Our mission

To hold three small bequests carefully, for one parish, without ambition to grow.

We exist to administer, with patience and a steady hand, three older endowments left to the parish of Bishop's Frome — and to remain a trust that the parish can read, question, and visit at any reasonable hour.

The Poor's Land meadow on the north side of Bishop's Frome at dawn in late October, with a weathered oak waymark post and a low hawthorn hedge crossing the frame — a quiet picture of the trust's principal asset.

Mission statement

Three short sentences.

We are the trustees of three small bequests left to the parish of Bishop's Frome by neighbours we never met. We do nothing the original donors did not intend, and we do not solicit donations to grow ourselves beyond a size the parish needs. We treat the smallest grant — a coal voucher, an apprentice's pair of boots, a stonemason's afternoon at the lych gate — with the same care as if it were ten times larger.

Theory of change

A small parish charity, drawn as three boxes and two arrows.

We do not have a complicated theory of change. We have three boxes and two arrows, set down at the kitchen table.

Inputs

A field, a small balance, a quarter-meeting

The Poor's Land yields a year's rent. The Apprentice Bequest holds a small balance on deposit. The Church Fabric Fund accrues at the rate of a small Victorian subscription compounded slowly forward. The trustees meet quarterly to look at the lot.

Activities

A few small decisions, all on paper

Fuel vouchers are agreed in October and posted in November. Apprentice grants are decided in March against written applications. Fabric grants are decided in consultation with the parochial church council and capped by an annual ceiling.

Outcomes

Warmer kitchens, a hand into trade, a sound church

A handful of households warmer through January. One or two parish young people a little less out of pocket on entering trade. The fabric of St Mary's, including its medieval font and its lych gate, kept in good repair for another generation.

The River Frome at dusk, running south along the eastern edge of Bishop's Frome — a slow, steady current photographed in low blue-hour light. — The River Frome at dusk — the parish runs on quiet, reliable currents like this one.

Values

Five things we try not to let slip.

Stay small on purpose

We resist the gentle pressure to grow. A parish charity at parish scale can be read by the parish itself; once it grows, it becomes a body of strangers spending other strangers' money.

Read every letter ourselves

Every application is opened by a trustee. Every reply goes out in a trustee's own handwriting or signature. No call centre, no template, no auto-reply.

Keep the records the parish can read

The minute books, the bank statements, the tenancy file and the grant register are kept in a single brown box file in Bishop's Frome. Any parishioner can ask to see them on a fortnight's notice.

Spend slowly, save almost nothing

We aim to spend what we receive within two grant cycles. We are not building a reserve for a future we cannot describe. A small contingency only, against the cost of a new lych-gate post in a hard year.

Honour the original intentions

The fuel allotment is for fuel. The apprentice bequest is for apprenticing. The fabric fund is for fabric. We do not stretch any of them to do work it was not left for, however worthy.

A pair of weathered boots and a wooden walking stick on the muddy edge of the Poor's Land meadow at Bishop's Frome — a quarterly trustees' walk in early February. — The quarterly hedge-walk on the Poor's Land — a trustee's boots in February.

An honest paragraph

We are aware that we are not very busy. In the year ending 31 December 2024 our total income was £44 and our total expenditure was £0 — we held the year's grant decision over so that 2024 and 2025 could be combined into a single, slightly larger round in spring 2026. Some critics would say a charity that spends nothing in a year should not exist, and there is something in that. We disagree, mildly: a parish trust whose patient years allow it to make a meaningful grant in the following year is doing its job. But we accept that the burden is on us, every year, to be readable, to be reachable, and to give a clear public reason for any year in which the expenditure column reads zero. This paragraph is part of that reason.

Things we have decided not to do

A short list of polite refusals.

It is easier to keep faith with the original intentions of three bequests by being clear about what we will not do, even when asked kindly.

We will not make grants outside the ecclesiastical parish of Bishop's Frome. Our objects are tied to the parish; honouring that is not parochialism, it is trusteeship.
We will not make general grants to other charities, however worthy. The bequests were not left for that.
We will not run our own services, employ staff, or open a website that takes payments online. The site you are reading is informational only.
We will not invest in market-risk equities. The Poor's Land is the principal asset; the cash balances sit in a Charities Aid Foundation deposit account paying a modest rate.
We will not, except in cases of immediate need referred by the rector or the parish council, make grants in excess of £250 to any individual in a single year.

The empty interior of Bishop's Frome village hall on a still afternoon — a row of stacking chairs, a wooden floor, a single window letting in low side-light — the quiet space the trustees host two open hours a year. — The village hall between meetings — the room the trust opens to the parish twice a year.

Could the bequests help you, or someone in the parish you know?

Read about each bequest