No fuss, no fanfare.
Every grant is made privately. We do not photograph recipients. We do not put names on receipts. The chair drops the envelope round in person, or posts it in plain stationery if that is preferred.
Registered charity 220004 · Llanwrthwl · founded 1648
A small fund, opened by Edward ab Evan in 1648, still doing its quiet work above the river.
We are seven trustees, all of whom live within the former Parish of Llanwrthwl. Each year we distribute a modest sum to neighbours who are widowed, single-parenting, living with long-term illness or making ends meet on a state pension. The fund is small. The help, in a small place, is enough.
By the numbers · year ending 15 March 2025
A modest charity, kept honest by the size of the parish it serves.
All figures below are taken from our 2024–25 statutory return to the Charity Commission. We do not round up. We do not invent reach.
0
Households assisted in 2024
0
Distributed in our last full year
0
Years of unbroken giving since 1648
0
Trustees, all from the parish
Our purpose, in plain words
Three habits we have kept for a long time.
These are not values painted on a wall. They are the working rules our trustees use when an envelope arrives, a name is mentioned, or a long-quiet household goes quieter still.
Only Llanwrthwl, only the parish.
Our area of benefit is the former Parish of Llanwrthwl, as defined in our 1648 founding deed. We do not stretch it. If you live just over the parish line in Rhayader or Newbridge-on-Wye, we will point you to a fund that can help.
No long application forms.
A short letter, a phone call, or a quiet word with a trustee is enough. We do not means-test in any formal sense. We trust the parish to tell us where help is needed, and we trust ourselves to use that knowledge well.
Programmes
Three small things we do, year in and year out.
Our income is around £2,800 a year. That keeps us honest about what we can promise. Below are the three working strands of the charity — each one as old as we can remember.
January
The January Distribution
Our largest single act of the year. Each January the trustees meet in the village hall and make grants of between £40 and £150 to households who have had a hard winter.
Read more
Year-round
The Discretionary Fund
For one-off needs that cannot wait until January — a broken boiler, a funeral cost, an unpaid bill. The chair and one other trustee can act between meetings up to £100.
Read more
December
The Christmas Parcel
A small parcel left on the doorstep before Christmas: a loaf, a piece of cheese, a bag of coal, a card. Delivered by trustees on foot. Never grand. Never missed.
Read more
Get involved
A small charity needs small acts of help.
We have no paid staff and no office. Most of our work happens between two or three people at a kitchen table, an open ledger, and the village. If any of the three roles below sit lightly with you, we would be glad of you.
The Listening Visitor
Tue or Thu afternoons · 14.00–16.00 · once a fortnight
Drop in on one neighbour with a cup of tea, listen for what isn’t being said, and let a trustee know if you think we should be aware of something.
Read more →The Tea-and-Form Helper
Sat mornings · 10.00–12.00 · once a month
Sit alongside someone applying for Pension Credit, Council Tax support, or a Caer Llan grant. You don’t need to know the answers — only to keep the kettle on.
Read more →Open Trustee Seat
Quarterly meetings · 19.00–20.30 · four evenings a year
A seat opens roughly every three to four years. You must live in the former Parish of Llanwrthwl. No previous trustee experience is needed — just steady judgement and discretion.
Read more →
Distributions, 2018 to 2025
A small fund, used in full most years.
Pounds distributed to households in our parish each year. The pattern reflects the time, not any change to our purpose: 2020 was lower because we could not meet in person; 2022 and 2023 were higher as energy costs began to bite.
Stories
Two parishioners, in their own words.
These are paraphrased with permission. We don’t use last names. The portraits are by a friend of the trustees who has worked in the parish for years.
Story · Llanwrthwl
‘The cold months are kinder, knowing the kettle’s on with you.’
Margaret, 78, has lived in the same cottage above the bridge for fifty-three years. After her husband Gwyn died in 2022, the January distribution and a small one-off grant towards a new pair of walking boots quietly bridged the difficult winter.
‘It’s not the money so much,’ she says. ‘It’s that someone knew. And someone knocked.’
Read her full story →
Story · Newbridge-on-Wye edge
‘Two pairs of school shoes, a half tank of oil, and the year began again.’
Rhys, 42, raises his two young children on his own. After a quiet word with a trustee at the village hall, a discretionary grant of £85 covered shoes for both children and a half tank of heating oil last February.
‘I’d not have asked,’ he says. ‘It was the trustee who asked me.’
Read his full story →
Upcoming · 2026
Three evenings to put in the diary.
Public events held by the charity are always free and held in Llanwrthwl Village Hall. Children welcome. Tea provided.
Wed19Nov · 2026
Annual Open Meeting
Llanwrthwl Village Hall · 19.00–20.30 · everyone in the parish welcome.
Thu15Jan · 2026
January Distribution Evening
Llanwrthwl Village Hall · 18.30–20.00 · closed trustees’ meeting.
Sat21Mar · 2026
Bring-and-Share Spring Supper
Llanwrthwl Village Hall · 18.00–21.00 · open to all neighbours of the parish.
In their own words
From the parish.
The Caer Llan fund is older than the parish register I keep. It is the quietest pastoral work in our valley — done before anyone notices it has been done.Reverend Helen Pritchard · vicar, St Gwrthwl’s, Llanwrthwl
I have chaired the village hall for thirteen years. In all that time the Edward ap Evan trustees have asked for the room without fanfare and left it as they found it. That, in a small hall, is everything.Anwen Davies · chair, Llanwrthwl Village Hall trustees
I’d not have asked. It was the chair who asked me. That, I think, is how a small charity does its work — by knowing the parish well enough not to need a form.Margaret, 78 · Llanwrthwl
Two pairs of school shoes and a half tank of oil. It bought us January.Rhys, 42 · the parish edge near Newbridge-on-Wye
You don’t hear about this charity in the council chamber, and that is a credit to them. They get on with it. The community council points people their way and they answer every time.Iolo Edwards · Llanwrthwl Community Council