ICKWORTH House has been shortlisted for a prestigious national award.

The Georgian Italianate palazzo near Bury St Edmunds has been nominated in the ‘Cultural Facilities’ category of the 2013 Biffa Awards - a ceremony which recognises the people who transform their communities and improve the environment through Biffa Award funded projects.

The National Trust property originally received £50,000 in funding from Biffa Award to open up the old service quarters at Ickworth House and present them as they were in the 1900s. The money was spent on restoring the Servants’ Hall and providing audio visual equipment and interactive interpretation. The space is now used as a base for activities, events and learning as part of the Ickworth Real Lives project.

Gillian French, Biffa Award Programme Manager, said: “Every year Biffa Award organises a special celebration to recognise and reward the people behind the outstanding projects we fund. All of our projects are run by people who work hard to bring communities together and make a lasting difference to their local areas and the environment, so to be shortlisted for an Award is a tremendous achievement. Our judges have a difficult but exciting task ahead in choosing the winners.”

The Biffa Awards ceremony 2013 will be held on September 24 at ThinkTank Birmingham Science Museum, where the winners will be announced. Category winners will each receive a trophy and prize money of £2,000, which can be used to further develop their project. Each winner then has the chance of being crowned the Overall Winner for 2013, receiving a further £1,000 prize.