Chipping Sodbury United Charities

Minutes, accounts and correspondence.

<p>(See also D2071 for records of Chipping Sodbury Town Trust)</p>

Documents deposited by Chipping Sodbury United Charities per Mr R G Davey, 28 June 2000

Chipping Sodbury United Charities consisted of thirteen small charities and was formed in September 1969 to provide relief to inhabitants of Chipping Sodbury and Old Sodbury. It consisted of Parochial, Church and Baptist Charities. Mr Davey was a trustee of this charity for 15 years and was the only surviving local trustee at its winding up in June 1999.

The first meeting of the trustees of Chipping Sodbury United Charities was held in January 1970 (see D8624/1/1 for first minute book). There are no minutes after 1991 because the clerk moved away and left the records with the Chairman, Reverend Neville Jacobs, who failed to keep a written record of the charity and moved away in May 1998. The final entry in January 1999 was an explanation of events during those years by Mr Davey.

Chipping Sodbury United Charities had only been earning a small amount of interest per year (approximately £50-£60) and was occasionally supplemented by Chipping Sodbury Town Lands Charity in order to be able to make reasonable donations to eligible local people.

In 1995 the Chairman suggested that Chipping Sodbury United Charities be wound up due to its limited income and central government encouragement to combine or wind up small charities. The Chairman contacted the Charity Commission and carried out the procedures. However, in September 1998 Mr Davey discovered that no funds had been moved so he transferred all financial assets to Chipping Sodbury Town Lands Charity in December 1998. This charity was chosen because it had the same objectives as Chipping Sodbury United Charities, which was finally removed from the Central Register of Charities in June 1999.

This collection includes an account book which shows the income and expenditure of an old Parochial Charity that was wound up in September 1969 due to inability to meet the original conditions laid down by the benefactors (see D8624/2/1). This Charity was know as the Hewitt Charities and had supplied bread and blankets to eligible people.