Deed of Trust

The village Hall Committee was set up under a Deed of Trust in 1954. This Trust Deed was updated in 2021 see Trust Deed FINAL SIGNED COPY 28th January 2021

For historical interest the wording of the original Trust Deed is printed below:

Dated 14^th September 1954

LADY ADELAIDE AUDREY ANSON

AND OTHERS

DEED OF TRUST

In respect of Timberscombe Village

Hall, Timberscombe, Somerset.

This DECLARATION OF TRUST is made the fourteenth day of September One thousand nine hundred and fifty four

BY the LADY ADELAIDE AUDREY ANSON of Knowle Dunster in the county of Somerset

MARY EDITH MOREL of Bickham Cottage Timberscombe in the said County Widow and

ALEXANDER DRU of Bickham Manor Timberscombe aforesaid a Major in Her Majesty’s Army (hereinafter called “the trustees”).

Whereas by a Lease dated the Twenty first day of May One thousand nine hundred and fifty two and made between The Reverend Sydney Ernest Swann of the first part The Church Commissioners for England of the second part The Right Reverend William Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells of the third part and the trustees of the fourth part the property therein more particularly described and whereon is erected the Timberscombe Village Hall was demised to the Trustees from the Twenty fourth day of June One thousand nine hundred and fifty for the term of ten years subject to the payment the rent thereby reserved and to the covenants conditions and other provisions therein contained.

NOW THIS DEED WITNESSETH that the Trustees hold the said premises UPON the trusts and subject to the powers and provisions set out in the First Schedule hereto.____________________________________________________________________

IN WITNESS whereof the Trustees have hereunto set their hands and seals the day and year first before written.___________________________________________________________________

THE FIRST SCHEDULE above referred to

The property comprised in the said Lease ( herein called “the Trust Premises”) shall subject to the terms of the said Lease be held upon trust for the purpose of physical and mental training and recreation and social moral and intellectual development through the medium of reading and recreation rooms library lectures classes recreations and entertainments or otherwise as may be found expedient for the benefit of the inhabitants of the Parish of Timberscombe in the County of Somerset and its immediate vicinity without distinction of sex or of political religious or other opinions subject to the provisions of these present.___________________________________________________________________

The general management and control of the Trust Premises and the arrangement for their use shall be vested in a Committee of Management (hereinafter called “the Committee”) consisting of not more than Twenty Members (exclusive of members co-opted under the power hereinafter contained) of whom ten shall be elected at the first general meeting referred to in Clause 3 hereof in the first instance and on each subsequent appointment of members at the Annual General Meeting. The ten organisations mentioned in the second column of the Second Schedule hereto shall each have the right to appoint one member of the Committee both in the first instance and on the occasion of each annual appointment of members. The persons whose names appear in the first column of the Second Schedule hereto have been appointed by the organisations mentioned opposite their respective names in the second column of that schedule and shall together with the members elected at the first General Meeting as aforesaid be the first members of the Committee. Until the first general meeting has been held the persons named in the first column of the Second Schedule shall have the power to act. In addition to the members of the Committee appointed and elected as above the Committee shall have the power to co-opt not more than five members to represent interests in the said Parish not represented by any organisation.____________________________________

There shall be an Annual General Meeting to be convened by the Committee in the month of September in each year the first of such meeting (herein called “the First General Meeting”) to be convened in the month of One thousand nine hundred and fifty by one week’s notice to be affixed to some conspicuous part of the Trust Premises or other conspicuous place or places in the Parish of the inhabitants of the age of eighteen years or upwards of either sex of the Parish of Timberscombe for the purpose of receiving the Report and Accounts of the Committee and for accepting the resignation of members of the Committee and for the purpose of electing ten members under Clause 2 hereof and for taking such action as it may decide under Clause 7 hereof provided nevertheless that if in any year an Annual General Meeting shall not be convened and held in the month of September the Annual General Meeting for that year shall be held as soon as practicable after the month of September and such meeting shall be convened by such persons as shall be nominated for the purpose by the Minister of Education.__________________________________________________________________

The Committee shall have the power by a Resolution of the Committee passed at a meeting at which not less than two-thirds of all members of the Committee vote in favour of the Resolution to allow any existing organisations in the said Parish not mentioned in the second column of the Second Schedule hereto and any other organisation which may hereafter be formed in the said Parish having aims of a social recreational or educational character consistent with those upon which the trust premises are held hereunder to appoint an additional member of the Committee in the same manner as if such organisation had been mentioned in the second column of the Second Schedule hereto and for this purpose the total number of members of the Committee as provided for in clause 2 hereof may be increased but no such Resolution shall be effective until it has been approved in writing by the Minister of Education.____________________________________________________________________

All members of the Committee shall retire annually at the Annual General Meeting. Every organisation entitled to appoint a member of the Committee to take the place of a member retiring at an Annual General meeting shall make the appointment at any time within one month before the Annual General Meeting at which the retiring member of the Committee shall retire.___________

A casual vacancy arising from the death or resignation or removal of an appointed member of the Committee shall be filled by the organisation by which such a member shall have been appointed and the person so appointed shall retire at the time when the vacating member would have retired. In the event of a vacancy arising through the death resignation or removal of a member of the Committee elected by the Annual General Meeting the Committee shall have the power to fill such vacancy until the next Annual General Meeting._______________________________________________________

