Our story
The town that bought itself.
In 1633 the people of Tetbury purchased their own manor and placed it in trust for the town. The trust still stands. This is its story.
1633 — the beginning
£840, one manor, and the most neighbourly deal in Gloucestershire.
George, Lord Berkeley, and his mother Elizabeth sold the manor of Tetbury — the manor, the advowson, the tolls and the associated lands — to four townsmen for £840. The buyers were feoffees: trustees, holding the whole lot not for their own advantage but "in trust for the inhabitants". The townsfolk had, in effect, purchased themselves.
For the next three centuries the Feoffees were the lords of the manor and the practical governors of Tetbury — markets and fairs, streets and encroachments, weights and measures — assisted by the consultative body known as the Thirteen, who checked the accounts and chose new Feoffees.
1655 — the Market House
They built the room the wool trade lived in. It's still ours.
Tetbury's wealth in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries stood on wool and yarn, and the Feoffees built it a home: the Market House of 1655, raised on pillars in the heart of the town. Restored in 1817 — when the upper storey came off — it stands today as a Grade I listed building, still owned by the Feoffees, still Tetbury's front room.
The Feoffees' hands are all over the town's fabric: the Chipping Steps were cut for them in 1781, and over the generations their land became the town's parks and open ground.
Charity, centuries running
From apprenticing boys to funding futures.
The charity's ledgers tell you what Tetbury cared about. In the nineteenth century the income clothed eight poor girls, apprenticed five boys at £10 a head, bought school prizes, and put clothing and fuel in the hands of aged parishioners — including the residents of the almshouse.
The deed of 1814 and the Scheme of 1830 still govern us today, and the 1830 Scheme said plainly what we still believe: any surplus goes to the general advantage of the town. As local government grew up and took over the streets, the Feoffees settled back into their oldest role — pure trustees of the town's charity, which is how the Charity Commission knows us now.
The paperwork, made plain
Registered, listed and easy to verify.
We're proud of nearly four hundred years of unbroken trust — and we believe transparency is how a trust stays worthy of the name. Everything below is public on the Charity Commission register.
| Registered name | The Romney Charity (otherwise Tetbury Charity Estate) |
|---|---|
| Known as | The Feoffees of Tetbury |
| Registered charity | No. 202286, Charity Commission for England and Wales |
| Governing documents | Deed of 1814, as amended by the Scheme of 1830 |
| Area of benefit | Tetbury |
| Trustees | Seven Feoffees, supported by the Thirteen |
| Latest accounts | Income £110,880 · expenditure £116,849, as on the Charity Commission register |
| Historic records | Held at the Gloucestershire Archives (collection D566) |