Established in 2000
From small beginnings to where we are today, we are ever striving to meet your needs.
2000
It was a phone call between two members of the clergy during an outbreak of swine fever in Suffolk that led to our charity, the Addington Fund, getting started.
The disease was devastating pig farmers when West Suffolk vicar and the local diocese’s agricultural chaplain, Canon Sally Fogden took a call from fellow country clergyman, Richard Addington. At the time, Richard was very ill. Even so, to back an effort to help stricken farmers, Richard offered to seek support from the bishop. Meanwhile, Sally resolved to recruit a small group of rural business people. With the bishop’s blessing secured soon after, the Addington Fund was launched to provide direct support to those affected.
Sally chose the name – without Richard’s knowledge – on the spur of the moment as she raced to get the Fund up and running. “It was the only thing I could think of at the time,” she explained. “After all, he was the inspiration behind it and had served in different parts of Suffolk as a country priest, before he had to retire because of his illness.”
About £100,000 was paid out to around 100 farmers, whose pigs were affected by swine fever across Suffolk, Essex and Norfolk.
2001
Normality was returning to the countryside when Foot and Mouth Disease hit. This time it was a national crisis. The Arthur Rank Centre in Warwickshire volunteered to take over the Addington Fund and up-scale it.
With Richard Addington’s permission, surplus funds from the ‘Suffolk’ Addington Fund were passed on and the Fund was re-launched as the ARC-Addington Fund.
In this new guise, we started making cash grants to farmers who could not move or sell stock during Foot and Mouth and so were facing substantially higher feed costs.
Between March 2001 and July 2002, some £10.3m was distributed to over 22,000 applicants, many of whom were isolated, misunderstood, depressed, frightened, or even suicidal. An influx of telephone calls to the Fund were answered by people with a real understanding of the situation and they were offered a local contact to provide pastoral care.
By June 2001, the countryside had effectively shut down. Industries outside of agriculture were affected. In response, The Rank Foundation made a generous donation. We used this to provide grants to affected businesses across a broad spectrum of sectors, from tourism and leisure to more niche enterprise, such as eel fishing and carriage building.
The Rev. Canon Gerald Richard Addington, 1938-2002, Co-Founder of the Addington Fund
The link between agriculture and the rural economy was aptly demonstrated by one Devon accountant who said that, although he had no farmers on his books, 50% of his clients had been adversely affected by the fallout from Foot and Mouth.
August 2001 saw the launch of the National Fodder Bureau at a time when many of our grant applicants were unable to sell or move any animals. With winter looming and overstocking rife, we set up a Fodder Bureau and provided 20,000 tonnes of hay and straw to farmers in need. Much of this was donated by farmers in more fortunate circumstances.
2002
We continued supporting farmers in hardship until September, when we took a different direction – into housing.
By now it was clear that, although many tenant farmers’ businesses would not recover from the effects of Foot and Mouth, many continued to farm because if they gave up their tenancy they would lose not only their business, but also their home.
In September 2002, Lord Curry launched our Strategic Rural Housing Scheme (retirement homes). Unique in scope, it meant we could offer tenant farmers a chance to live in a location of their choice at an affordable rent; overcoming a major barrier to retiring from farming.
2006
The first of our Affordable Housing developments was launched to help people working in rural industries other than farming.
With support from the EU’s ‘Objective One’ Funding, five homes were developed from a redundant Cornwall Council stone barn and they are now rented to people who work in rural occupations.
Opened by HRH the Prince of Wales in 2006, these barn conversions range from a single storey, 1-bedroom home to a 3-bedroom, two storey family home. Rents vary depending on the property’s size. As occupants have moved on, opportunities have been afforded to others. As this has occurred, the feedback has been encouraging. One former tenant told us their home had given them the breathing space they needed to look to the future with confidence.
2007
Our grant-making restarted, courtesy of our Trustees’ Discretionary Fund.
When disaster strikes, whether regionally or nationally, and short-term financial support can help the farming community, we step in to provide grants to help cover specific business costs, such as animal feed. Examples of when we have provided this help include as a response to flooding in Gloucestershire in 2007, extreme weather in Wales and Cumbria in 2013, flooding on the Somerset Levels in 2014, and in northern England in 2015-2016 when farmers had to buy in extra feed and fodder. Once again, in 2018-2020, extreme weather brought our disaster relief to the forefront.
2009
We took over responsibility for the George Stephens Trust Fund from the National Farmers’ Union Trust Company Ltd.
This fund was originally started in the 1970s to assist farmworkers or their families in England on low incomes to purchase essential goods for the home. Now part of what we offer, the Fund remains true to the wishes of the original settlor.
2010
The ARC-Addington Fund moved from its offices at Stoneleigh Park to new premises in Barford, near Warwick.
We took this opportunity to revert our charity’s name to Addington Fund, the title by which we are known today.
2013
HRH the Earl of Wessex opened our work/live project in Ruthvoes, a small village in Cornwall.
This project consists of four dwellings, each with purpose-built workshops so that self-employed people with a tie to Cornwall can run their own business whilst living on site. Thanks to EU funding, the development boasts energy-efficient Solar PV Panels and Ground Source Heat Pumps to generate renewable heating for both the workshops and houses.
2014
We developed two 3-bedroom semi-detached homes, built for us on land donated by the late John Collins, founder of Collins Calfmate.
John farmed for many years and understood the difficulty that farming and rural workers had in finding affordable homes to rent. Thanks to John’s benevolent gesture, we can offer housing options to people connected to agriculture in a location they may otherwise be priced out of.
We are grateful to Kendrick Homes whose generosity to build these houses at cost has helped us to offer rural homes to rural workers at an affordable rent.
2015
We were bequeathed our first property – a detached 3-bedroom house in a rural location in West Wales.
After modernising it, we observed our benefactor’s wishes and found a tenant with a link to agriculture who wanted to stay in the area.
2018
A third barn conversion generously donated by a local farming family, this time in Cumbria some five miles west of Kendal.
Close to the shores of Lake Windermere in the Lake District National Park, High Cartmell Fold lies in the parish of Crosthwaite. The barn has been converted into two affordable homes, creating a 1-bedroom and a 3-bedroom home for local people working in the rural economy.
Addington invested over £500,000 in this project and is grateful to the Beatrice Laing Charitable Trust, New Holland Agriculture and The NFU Mutual Charitable Trust for their generous support.