Most Brailes folks will be aware of the excellent work of the Free School Foundation, that quietly effective registered charity with centuries old roots that makes generous grants, firstly to St. George’s Church, then to Brailes School, then to individuals under 25 in need of financial assistance for education and training, and finally to other projects of benefit to the younger members of the community. This charity doesn’t have a fundraising presence in the village due to the fact that it receives its yearly income from a portfolio of sound investments. No box rattling needed here. They also manage a number of historic village properties including the Free School and Brailes Institute. Built in 1886, The Institute was, for many years, used as a venue for various events including my great aunts’ and uncles’ wedding receptions, my grandma’s wedding reception, family 21st birthday parties, various clubs and, of course, was for many years the home of Brailes Mechanical and Craft Society, as well as being used as a workshop. According to the Brailes Village website, ‘In 2002, the Charity Commissioners transferred the Brailes Institute (held by the Vicar and Churchwardens) to the Foundation, in order to ensure its long term future.’ Since this handover, however, The Institute has been used less and less as a venue, with Brailes Mechanical and Craft relocating to the, probably more comfortable but, arguably, less characterful, Village Hall for their monthly meetings and the building being locked up, unheated and unmaintained for a number of years now. Its unsurprising decline has been visible from the outside with the smart green paintwork I remember from my childhood becoming faded and peeling.

Despite this, many villagers were shocked, back in December of last year, to see a ‘For Sale’ sign affixed to the wall of The Institute. There were many questions asked and concerns raised, particularly in correspondence to The Feldon News and on the village Facebook page. The overwhelming majority of voices were against the sale, since locals understand that The Institute was given to the village as a community asset. An article appeared in the Stratford Herald on 5th January 2025 which contained the following paragraph:

“The Rev George Heighton, the vicar of Brailes, who chairs the foundation’s board of trustees, told the Herald it would not be appropriate for the charity to spend money on repairs when it should be using the funds for local good causes. Every year it provides thousands of pounds for the village school and for young people in the locality, which is the sole purpose of its existence.”

Heated discussion continued online, anger grew and the matter was raised at the Parish Council meeting in January. It wasn’t long before the ‘For Sale’ sign was taken down and a builder’s board was placed outside. Perhaps readers thought, as I did, that the Free School Foundation had listened to the village and was undertaking repairs to the building in order to, as the village website says, ‘ensure its long term future’. However, it seems that this was not the case. After a summer of no public announcements from the trustees regarding The Institute, an A4 notice was placed in one of the Friar’s Lane windows of the building some time in September, informing interested parties that the sale of The Institute had, in fact, proceeded and comments regarding this were invited with a cut off date of 3rd October. This notice was placed in order to comply with Article s.121(2) of the Charities Act 2011 (which is worth a read). 

I happened to see a picture of this notice on the village Facebook page and decided to do some research into this paragraph of the Charities Act and, as a part of that process and bearing in mind the article which appeared in the Stratford Herald, I looked up the Free School Foundation’s objectives. These are easy to access on the Charities Commission website – the ‘Trustees’ Report and Accounts for the Year Ended 31 December 2023’ is freely available for public scrutiny and very much worth reading in its entirety (please note: the charity’s registered name is ‘Free School Charity’, charity number 1001761 and the useful documents are filed under ‘Accounts and Annual Returns’). I was dismayed to find that the charity’s PRIMARY objective is, in fact, ‘To manage and maintain the Free School and Institute in Lower Brailes’ using income derived by the Charity from its investments. Between two fifths and one half of the EXCESS of the income, over and above the expenses incurred by the maintenance of the Free School and Institute is then to be awarded to St George’s Church via the Parochial Church Council, with the remainder being made available to, primarily, Brailes School with subsequent grants available as outlined at the beginning of this letter.

I was a charity trustee for a number of years, and was in office as we made the transition to being registered with the Charities Commission. Therefore I’m well aware of how important it is for charities to operate with transparency and within the binding framework outlined by the commission in order, amongst other things, to maintain the good reputation of the charity and of the Charities Commission as a whole. It seems to me that the Free School Foundation has chosen to neglect its primary purpose as custodians of important and historic village heritage – the records available on the Charities Commission website are limited, but what they do show is that nothing at all is recorded as being spent on maintaining The Institute for the period of 2018 to 2023. Buildings that are left shut up, unheated over several winters will, of course, deteriorate rapidly and, having missed the ‘stitch in time’, The Institute now needs ‘nine’ in order to bring it back to the state of repair the Free School Foundation was entrusted with maintaining. Being a trustee, and especially a trustee of a registered charity with a history that goes back to 1433, is a privilege of service, whether it feels that way or not. The current trustees are a link in a long chain, not the end of the line. Community heritage can take many forms – the music and dance of Ilmington Morris that we all enjoy beside the lichgate on St. George’s Day, the liturgical rites and prayers that mark the saints days and seasons of the church calendar, passed down through the generations as a source of inspiration and comfort, or the solid, tangible brick on brick of a building soaked in the stories of our village.  Given the above, I would invite the Free School Foundation to halt the proposed sale of our shared heritage, which would lead to yet another irreversible loss to the village, and engage meaningfully with the community. It was the village that raised the money to repair The Institute back in 1926 after a devastating fire destroyed the now ailing roof and, given the opportunity and the strength of feeling expressed online and elsewhere, I feel confident that the village would rally to put The Institute back on track and available to the community as it was always intended to be.