The Combined Harpole Charitable Trust (CHCT) links the two charities in the Parish of Harpole, in the County of Northamptonshire. They are ‘The Harpole Free School Foundation’ and ‘The Harpole Charities’. Both have their roots in the awarding of land by the Enclosure Commissioners in the Parish Enclosure Award of 1778.

 

The first Charity was to provide an income for the Schoolmaster to teach ‘reading, writing and casting accounts’, and the second provided for the ‘needy poor’. Originally both Charities were administered through the auspices of the ‘Vestry Committee and its Officers, namely the Churchwardens and the Overseers of the Poor.

 

With the advent of the 1894 Parish Council Act, the Vestry Committee was replaced by the newly elected Harpole Parish Council. Parish affairs, lands and monies were no longer in the hands of the established Church.

 

In time all lands and monies left by past parishioners for the benefit of the ‘needy poor’ were amalgamated, and by the Scheme of the Charity Commissioners dated April 25th 1939 became known as Harpole Charities. The Bread and Coal Land, on the land known as Town Furlong (the original award for the needy poor) also came under the administration of the new Parish Council and to this day continues to provide for those needy parishioners – making an annual monetary gift to those over 65 who are deemed to be ‘needy’. Originally, under the Chater and Garner Charities the oldest man of the Parish and ‘the most deserving woman’ were awarded a coat or gown, however this gift is now of a monetary nature. One of the treasures of the Church of All Saints, Harpole is the Charity Boards which hang on its South wall tabulating the sources of these charitable benefits made to the Parish by the more fortunate in order to help the poor in less affluent times.

 

Somehow the administration of the Free School Foundation was overlooked by the new Parish Council. Why this happened is open to conjecture, but it remained in the hands of the Rector and Churchwardens. Its constitution was not formalised until an agreed scheme was drawn up and submitted to the Charity Commissioners dated January 21st 1974. To balance the spiritual input, a County Council representative and a Parish Council representative were added to the board of Trustees.

 

Following the formation of the CHCT the two charities now work together under their new constitution and in accordance with their new combined objects.

 

Registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales