Ashwellthorpe Fuel Allotment Charity​

This Charity stems from the early 19th Century when 1.44 acres of land was allocated from Ashwellthorpe’s Inclosure Award of 2 February 1814 in trust to lay out the profits “in purchasing fuel, to be distributed among such persons as were described in the Inclosure Act”. Those persons were “the Inhabitants legally settled in the parish and not occupying more than the yearly value of £8”. This piece of land is one strip of a larger field on the south side of the Wymondham Road just past Woodlands. The Charities Act 1960 led to the need for registration as a Charity which became effective in September 1962; its land and its administration are not connected to the Parish Council.

It operates with three Trustees, with the rent from this land being disbursed once a year usually at Christmas time, by small cash awards to recipients. There are three Trustees – Jennifer Robbie, Colin Guthrie and Elaine Tuffield; the Charity’s Community Account is held at Barclays Bank, from whom one bank statement per year is received at the end of each November and online annual returns are made to the Charity Commission. The annual rental (£105) for the land is paid by the tenant to the Charity at Michaelmas each year for the forthcoming year; the amount in the account at present is just over £500.

Each year decisions on its distribution (and amount of any out-payments) to any eligible recipients - who have to be Ashwellthorpe village residents only - are made by the Trustees; the appropriate total sum is withdrawn by the Trustees and distributed accordingly.

In past years, publicity was given - via a verbal annual report to the Annual Parishioners’ Meeting and in the Parish Council newsletter “The Mardle” -  about the existence of this Charity, both in terms of the Trustees hearing from anyone (in complete confidence) who would like to be considered for any help and from others who might know of someone in Ashwellthorpe in need (again, in complete confidence).

Contact can be made to any of this Charity’s Trustees:  Jennifer Robbie on jennro.01@googlemail.com or  01508 489432; Colin Guthrie on colinguthrie@tiscali.co.uk or 01508 488225 and Elaine Tuffield on tuffielde@gmail.com or 01508 489419

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