Three industrial heritage sites were amongst the 22 heritage projects to receive financial support. One of these is The Black Country Living Museum 'which receives £3,750,000, towards the largest development in its 46-year history to create historical areas spanning the 1940s–1960s'. This museum is similar in concept to those marvellous series they used to have on television eg. The 1900 House, The Edwardian House, The 1940s House, where families volunteered to live for six months frozen in time as though they were in 1900 or the Edwardian Period or the 1940s. Sometimes they were interviewed and asked what they missed most and of course it was always the unexpected eg. hair shampoo. It was an incredibly clever method of conveying historical detail and although there are good books about the series eg The 1940s House by Juliet Gardiner, the television episodes were even better. We are going to investigate to see if they are available. If any Persephone reader thinks they are, please let us know. We might even have a showing when events restart (?September, all fingers crossed) now in the upstairs Persephone Parlour.

One of the most glorious buildings in the whole of Britain, the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, receives a million pounds, details here.

The Geffrye Museum, now called The Museum of the Home, has been awarded three-quarters of a million pounds. Oh dear, we of all people, with our emphasis on the domestic and domestic values, should like the Geffrye'e new name. But somehow we can't relate to it. At all. Could somebody give us some therapy and explain why? We would have preferred The Domestic Space Museum (DSM) or the Museum of the History of the Home (MHH) or The Home Museum (The HM), in any case something more, well, sophisticated. Fifteen years ago there was a fantastic exhibition at the Geffrye, details here, it was simply called Home and Garden. So, yes, the Home and Garden Museum would be best. But there already is the Garden Museum in Lambeth so maybe The Home Museum would be best. Well, too late now as presumably all the 'branding' has been done.

The Cleveland Baths in Bath have received £300k.'Dating from 1815, they are believed to be the oldest surviving public outdoor swimming pools in England. Their layout, in the shape of a miniature Georgian crescent, and place within the (social) history of outdoor swimming, make them unique both within the Bath World Heritage Site and on national level. They are of particular interest as an expression of the continuing importance of "bathing" at Bath and as one of only a small number of pre-Victorian recreational/sporting buildings to survive nationally. A former caretaker's cottage with attached changing rooms flank a P-shaped pool dating from 1815, altered and extended in c1910. The Cleveland Baths are accessed via a gate on Hampton Row which leads to a steep path down to the baths' site and to the River Avon. They are situated within a walled garden with mature trees, bounded by the river, and were formerly adorned with seats' (Historic England website here).

A couple of months ago £13.5 million was awarded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund to twenty-two different historic buildings that need rescuing and this week on the Post we highlight five.  First of all  (partly in homage to the devastating violence in Gaza and the appalling anti-Semitic incidents in London yesterday) here is a picture of the Bevis Marks Synagogue which receives half a million pounds 'to improve access, enhance the interpretation of the synagogue's collection and better illuminate its 300-year history.' This synagogue is one of the most beautiful places in London.

In 1994 the Guardian commissioned this portrait of some of its most trail-blazing writers. 'Women's Page Contributors to The Guardian' is by Sarah Raphael and it's at the National Portrait Gallery. The editors Mary Stott and Liz Forgan sit with the cartoonist Posy Simmonds and the columnists Jill Tweedie and Polly Toynbee. The painting is a tribute more than a celebration: it conveys everyone's sadness as Jill Tweedie is dying of motor neurone disease.

Clare Hollingworth became the Guardian's first female defence correspondent in 1963. Here is her obituary. 'From 1963 until 1967, Hollingworth was defence correspondent for the Guardian – the first woman to hold the post. She had made herself familiar with military hardware over the years, and had a particular interest in aircraft, having learned to fly in the 40s. The new job took her to many of the world’s capitals, reporting on developments in western defence and Nato proposals, but she was also in the thick of post-imperial trouble spots such as Sarawak and Aden.'