Grant Awards in 2023

The Charles Skey Charitable Trust

The Charles Skey Charitable Trust supports a wide range of worthwhile causes across the community. We are delighted, and very grateful, to have been awarded a grant of £22,500 for improvements at the entrance to the Mansion.

Many visitors in previous years will have noticed that the entrance door threshold is very uneven and difficult to walk on, especially for older and disabled visitors. The grant has enabled this to be levelled, thus improving access especially for disabled people and creating more space in the entrance hall.

Inside – looking out – with new level access

As the Mansion is unfinished the hall door was never installed. The new door reflects the building’s status and the original architect’s intention. We are fortunate in having some of the original drawings for the entrance porch, which was constructed but later demolished.

The grant from the Charles Skey Trust has been augmented by a £1000 grant from the Movement for Good arranged by the Benefact Group. Over the winter volunteers from our in-house maintenance group and craft students have worked hard on levelling that hall floor and constructing a new entrance ramp. This helps to keep our costs down. Only the design, construction and installation of the new door have been done professionally.

Left: Benjamin Bucknall’s original design for the entrance porch, and right: a proposal from our consulting architects, Donald Insall Ltd., for the new door.

We have also improved the existing visitor shop in the entrance hall and installed new shop fittings, seen in the image below.

We hope that all our visitors will agree that these improvements have made the entrance to the Mansion more welcoming.

Rural England Prosperity Fund

The REPF is provided by the UK Govenment to improve productivity and strengthen the economy and communities in rural areas. It offers funds for capital projects and locally is administered by Stroud District Council. The scheme is competitive, not all applications are funded, and applicants are expected to fund 60% of the cost themselves. At the end of 2023 we applied for a small grant for improved furnishings and appliances in our catering area and the bat observatory, and were sucessful.

New furniture in the tea room.