There's hope out there for good causes.

It always pleases me when something really worthwhile gets funding. It lets you know that it's still out there, that there's still hope and that people still care about their heritage. That's why I'm pleased to announce that HLF are supporting the Birmingham Coffin Works redevelopment! It's a strange place, which has recently been used for theatrical productions, and it sounds as though they've even more ambitious plans.

This is great news. The Birmingham Conservation Trust do a wonderful job, and they have many more projects on the go. Two of interest to me, for no other reason than they seem so mysterious and wonderfully evocative of lost worlds, are the Archway of Tears, which led to the former Workhouse, and the Rookery, a rather palimpsestual 18th century house. Such places, which can serve to be the heart of a community, particularly in deprived areas such as Ladywood, deserve to be rescued. They're needed. And they're magical.