News & stories
The Trustees write a short dispatch every quarter, and occasionally a longer story when one of our partner charities sends us word of what a small cheque has done. The archive below is everything we have written here since the dispatches went digital, in 2017.
Long read · 28 March 2026
Philip Westwood, our Lodge Almoner, walks the footpath between St Mary's Fetcham and St Giles Ashtead at least once a quarter. A long-form note on what he sees, hears, and is told along the way.
Read the piece
Dispatch · 11 February 2026
Five winter fuel grants were paid out between November 2025 and February 2026. A plain account of what they covered, how they were decided, and what we learned in the process.
Read the piece
Long read · 6 December 2025
An attempt to trace the threads of Lodge benevolence in this corner of Surrey back to the 1920s — three decades before the Trust was registered. With help from the Lodge archives.
Read the pieceDispatch · 18 October 2025
Our second cheque to the Garden in four years — £30 towards the cost of polytunnel repair, gratefully received in September. The full account will appear in the autumn dispatch.
Full text in the autumn dispatch · subscribe here
Note · 4 August 2025
The Surrey Provincial Office writes to acknowledge the year's Festival Fund contribution and to share, in plain figures, what the wider Festival has supported across the Province this year.
Full text in the summer dispatch · subscribe here
Note · 22 June 2025
The annual coffee morning, held on the second Saturday of June, raised £108 for the fund — half again as much as last year. A short note of thanks to all who buttered scones and stacked chairs.
Full text in the summer dispatch · subscribe here
Dispatch · 28 April 2025
Our 2024 Annual Return, the single-page receipts-and-payments statement and the Trustees' report, were lodged with the Charity Commission in late March. All three are now downloadable here.
Full text in the spring dispatch · subscribe here
Note · 14 March 2025
After fourteen years' quiet service, our independent examiner has handed the work to a successor — also a retired accountant from Leatherhead. The Trustees record a debt of thanks to both.
Full text in the spring dispatch · subscribe here
Dispatch · 19 December 2024
The twelve Christmas envelopes for the widows on our list were addressed at the Village Hall on the evening of the eleventh of December. Cards were in the post by the Saturday.
Full text in the winter dispatch · subscribe here
Dispatch · 30 October 2024
For the first time in eight years we held an autumn coffee morning at Ashtead Peace Memorial Hall, by invitation of the Parish Council. A modest turnout, but a happy morning.
Full text in the autumn dispatch · subscribe here
Note · 8 September 2024
A £50 contribution from the Almoner's Discretion to the local outreach of Surrey Hills Hospice — our first such gift, in response to a kind letter from their volunteer co-ordinator.
Full text in the autumn dispatch · subscribe here
Dispatch · 17 July 2024
A short mid-year note from Philip Westwood, looking back at the first six months of the year — four small gifts paid, one declined with regret, two referred to a larger source.
Full text in the summer dispatch · subscribe here
