Cash is being dished out to those who come up with ideas for public arts and performance at Barking’s historic Eastbury Manor House, the venue historians say was where Guy Fawkes’s Gunpower Plot was forged. 

Three grants of £5,000 each are available from Barking and Dagenham Council to develop work that explores its history with sound , poetry, sculpture, craft, drama, dance, music, film or photography.

“Artists can play a part in work for everyone to enjoy,” the council’s deputy leader Saima Ashraf said. “We are supporting art and heritage to be enjoyed by as many people as possible.”

Eastbury is a Grade I-listed manor house built in the 1570s on land once part of Barking Abbey, after Henry VIII's Reformation.

Some historians believe the Gunpowder conspirators met there in 1605 or was the place where Lord Monteagle received the letter that led to the discovery of the plot to blow up Parliament.

Eastbury opened as the Museum of Barking in 1931, and was given Grade I status in 1954. Creatives can apply online for grants for works displayed there between March and May next year through oneboroughvoice.lbbd.gov.uk