GENERAL INFORMATION
The Dowager Lady Downe (Louisa Maria Dawnay, Viscountess Downe, 5.11.1780 to 20.3.1867) came to live at Bowden Hall in Upton St Leonards in the mid-nineteenth century as a guest of the Brooke Hunts. She bought a piece of land beside the churchyard on which there was a small local school, repaired and extended the school and set up an educational foundation for the benefit of the poor children of the parish, through the purchase of other parcels of land nearby. She would come to watch the children at their lessons, stabling her pony and trap in the wooden shed in the school yard. The Victorian school building has now been sold and the School is located in Bondend Road, where the Trustees are the freeholders and take a keen interest in its welfare. Lady Downe was buried in the churchyard of St Leonard's Church.
The Trustees are able to apply the income of the Charity for the benefit of the inhabitants of the old parish of Upton St Leonards in the following ways: in the relief of need, hardship or distress, by grant aid or payment for goods and services; in grant aid to schools, (particularly, Upton St Leonards School), and charitable organisations in the area; and in educational grants to individuals under the age of 25 by providing clothing, tools, instruments or books to assist in their education, by enabling them to undertake travel in furtherance of their education or by helping them to train for a trade, profession or service after leaving full-time education.
In addition, an annual Award has been set up whereby young persons between the ages of 18 and 25 may be enabled to take up opportunities they otherwise could not afford in a wide range of fields such as music, sport, visual and performing arts, industrial or business skills and academic training of various kinds. More than one Award is sometimes made each year, but grants do not normally exceed £3,000 to any one individual in any one year.
The Charity is restricted to helping those who live (and have lived for at least one year) in the parish of Upton St Leonards as constituted in 1966 (this includes parts of Abbeymead & Abbeydale) or who have at any time been resident for not less than ten years provided that their permanent address is in the parish.
Grants are made on a one-off basis, and evidence of financial hardship must be demonstrated. The Trustees cannot help where a statutory body has responsibility and they cannot provide for private education, private medical treatment or to meet rates and taxes owed.
Meetings of the Trustees are held, in private, approximately six times a year; the Trustees welcome applications for grant aid, which are considered in total confidence. Further information is available from the Clerk to the Trustees, as above.

July 2006