Sir Josiah Mason Trust is delighted to announce that as of 1st July 2019, it will take over as corporate Trustee of the Holy Trinity Almshouse Charity in Wolverhampton.  This small charity in Wolverhampton consists of 6 Grade II listed terraced houses in Jacobean style which were built in 1850 by the benevolent industrialist, Henry Rogers.

 

The charity was taken into the care of the Leonard Hackett Memorial Trust in 1985.   At that time the buildings had been neglected and were in very poor condition and the decision was taken to renovate the properties and loans and grants were obtained to cover the total cost of refurbishment of £353,000.  The Civic Trust gave the restoration of the almshouses a Special Mention in 1996.  Their report says:  "This derelict terrace of grade II listed, 19th century almshouses has been converted to one bedroom houses for elderly people.  The deterioration of the existing building fabric made restoration impossible, and the terrace has been almost completely rebuilt.  However, the quality of the reconstruction is above average.  The building has retained its listed status and now makes a beneficial contribution to its surroundings."

 

The Leonard Hackett Memorial Trust is a charity set up to come to the aid of almshouse charities which are in difficulty.  This can be through lack of trustees and/or when the buildings are in a poor state of repair and trustees lack the experience or motivation to undertake a large project to bring them back to a good state of repair.  The charity had attempted to recruit local trustees before approaching SJMT. 

 

Chief Executive David Healey explained that ‘being Corporate Trustee will mean that the Trust will operate the charity as it would any of our other charities, but that we can protect the name and identity of the charity whilst offering quality support to residents as we do from our other sites.’  The Cottages which are known as Church Gardens are less than 30 minutes away from Mason Cottages and our original Almshouses in Erdington.  As the Trust is far more local than the Leonard Hackett Memorial Trust, it will mean that we can increase the amount of support we can provide to residents and encourage them to be part of our active community’.