Gloucester History Festival has been awarded £40,000 from Historic England's COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund.

This year's festival is due to run from September 5-20 and Gloucester History Trust is one of 70 organisations across England to receive a grant from the fund.

Trust chairman Richard Graham MP said: "This wonderful news of Historic England funding helps ensure our 10th anniversary festival goes ahead in September and in new ways that we are exploring in detail with our partners in the Gloucester Heritage Forum.

"We'll announce more news on the festival at the end of June."

The grant will support the festival's community programme and digital content, giving local people opportunities to celebrate Gloucester and its heritage as the city recovers from the impacts of COVID-19.

Festival manager Jacqui Grange said: "Historic England's grant will fund a project called Gloucester Looking Up, a city-wide response to COVID-19.

"Heritage venues across Gloucester will inspire people to look up at buildings, look up at their heritage and to look up online, ensuring the city's built and lived heritage is part of our shared recovery."

Historic England regional director Rebecca Barrett, said: "This £1.8m fund was set up to help heritage organisations, such as Gloucester History Trust and its city-wide partners, that have been severely affected by the impact of Coronavirus by providing grants to help them survive the immediate challenges posed by the pandemic, and to prepare for recovery."

The announcement comes as Historic England launched a fund of up to £3million for urgent maintenance and repairs at historic sites in the South West

The business generated will help heritage specialists, whose livelihoods have been severely affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.

Grants of up to £25,000 will be offered to fix urgent problems at historic buildings and sites which are normally visited by the public, so they can re-open as quickly as possible.

The funding can be used to address problems such as damaged roofs, masonry and windows, to hire scaffolding to prevent structural collapse, or commission surveys necessary to inform urgent repairs.