View report page

ROGER REEDE'S CHARITY
I am indebted to Mr. Thomas F. Hunt, Solicitor and Clerk to
the Trustees for the following information.
Roger Reede died in the year 1483 and founded the Charity by a
bequest of various lands in Romford, Hornchurch and Dagenham
including land in North Street, Romford, on which it is known that
there were almshouses previous to 1785.
In that year they were re-built as they were again in 1896 as six
dwellings.
The Charity's remaining property in North Street, Romford,
including the six almshouses was sold in 1959 and nineteen new
almshouses, a warden's house and ancillary buildings have been
erected in Church Lane on land which has been owned by the Charity
since its foundation.
The running of the Charity is regulated and controlled by a
scheme of The Board of Charity Commissioners for England and
Wales and the most recent scheme affecting this Charity, dated the
9th April, 1940, sets out in some detail the conditions governing
admission to the almshouses and eligibility for the other benefits of the
Charity.
Briefly, however, the chief conditions of admission are that applicants
must be poor men, of good character who from age, ill health,
accident or infirmity, are wholly or in part, unable to maintain themselves
by their own exertions. Almsmen are elected by, and at the
discretion, of the Trustees.
The wife of a married almsman may reside with him and if she
survives him may be appointed as an almsperson in place of her late
husband.
Page 14