The Town Trust – from the beginning

Stratford-upon-Avon Town Trust is a registered charity, regulated by the Charity Commission with around £1 million to spend each year primarily for the benefit of the people of Stratford. The town of Stratford was put in this unusually advantageous position by King Edward VI just days before his death in 1553.

The Town Trust derives its income from the properties and funds of two charities, the Guild and College estates, whose origins go back even beyond the sixteenth century. The Guild of the Holy Cross, originally set up to employ a priest to pray for the souls of its members, developed into a fraternity of well-to-do local people who played a significant part in governing the town. The Guild was granted many properties in and around Stratford and some of the rental income generated was used to fund welfare facilities for its members such as the employment of a schoolmaster and the building of almshouses. Holy Trinity Church was served by priests living in the College. The College was also granted property in the town and had the right to collect tithes within the parish.

Both institutions were suppressed at the Reformation and their property confiscated by the Crown. This brought to an end the ‘welfare provision’ they had supplied and caused a breakdown in local government. To meet this crisis in 1553 the townspeople of Stratford petitioned Edward VI for a charter and on 25 June, just nine days before his death at the age of sixteen, Edward granted it.

The Royal Charter that Edward granted established the first Stratford Corporation and gave to it much of the property of the former Guild and College with specific responsibilities to provide a school, maintain the almshouses and pay the vicar.

For hundreds of years the income of the two charities - the Guild and College estates – was used by the Corporation to contribute towards the general municipal expenses of the Borough. Many changes took place over the intervening years: the Corporation was replaced by an elected council; management of the Grammar School passed to a separate body of trustees; the Borough Council was abolished in 1972; and the charities were transferred to the new Town Council in 1974. Three years ago, legal opinion confirmed that there had been so many changes that the Royal Charter had effectively ceased to exist.

Following a report by the Charity Commissioners, the Town Council applied for a new scheme which led to the charities joining up with a new charity - the Stratford-upon-Avon Town Trust. The Trust’s remit now, which reflects to some extent the original responsibilities laid down in the Royal Charter, is to support activities and individuals in areas such as:

· Sickness and old age
· Hardship and distress
· Education and the Arts
· Recreation
· Religion

The School

The grammar school already existed, of course, in 1553 but its future would have been threatened by the loss of the support of the Guild. Support for education was a major feature of Edward’s reign and hence the founding or re-endowing of a number of grammar schools across the country, now known as King Edward VI Grammar Schools. Under various schemes of administration, direct management of the school passed to a separate body of trustees and then to governors, who at first received a fixed sum from the income of the charities. This was later changed to a percentage which now stands at 36%.

By Courtesy of The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

Edward VI Edward VI was the only son of Henry VIII with his third wife Jane Seymour. Only nine years old when he became King, Edward reigned for six years before dying of TB.

By Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London