If any organisation entitled to appoint a member of the Committee ceases to exist or fails to make an appointment in manner aforesaid before the Annual General Meeting in any year the Annual General Meeting shall decide in what way if at all the vacancy shall be filled._________________________________________

The proceedings of the Committee shall not be invalidated by any vacancy among its members or by any defect in the appointment or qualification of any member. _________________________________________________

The Committee may from time to time make and alter Rules and Regulations for the conduct of its business and for the summoning conduct and recording in a Minute Book of its meetings and in particular with reference to :- ________

(a) The terms and conditions upon which the Trust Premises may be used for entertainments meetings social gatherings and other purposes and the sum (if any) paid for such use.___________________________________________________________________

(b) The appointment of an Auditor Treasurer and such other unpaid officers as it may consider necessary and the fixing of their respective terms of office. __________

(c) The engagement and dismissal of such paid officers and servants for the Trust Premises as it may consider necessary._______________________________________________

(d) The number of members who shall form a quorum at its meetings provided that the number of members who shall form a quorum shall never be less than a third of the total number of members of the Committee. ______________________________________

All payments in respect of the use of the Trust Premises and all donations for the benefit thereof shall be paid into a Trust Account at the Lloyds Bank Limited Bank at Minehead Somerset or at such other Bank as shall from time to time be substituted therefor by the Committee any such substitution to be endorsed upon this Trust Deed together with a copy of the resolution relating thereto.__________________________________________________________________________

The money standing to the credit of the said Account shall be applied as the Committee shall decide in repairing and insuring the Trust Premises or the furniture and effects therein and in paying all rent (if any) rates taxes salaries of paid officers and servants and other outgoings in providing furniture games books newspapers periodicals and other literature and means of recreation and otherwise for the upkeep and improvement of the Trust Premises._______________________________________________________________________
The Committee shall provide the Trustees with sufficient funds to meet all such expenditure (if any) in connection with the Trust Premises as the Trustees may be liable for and shall keep the Trustees indemnified against all liability (if any) in respect thereof.______________________________________________________________
The Committee may upon the vote of a majority of its members and (when necessary) with the consent of the Minister of Education from time to time by mortgage or otherwise obtain such advances on the security of the Trust Premises or any part thereof as may be required for maintaining extending or improving the same or any part thereof or erecting any building thereon or for the work carried on therein and may continue or repay in whole or in part and from time to time any existing mortgage or charge on the said premises.______________________________________________________________________
If the Committee by a majority decides at any time that on the ground of expense or otherwise it is necessary or advisable to discontinue the use of the Trust Premises in whole or in part for the purpose hereinbefore indicated it shall call a Meeting of the inhabitants of the age of eighteen years or upwards of the Parish of Timberscombe of which Meeting not less than fourteen days’ notice (stating the Resolution will be proposed thereat) shall be posted in a conspicuous place or places on the Trust Premises and advertised in a newspaper circulating in the said Parish and if such decision shall be confirmed by a majority of such inhabitants present at such a Meeting and voting the Committee may with the consent of the Minister of Education let or sell the Trust Premises or any part thereof All moneys arising from such letting or sale (after satisfaction of any liabilities properly payable thereout) shall with such consent as aforesaid be applied either in the purchase of other premises approved by the Committee and to be held upon the trusts for the purposes and subject to the provisions hereinbefore set forth (including this power) or as near thereto as circumstances will permit or towards such other charitable purposes or objects for the benefit of the inhabitants of the Parish of Timberscombe as may be approved by the Minister of Education and meanwhile such moneys shall be invested in the name of the Official Trustees of Charitable Funds and any income arising therefrom shall either be accumulated (for such time as may be allowed by law) by investing the same the resulting income thereof in like manner as an addition to and to be applied as the capital of such investments or shall be used for any purpose for which the income of the Trust Premises may properly be applied._____________________

If any Rules or Regulations made under the power in that behalf hereinbefore contained are inconsistent with the provisions of these presents the latter shall prevail___________________________________________________________________________

THE SECOND SCHEDULE

Column I Names of Representatives	Column II Organisations
Mr Jack Quartly	Timberscombe Parish Council
Mr Percival Worth Stoodley	The Committee of the Produce Club
Mr William Winter	The Committee of the Cricket Club
Mr Frank Huxtable	The Committee of the Youth Football Club
Mr Harry Cane	The Committee of the British Legion
Mrs Eva Loverage	The Committee of the Women’s Institute
Mrs Edith Baker	The Parochial Church Council
Mr Ivan Henry Bircham	The Committee of the Conservative Association
Mr Rodney Floyd	The Trustees of the United Methodist Chapel
Mrs Elsie Veale	The Committee of the Mothers Union

SIGNED SEALED AND DELIVERED by the said Lady Adelaide Audrey Anson

A. Audrey Anson

in the presence of:- Frances E Gould

Knowle

Dunster

Housemaid

SIGNED SEALED AND DELIVERED by the said Mary Edith Morel M. E Morel

in the presence of :-

Bryda J Gregory

Bickham manor

Timberscombe

Housekeeper

SIGNED SEALED AND DELIVERED by the said Alexander Dru

Alexander Dru