CHALKE VALLEY HISTORY TRUST
Find out more about our mission as a charity and who benefits from the proceeds.
About
The Chalke Valley History Trust was established in May 2012 by the founders of Chalke History Festival to create a charitable entity that would promote the understanding and enjoyment of history.
The founders believe passionately that it is vital for people of all ages to learn about the past in order to understand how it has shaped our modern world and to look to the future with a knowledge of the experience of past generations and the lessons of history.
The Trust’s subsidiary, Chalke Valley History Festivals Limited, operates the UK’s largest festival devoted to history: the Chalke History Festival. The festival takes place annually at the end of June in an area of outstanding natural beauty ten miles west of Salisbury. The festival offers a unique combination of literary festival and living history entertainment including talks, debates, combat re-enactments and interactive experiences
The Chalke History Festival for Schools provides a wide range of activities for schools, designed to inspire, excite and inform young people, whatever stage they have reached in their school history journey. These include living history displays from across time, a field full of historic items and talks by leading historians on curriculum topics relevant to GCSE and A level.
Our Mission
The aim of the Trust is to promote the understanding, education and enjoyment of history and related subjects to people of all ages across the UK.
The Trust intends to carry out these objectives by:
- Funding the Chalke History Festival
- Funding the Chalke History Festival for Schools
- Funding the development of a digital programme of short presentations for schools to enhance the teaching of history
- Funding visits to the festival, schools festival and to other history-related sites and events by schools unable to afford such visits otherwise
- Making grants to applicants who apply for funding of projects which fulfil the aims of the Trust
Projects
The Trust has raised over £200,000 for good causes.
Chalke History Festival for Schools
Chalke History Festival for Schools takes place during the week of the main festival and provides a lively series of curriculum-based talks (GCSE, A Level), living history displays and interactive fun for school children aged 11 – 17.
With over 20,000 children having attended since launching in 2013, the schools festival makes a major contribution to the education of history.
Chalke Valley History Trust is delighted to be supporting the Cranborne Chase Landscape Partnership Scheme
The Trust has supported the scheme with grant funding and which has just been awarded Heritage Lottery funding.
The partnership scheme will fund a series of projects aimed at preserving, researching and educating people about the historic Cranborne Chase AONB and in particular the Chalke Valley.
CVHT’s £2.5k grant will be used to part-fund the Champions of the Past project which will conduct c200 new digs and a LiDAR survey in the AONB by training c200 people in a range in archeological skills/activities and also an outreach programme to c4000 school kids across the region to engage them on outcomes of the archaeological digs.
For more information please see CCLP projects roundup and CCLP Map showing the areas they work within.
The Trust has supported the academic career of Salisbury-based historian, Sam Lane, with grants totalling £2,500.
Sam was educated at Bishop Wordsworth’s grammar school in Salisbury and was a volunteer at the 2012 Chalke Valley History Festival. He achieved a first in Medieval History at Christ Church, Oxford and subsequently completed a Masters degree focused on the Wiltshire Risings and the murder of the Bishop of Salisbury in 1450. He is now studying for a doctorate at Oxford.
Sam gave a pop-up talk on the Wiltshire Risings @ CVHF 2017
The Trust provided a grant of £795 to Dorothy Lawrence: The Heroine Project Engagement Programme.
The Heroine Project showcased the incredible life of one of the UK’s pioneering female soldier in WWI whose amazing exploits delighted audiences in this innovative theatre production.
The Festival was delighted to support the production by hosting a performance at the 2016 festival.
The Trust’s financial support enabled the community engagement programme to be taken to schools to improve children’s understanding of the role played by women in WWI. Given the success of the programme, the organisers are considering shows across Europe and the USA.
Shapwick School
Shapwick School is a CReSTeD approved, specialist school based in Taunton in Somerset which provides education to c85 children aged 8-19 with significant learning difficulties, including dyslexia, dyspraxia and dyscalculia. The Trust has supported the school with a grant of £500 to improve their provision of history education including the funding of a school trip to Fort Nelson and the Army Museum of Flying, a programme of community-based history education talks and a ‘Worst-jobs in History’ themed history day.
Trustees
Peter Bell (Chair)
The Hon David Bernstein
Trevor Dolby
Lady Marland
Tony Pastor
Shalina Patel
Tim Sanderson
Warren Tucker
Stephen Whitmore
GRANT APPLICATIONS
Find out more about how to apply for a Grant from the Chalke Valley History Trust
Applicants should be aware that grants are normally in the range £300 – £2,000.
Applications are invited for funding to support:
- The teaching of history in primary or secondary schools. This could include e.g. costs of visits to festivals, historical sites and battlefields, setting up school history clubs, resourcing libraries.
- The activities of Local History Groups and Societies.
- Education and teaching of the general public in history-related subjects
Your application should contain:
- Full details of the request for grant funding and what the grant will be spent on and the expected outcomes
- All other sources of funds both proposed and confirmed
- Why the funding is required
- How the project will meet the aims and the objective of the Trust
- Full contact details including postal and email addresses and, if applicable, your CV
