THE HISTORY OF YARDLEY GREAT TRUST
Yardley Great Trust is not a single charity born at a single moment in time. It is the living outcome of centuries of local generosity, shaped by many benefactors, responding to changing needs, and united by one enduring purpose: to care for people in Yardley and its neighbouring communities in times of need.
Medieval beginnings
The earliest roots of the Trust reach back to the fourteenth century. In 1355, John de Yerdeleye, then Bailiff to the monks of Maxstoke Priory, issued a charter assigning all his lands and buildings in the township of Yardley to be held for the benefit of local people. This act established a principle that would define the Trust for generations: that land and wealth should be used permanently for the common good.
Over the following centuries, further gifts were added. In 1463, the site later known as Tile House Farm was given to the charity by a local tilemaker, Robert Robyns, strengthening the Trust’s landholdings and long‑term income. These early endowments formed what became known as the Yardley Charity Estates — property held in trust for the relief of poverty within the parish.
Charity at the heart of parish life
By the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Yardley’s charitable life had become rich and varied. Local benefactors left legacies designed to meet practical, everyday needs.
In 1671, Humphrey Greswolde left an annual gift for the provision of warm gowns for poor elderly men from each quarter of the parish. In 1701, Job Marston established a charity whose income provided bread for the poor attending church, support for apprenticing children, and clothing for those struggling to make ends meet. Marston’s generosity also led to the creation of Marston’s Chapel at Hall Green — a place of worship built and endowed specifically to serve the local community.
Other gifts followed:
John Cottrell founded almshouses for two widows in 1715; John Bissell provided annuities for education and clothing for the poor; and later benefactors ensured regular distributions of bread, coal, clothing and money. These charities were modest in scale, but vital in impact, delivering dignity and care at a time when no public welfare system existed.
Almshouses, education and care
Through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Trust’s work expanded to include education, housing and healthcare. Income from the charity estates supported the Yardley Free School and the school at Hall Green, while almshouses stood beside St Edburgha’s Church, offering a secure home to older women of limited means.
By the turn of the twentieth century, the charities were formally reorganised under Charity Commission schemes. The educational trust was separated from the non‑educational branch, which became known as the Yardley Charity Estates Almshouses, ensuring focused support for housing, nursing care and poor relief.
In 1903, new almshouses were built at Yardley Gardens, replacing earlier buildings near the churchyard and reflecting rising standards of comfort and care.
New charities for changing times
The twentieth century brought both challenge and innovation. In 1930, the Colehaven Trust was founded by Sir John Sumner, the tea merchant behind the Typhoo Tips brand, to provide housing and support for older people. During the Second World War, Miss Dorothy Davidson responded to the crisis of homelessness by opening her own home to older people who had lost everything during the Blitz — the beginnings of what became Carrs Lane Homes for Older People.
In 1944, Grey Gables opened, offering residential care in a period when such provision was rare. Over time, additional trusts were established — including the Ellen Stanley Coleman Grey Gables Trust and the Ellen Stanley Coleman Colehaven Trust — to strengthen the financial foundations of this growing work.
Across Yardley, Hall Green and Acocks Green, new housing developments followed: Old Brookside, Cottrell’s Close, Greswold Gardens, Foliot Fields and others, each reflecting the long‑standing local commitment to secure, dignified homes in later life.
Coming together
By the late twentieth and early twenty‑first centuries, it became clear that these historic charities — though founded separately — shared a common mission. In 1987, the modern Yardley Great Trust was formally established, bringing together ancient parish charities and newer housing and care organisations under a single vision.
In 2003, Yardley Grange Nursing Home opened on land once held by the old charity estates, symbolising the continuity between medieval land gifts and modern specialist care. In subsequent years, Carrs Lane Homes, Grey Gables and the Colehaven Trust transferred their assets and responsibilities into the growing Trust group, ensuring their legacy could endure sustainably.
By 2019, these charities were united as The Yardley Great Trust Group. Where once there had been many small, independent trusts, there was now a single organisation able to protect historic endowments while delivering professional care and housing fit for the twenty‑first century.
A living legacy
Today, the Trust continues work begun nearly 700 years ago as two charities: Yardley Great Trust and The Yardley Charities, each operating under the umbrella of MY Trust. They provide alms (sheltered) housing, nursing care, and grant support for those facing hardship — not as a modern reinvention, but as a direct continuation of its charitable inheritance.
From medieval charters to modern care homes, from parish bread charities to specialist nursing provision, the Trust’s story is one of quiet continuity. It is proof that when generosity is carefully stewarded, it can speak across centuries — offering care, security and compassion to generation after generation.