History
The Slys are an old, trusted and well respected Northleach family.
John Sly founded J. W. Sly and Sons in the early years of the 20th century and worked hard to establish the firm as a highly successful carpentry, wheelwrights and undertaking business.
By the turn of the 21st century the business had been sold and the three surviving family members, Llewellyn, Joyce and Enid had retired and were wondering what steps to take regarding their own future and that of the various properties that the family had accumulated over their many years in Northleach. Llewellwyn, married to Rosemary, had no children and Joyce and Enid had never married. With no immediate descendants the family decided that they should leave their estate to be used for the benefit of the town and residents of Northleach and so The “J. W. Sly and Sons (Northleach) Charitable Trust” was created in May 2007.
The early meetings were devoted to setting up the Trust by registering with the Charities Commission and Companies House and defining the roles of the Trustees needed to ensure the smooth running of the organisation.
Objectives
The objectives of the Trust, taken from its Memorandum of Association and at the discretion of the Trustees, are:
To relieve poverty in Northleach by providing affordable housing for those in need.
To make grants to other charities and not-for- profit organisations.
To advance education by refurbishing the old workshop at Wheelwrights and maintaining it as a museum of the history of Gloucestershire life and crafts and/or making grants to other charities and not –for- profit organisations operating in Northleach.
Achievements
The first phase of the Trust’s work was to develop land (the old builders yard) at the rear of the Sly family home – “Wheelwrights”, West End , Northleach, by building six houses which met all the national and local criteria for new housing in a traditional style, respecting the old burgage lines, a feature of the town layout. These houses were completed in 2014. The adjacent barn was converted in 2021 into two well designed 1 bedroomed units.
This area, now known as Slys Close, won architectural awards from the CPRE and also the West of England Building Excellence Award as “Best Social or Affordable New Housing Development”. The Close is the core of the Trust`s property portfolio and provides a highly desirable addition to the rental housing stock of the Town. The Additional properties adjacent to the Close and also two houses at Mill End have also been added to the portfolio.
The Trust is responsible for maintaining its entire property potfolio up to a high standard in order that the tenants may enjoy comfortable and affordable homes in the town.
Grants have also been made, from time to time, to various qualifying causes linked to education, and the church in Northleach.
Current Projects
The Trustees meet formally to discuss the maintenance, refurbishment and development of its property portfolio and to ensure that the aims of the Trust are being fulfilled. Recent projects have been to have Sly family correspondence and documents professionally assessed, organised and recorded and to discuss how best to archive this material.
Future building projects are likely to be the conversion of the Sly Workshop at “Wheelwrights” into a Trust Office, storage and archive area and the upgrading of the Old Woolhouse in Market Place to provide additional affordable accommodation for the town and community space.
Our Archive
Our archive contains the Sly family papers, collected over many years. They have been professionally catalogued and preserved. A link to the catalogue is here…… You can also access the link via the National Archive at Kew……. If there is something in it that you would like to see or have a copy of, let us know and we will do our best to make it available for you.
