- History
The cottages were built by Robert Palmer of Holme Park, Sonning, in 1850. The charity was established by Miss Susanna Caroline Palmer in 1877 under the terms of Robert Palmer’s will to house six elderly or infirm poor persons who had been resident in the ancient parish of Sonning for 2 years or more. Preference was given to former employees of the Holme Park estate and their widows.
The present era of the almshouses started in 1981 with the setting up of the current registered charity, The Robert Palmer’s Almshouse Charity, with a set of rules authorised by the Charity Commission.
The Charity registered as a Provider of Social Housing in 1981 and took the benefit of both a grant and a loan from the Housing Corporation to modernise the cottages and to add rear extensions containing kitchens and/or bathrooms. The loan was repaid and Charity deregistered as a Provider of Social Housing in 2013.
- Governance
The constitution of the Robert Palmer’s Almshouse Charity (The Scheme) registered with the Charity Commission in July 1981 defines the area of benefit of the charity as the parishes of Charvil and Sonning and the towns of Earley and Woodley, all in the County of Berkshire, and the parishes of Eye and Dunsden and Sonning Common, both in the County of Oxfordshire.
The charity is administered and managed by a body of trustees. The Scheme provides for eight trustees, five trustees nominated from the parish councils of Sonning, Charvil, Eye and Dunsden and Sonning Common and the town council of Woodley, the Vicar for the time being of the Ecclesiastical Parish of St. Andrew is an ex-officio trustee and the two remaining trustees are co-opted trustees chosen by the five nominative trustees. The nominative trustees are appointed for terms of 4 years and the co-opted trustees for a term of 5 years. The Scheme requires trustees to meet at least twice a year but nowadays trustee meetings are held quarterly.
- Funding
RPAC does not employ any staff and all trustees are volunteers. Each resident is responsible for paying their own utility bills. They also pay a Weekly Maintenance Charge (WMC) to cover the basic cost in maintaining the cottages, this is adjusted annually in line with inflation.
Local charities such as the Sonning Volunteer Fire Brigade Trust (SVFBT) and the Sonning Scarecrow Committee have provided invaluable assistance with major capital items. SVFBT has recently contributed towards the provision of a verandah at the back of the cottages and repairs to the cottage roofs, the Scarecrow committee have contributed towards replanting the front gardens.