Where the money goes, named in plain English.
We run six small, named programmes — each tied to a specific use of money and a specific named partner where one exists. The programmes are deliberately overlapping; together they make up the whole work of the charity.
The Roof Fund
Our oldest standing appeal, and the largest single call on our spending. Welsh slate has a life of roughly seventy-five years on a south-facing pitch; ours have done sixty. The north range was re-slated in 2021; the south range is the work of 2026.
Each roof costs us between £15,000 and £20,000 to replace properly, including lead flashing, ridge tiles, and the labour of two roofers across three weeks. We meet that cost from a mixture of reserves, a small Almshouse Association grant where one is available, and a public appeal.
- Beneficiaries All eight current residents
- Geography Akeman Street, Tring
- Supported by The Almshouse Association · Holden & Sons, Aldbury
Sunday Doors
A volunteer-led befriending rota set up in 1997 in partnership with the parish of St Peter & St Paul, Tring. Each resident who wishes is paired with a Sunday afternoon visitor — for tea, a chat, a walk to the high street, or for the simple knowledge that somebody is coming.
We currently have seven active pairings, and a small waiting list of volunteers we have not yet placed. Our average partnership lasts four years; the longest has run since 2003.
- Beneficiaries Residents who want a regular Sunday visitor
- Geography Tring, Aldbury, Wendover, Wigginton
- Supported by Parish of St Peter & St Paul, Tring
Winter Hearth
A small annual grant to each resident across the four months of the heating season. In 2024 it was £180 per cottage, paid in two instalments in November and January, and used flexibly — coal, oil, an extra electric blanket, a thicker dressing-gown.
We added the Winter Hearth in 2008, the year heating-oil prices jumped sharply. It has been a fixture of the annual budget since.
- Beneficiaries All six cottages
- Geography Akeman Street, Tring
- Annual cost Approx. £1,200
The Quiet Garden
The shared back garden behind the south range, tended by a small rota of volunteer gardeners through the year. A walled plot of roughly fifteen yards by twelve, with a pear tree, a low lavender border, two raised beds, and a single bench every resident can reach without stepping over anything.
We open the garden once a year, on a Saturday in late June, as part of the Tring & Wendover Open Gardens weekend. Last year ninety-seven visitors came through, and we raised £312 in donations for the Roof Fund — mostly in small coins, dropped through the slot of a wooden box by the back gate.
- Open day
- Supported by Tring & Wendover Open Gardens
The Almshouse Library
A small lending library of donated books in the common room behind the south range. Margaret, our longest-resident, keeps the catalogue in a green hardback notebook with the entries written in pencil.
We have about three hundred and twenty volumes, weighted heavily towards English fiction of the 1950s to 1980s, a complete run of The Buildings of England for our county, and a row of large-print Persephones donated by a former resident. Residents and Sunday Doors befrienders may borrow freely.
- Catalogue Kept in pencil by Margaret, cottage two
- Donations welcome Hardbacks; large print especially
Slow Repairs
Sash cords, hinges, doorframes, soil-stack joints, draught strips around the back doors. The work that is too small for a builder and too large for a screwdriver in a drawer.
Slow Repairs is the name we give to our partnership with three local trades — Vale Sash & Frame in Wendover, Holden & Sons in Aldbury, and a retired plumber from Wigginton who comes in on Wednesdays in exchange for tea and a strong opinion on the cricket. We budget approximately £4,200 a year for this work, drawn down across the calendar.
- Annual budget ~£4,200
- Supported by Vale Sash & Frame · Holden & Sons · a quiet plumber
