Jenny Abramsky outlines her vision for the National Heritage Memorial Fund

Dame Jenny Abramsky, the chair of the UK’s National Heritage Memorial Fund, who was formerly the BBC’s director of audio and music, answers questions for The Independent about her ambitions for the new post at the NHMF, which gives grants to preserve heritage of outstanding national importance.

Why did you leave the BBC after 39 years of service?

“I had been in my last post just a few months short of ten years and I thought it was time for somebody to have a fresh look. I loved every minute of it while I was there and I have kept a lots of friends. I cared enormously about the BBC and I still do. Two years ago, I started thinking ‘What do I want to do with my life?’ and ‘Is there something else I really care about?”

Why the NHMF?

“From a very early age, my parents took me to visit some beautiful landscapes and old houses, and I had a father who was a historian, so I developed an appreciation of history myself.”

What does heritage mean to you?

“I have a broad definition of it. I want to be an advocate for heritage. Heritage is not for toffs, it’s about you and me, and everyone who lives in this country. Everyone has their own heritage that they value. I didn’t know that I was going to come to this at a time of recession. But it’s more important now than ever. Heritage has a role to play in regeneration. Parks have been described as the lungs of this nation. Older people go there to walk their dogs, mothers go with their children, younger people go to read on a bench, so our parks are really important to these people. Some think heritage just means stately homes but it’s nothing of the kind. It means a memory, the story of how a community grows up. Heritage matters to everybody. I’ve tried to do a lot of travelling around the country since I came to the job. I went to Great Yarmouth in the 1950s when it had a herring fleet of 1,000 shops. It now has six. A generation has grown up and the main reason their city is there is because of fishing. The restoration of the museum, Time and Tide, involved part of it being built on a herring curing factory. School children are shown how people lived for centuries. I think that’s of value for them. The BBC series, ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ shows that people are hungry to know about their past.

How do you think recession will affect heritage, and the arts?

Admittedly, funds are very scarce and people will have to make the case for funding and it will have to be a robust case. That’s a challenge but I’m not going to be bleak about it. I happen to believe the NHMF has a very important role to play. It’s going to be more important as other sources dry up. We are the fund of last resort and it’s important we maintain that.

What did heritage mean to you, growing up?

My father was an immigrant in the 1930s and my mother’s parents came over in 1906. My grandparents lived a few roads away from the Whitechapel Gallery in East London. It was the gallery that introduced my mother to art. My father went regularly to the Old Whitechapel Gallery to borrow Yiddish books for my mother. We (NHMF) have helped fund the gallery and the archive. It certainly helped us find out who we were. These kind of things define us.