Girton Town Charity: history

Our origins are told in The Victoria County History and apparently can be traced back to a bequest in 1521 by William Collyn. Arrangements for the poor of Girton from the early times were met by the income from land bequeathed or bought for the purpose, and the help was distributed through the Parish Church.

By the start of the nineteenth century there were almshouses in Girton, though on a different site from today's bungalows. These early almshouses, which are reported to be tenements within a single parish house, were at Camping Close in Cambridge Road, between the Old Rectory (now the Cambridge Academy of English) and St Andrew's Church. This site was acquired in 1848 by Miss Ann Maria Cotton the founder of the village school, now the Cotton Hall. The Charity Lands were vested with the Official Custodian of Charities by a scheme dated 14 November 1881 and the Church and Town Charities were separated 30 years later; the first Charitable Scheme for the Town Charity dates from 21 June 1910. Amendments to the scheme governing the Charity were made on 15 February 1938, 3 January 1966, 9 May 1985 and 8 March 1996. Our minute books for 1882-1958 are held in the Cambridgeshire County Record Office.

The first of the current almshouses were built in the 1930s on land owned by the Charity in the High Street and four more in Michael's Close were added in the 1960s.

Our primary assets until very recently were a number of pieces of land in and around Girton which were used to provide income for charitable works - in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries this was often in the form of coal distributions to the poor. These land holdings currently include half of the Town Field which is in the centre of the Village and bounded by Hicks Lane and Cambridge Road. The other part of the Town Field is owned by St Andrew's Church but the whole is managed by Girton Allotment Society on behalf of the two Charities. We used to, and still do, let all the other land to farmers but in 2003 we sold a large area at Wellbrook Way for development.

This sale let us make exciting changes to what the Charity does. It brought in a big sum of money which is invested to give us income to use charitably for the benefit of the residents of Girton. One of the first things we did was to have a major programme of repair at our almshouses and, in parallel with this, we introduced the Addenbrooke's Taxi Scheme and the Educational Grant Scheme. Over the last couple of years we have developed our grant schemes and made a number of awards to individuals, Girton Glebe School, the Parish Council and Village clubs and organisations, as well as to charities from outside the Village so that they can provide help specifically in Girton. Three large building projects - repairs and updating to the Baptist Church, St Andrew's Parish Church and the Cotton Hall - are also among the first fruits of our new activities.

Soon we hope to be able to work with Girton Parish Council by making a grant to establish a bowling green and community building on the Wellbrook Way site. The next few years will see much new work added to our long history!