Margaret, 78, Farndon · recipient · Sick & Aged Fund · spoken in June 2025
“Three days from a phone call to a freezer.”
I have lived in the same lane behind the church for forty-one years. The freezer went on a Tuesday, the kind of Tuesday where the wind has changed and you are not expecting it. By Friday a new one was at the door. The trustees were good to me without making me feel like a case. The young man from the showroom in Chester was kind too. He refused the cup of tea, which is the only complaint I have. I think small charities like Farndon Charities do something the larger ones cannot, which is to be in the room when something goes wrong. That is, in the end, what people want.
Tom, 19, Farndon · recipient · Apprentice Bequest · spoken in June 2025
“Tools, work boots, the cost of the bus to Chester.”
I did not really want to ask for help. The kit list for first year was £312. My mum had taken a hit on the pension after my dad died and I knew. I told my mum I would manage but she wrote anyway. The trustees gave me £250 and we sorted the rest. I have a multimeter and a Class II tester and a conduit bender, and I am going to be an electrician, and I will be paying tax to the Treasury sooner rather than later because of that £250. I would say to anyone in the parish thinking about asking — the trustees do not make you feel small. They sit with you. They ask sensible questions. They get on with it.
Helen, 54, Chester · partner · West Cheshire Foodbank · spoken in June 2024
“A small, reliable instrument of grace.”
I have been referring families to the Coal & Bread Fund for eight winters now. What I notice about Farndon Charities is that the trustees actually know their parish. They know which lane somebody lives on. They know who has a stair-lift that's likely to fail. They know that the meter at number nineteen is on key, and the meter at number twelve is on direct debit, and that this matters. The foodbank cannot, by our structure, know any of that. We rely on the small parish charities to know it for us. They are, to use a slightly old-fashioned word, a small, reliable instrument of grace in a parish that needs more of those.
John, 67, Farndon · partner · Treasurer, Farndon Parish Council · spoken in June 2024
“The Poor's Allotment in our ledger every quarter.”
The Parish Council has its own modest budget, and there are things we can do at parish-council scale and things we cannot. The Poor's Allotment, which is held in trust by Farndon Charities and not by us, fills a particular gap that the Parish Council's precept could never fill. We see it in our quarterly conversations with the trustees. It is, very modestly, the difference between a parish that looks after its neighbours and a parish that thinks somebody else will.
Leila, 33, Farndon · recipient · the Poor's Allotment · written in February 2025
“A school coat in October.”
We moved to Farndon in August 2024. The October cold came early. My daughter started Year 3 in a coat that fit because of a £140 grant. I had not heard of Farndon Charities before; I had not been a person who asks. The church warden, Mrs Watkins, was the one who told me about them. There were no forms. There was a conversation at the door, and then a kind note, and then the coat. I would like to say two things. First, thank you. Second, please tell people the trustees do not make this complicated. They make it possible to ask.
Priya, 42, Chester · partner · Adult Social Care, CWAC · spoken in June 2024
“Filling the gap our grant programmes cannot fill.”
From the council's side, what Farndon Charities offers is, in a word, flexibility. Our formal grant programmes have eligibility rules, paperwork, and lead-times for very good reasons of accountability. There are cases — small, urgent, parish-specific — where those rules cannot move fast enough or sympathetically enough. We refer in those cases to the small parish trusts where they exist, and Farndon Charities is one of the better ones for our team to work with. We always know who to ring; they always answer.