HAREFIELD PAROCHIAL CHARITIES
- 3 COPPERMILL LOCK
UB9 6JA HAREFIELD, MIDDLESEX
Phone: 44 (0)1895 823058
Fax: 44 (0)1895 823644
E-mail: Send messagewww.harefieldcharities.co.uk
Short profile:
The Charity Commission of England and Wales in a Scheme dated 25th November 1932 established the Harefield Parochial Charities. This was the agglomeration of six ancient charities with common objectives "to benefit either the poor of the Ancient Parish of Harefield or poor persons resident therein". It is often assumed because of its name that the responsibility for the administration and management of the Harefield Parochial Charities rests with the Church in Harefield, the Diocese or the Church Commissioners.
This is not the case. However, the Vicar of the day of the ecclesiastical parish of St.
Mary the Virgin, Harefield, is always an ex-officio Trustee. In addition, four other Trustees appointed in accordance with the Scheme’s governing document administer and manage the Charities.
Detailed description:
Harefield, which lies at the northwest extremity of Greater London in the London Borough of Hillingdon, is completely surrounded by the Metropolitan Green Belt. As such, it is the last remaining village in London, where the ancient pattern of an agricultural village has not been overlaid by modern development. In about 1580 Lady Alice Spencer of Althorpe, and therefore in the lineage of the Duke of Marlborough, Winston Churchill and the late Princess of Wales, married Ferdinando Strange or Stanley, the fifth Earl of Derby. This marriage portrait celebrated the event. As the Dowager Countess of Derby, a title she retained for the rest of her life, she married her second husband, Sir Thomas Egerton, the Keeper of the Great Seal of England and lived as the Lady of the Manor in Harefield from 1599 until her death in 1637.
In 1602 she and her husband entertained Queen Elizabeth I for three days at Harefield Place, adjacent to St. Mary’s Church in Harefield. Sadly, Harefield Place no longer exists. Today, where it stood there is an Australian Military Cemetery in which the bodies of 114 Australians, 113 men and one woman lie, who died in the Australian Military Hospital in Harefield in the 1914 – 1918 World War.
The world-famous Harefield Hospital now stands on the site of that hospital. In her Will Lady Alice established the Countess of Derby’s Almshouses Charity. This provided the "hospital" or almshouses, which still exist on Church Hill, Harefield, for "six poor women of good character of the Parish."
Keywords:
parochial, charities, charity, alms accommodation, low rents, community, bedding, clothing, food, fuel, furniture, sickness, infirmity, distress, convalescent, poor persons