Cogges Kitchen café will be closed for essential maintenance on Monday 25th March and will re-open Tuesday 26th. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Cogges farm award granted by The National Lottery Heritage Emergency Fund

We are delighted to announce an award of £61,100 granted by The National Lottery Heritage Emergency Fund this September. The award will support Oxfordshire's beloved Cogges, a popular Cotswold farm attraction and help address the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on heritage. 

The future of the farm looks bright with the additional support of the fund, raised by National Lottery players. Cogges was forced close to visitors during lockdown, but has welcomed over 16,000 visitors to the heritage site since reopening outside areas in June. With Covid-safe procedures in place and over 20 acres of open space to explore, visitors have been able to enjoy picnics, feeding the farm animals, theatre on the lawn in audience ‘bubbles’ as well as the ‘Eat Out To Help Out’ scheme in the café during August. 

Director, Colin Shone said: “Thanks to the National Lottery and its players, along with the support of our volunteers and season ticket holders who kept coming this summer, we can now ensure Cogges will not only survive but continue to thrive. We are delighted to welcome visitors to enjoy this special place, which means so much to so many people.”

“We’re incredibly grateful that The National Lottery Heritage Fund is supporting us at this crucial time, as the financial impact on maintaining the 20 acre site, heritage buildings and looking after the animals, with many staff on furlough, has been challenging during lockdown. We can now look ahead with renewed confidence - watch this space for some special socially-distanced events coming in the autumn, and we’ll be celebrating the Trust’s 10th anniversary in 2021. We look forward to seeing you all soon.”

The funding, made possible by National Lottery players, was awarded through The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s Heritage Emergency Fund. £50million was made available to provide emergency funding for those most in need across the heritage sector.

The UK-wide fund aimed to address both immediate emergency actions and help organisations to start thinking about recovery.

Ros Kerslake, Chief Executive of The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: “Heritage has an essential role to play in making communities better places to live, supporting economic regeneration and benefiting our personal wellbeing. All of these things are going to be even more important as we emerge from this current crisis. 

“Thanks to money raised by National Lottery players we are pleased to be able to lend our support to organisations such as Cogges during this uncertain time.”

Like Cogges, other charities and organisations across the UK that have been affected by the unprecedented impact of the coronavirus outbreak are being given access to a comprehensive package of support of up to £600 million of repurposed money from The National Lottery. This money is supporting some of the most vulnerable people in our communities and span the arts, community, charity, heritage, education, environment and sports sectors.

Thanks to National Lottery players, £30 million is raised every week for good causes, including heritage of local and national importance. By playing The National Lottery, people up and down the country are making an amazing contribution to the nationwide-response to combatting the impact of COVID-19 on local communities across the UK.

To find out more about the National Lottery Good Causes, visit: www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/coronavirus-pandemic-response