMS Victory is celebrated for being Lord Nelson's flagship in the Battle of Trafalgar

Two historic ships based at Portsmouth are to benefit from a combined £6m of lottery cash.

Lord Nelson's flagship HMS Victory and King Henry VIII's Mary Rose will be awarded the grant once the amount is match-funded in stages.

The money forms part of a £56m national scheme to support endowments.

The Mary Rose, which sank in 1545, comes ahead of the 30th anniversary of the Tudor war ship's recovery from the Solent.

The National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN) will receive £5m for HMS Victory, which was involved in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.

The Victory retired from frontline duty in 1812 and is anchored in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard where it operates as a living museum to the Georgian navy.

Professor Dominic Tweddle, from NMRN, said the museum was "delighted" with the award which would help "to ensure the nation's flagship will be fit and ready for duty for another 250 years".

The Mary Rose Trust has secured £1m to assist with its fund-raising which also goes towards its educational programmes and ongoing research into the ship.

Also based at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, the wreck was discovered in 1971 and recovered in 1982.

The NMRN and Mary Rose Trust will have three years to match-fund the award through private donations.