Network
South Downs Almshouse Network
Holds our buildings reserve fund, advises on roof and lime-mortar contracts.
Community impact
The numbers are small. The names, on the other hand, we know.
We are a charity of district scale, not national scale, and our impact statement reflects that. Four homes; four parishes; thirty-odd volunteers; a few hundred Sunday visits a year. Below, the figures as they were on 31 December 2024.
Last year, in figures
Twelve months of doors, visits and small grants.
0
Almshouse residents0
Sunday visits made0
Wassail Fund grants paid£0
Distributed in welfare grants0
Active volunteers0
Named individual donorsFigures as filed with the Charity Commission for the year ending 31 December 2024.
The places we work
Seven parishes, all within seven miles of the row.
Our area of benefit, as defined in the 1963 Scheme, covers Midhurst itself and the adjoining parishes. In practice we work most regularly in Midhurst, Easebourne, Cocking and Stedham, and we make Wassail Fund grants into Trotton, Iping and Bepton when we are asked.
The longest journey one of our Sunday Doors visitors made last year was 3.4 miles, from Easebourne to a cottage on the edge of Stedham; the shortest was 90 yards, across Knockhundred Row.
- Midhurst · the four almshouses themselves, plus 14 Sunday Doors pairings and 38 Wassail Fund grants in 2024.
- Easebourne · the parish room where the trustees meet, plus 3 Sunday Doors pairings and 17 Wassail Fund grants.
- Cocking · the village of Helena Hollist’s 1881 bequest, with 1 Sunday Doors pairing and 14 grants.
- Stedham · the home parish of our treasurer, with 1 pairing and 9 grants.
- Trotton, Iping & Bepton · 13 grants in total in 2024; no Sunday visiting at present.
Where the money came from in 2024
Mostly named individuals, in small amounts.
Our income last year totalled £31,059. The largest single gift was £2,500, from a regional foundation, towards the buildings reserve. The smallest regular gift recorded in the books is £4.20 a month, by standing order, from a volunteer who has been giving since 2011. The median gift was £42.
Named individual donors · £19,260 · 62%
Grant-making foundations · £6,830 · 22%
Resident maintenance contributions · £3,469 · 11%
Interest on the endowment · £1,500 · 5%
Impact over the past seven years
Sunday Doors visits per year.
A bar chart of the visiting log, year by year, from 2018 to 2025. The 2020 dip is the first lockdown, during which the visits were replaced with weekly telephone calls.
Figures from the Sunday Doors paper rota, held in the church porch noticeboard.
Partners
A small number of organisations we work alongside.
Foundation
Sussex Community Foundation
Match-funds our winter Wassail Fund appeal each November.
Charity
Age UK Horsham District
Provides the safeguarding training for our Sunday Doors visitors each spring.
Foodbank
Midhurst Foodbank
Collects the kitchen-garden surplus on Tuesday afternoons during the growing season.