Supporting the causes you are passionate about
26th October 2022
Each of us have our own passions and when you set up a fund with Essex Community Foundation you have the option of keeping your giving broad, to support a wide range of charitable work in the county, or to channel it towards what you care about most.
Ann and Anthony Bartleet were ahead of their time with their deep concerns for the natural environment and protecting our heritage for future generations – and this is what they choose to give to.
Their far-sighted interests and practical action for such causes, along with promoting musical events and activities, began several decades ago and continue to this day, through the Bartleet Family Fund they established with the independent charitable trust, Essex Community Foundation (ECF).
Historic churches, heritage and maritime centres, outreach programmes involving young people and opera workshops are among the projects that have benefited from grants totalling more than £200,000 distributed by ECF through their Fund.
“Essex is a very much underestimated county, but we have the most splendid buildings and wonderful countryside,” said Ann. “I believe that heritage, the environment and the countryside are hugely important to people’s wellbeing, which is why we always supported such causes, even when they were not as popular as they are now.”
She and Anthony brought up their three sons in Essex and had a family trust fund for many years to make annual charitable contributions. In 2017 they made the decision to transfer the management of the fund to ECF.
“This has proved to be very satisfactory, said Ann. “ECF give a very personal service, doing the groundwork and the administration for regular giving to both local and national charities. This allows me to respond to local requests for funding in the areas that I am especially interested in.
“Although the fund, quite rightly, concentrates on good causes that have direct community benefits, I like to think that by supporting environmental and cultural initiatives, I can remind everyone just how important the natural world, countryside and historic buildings and all sorts of cultural activities are to us all.”
At her home in Great Tey, Ann is surrounded by the glorious Essex countryside which she has cherished since she came from “over the border” in Hertfordshire to live in the county, at the start of her 45-year marriage to Anthony, a marine underwriter with Lloyds of London, who sadly died in 2019.
A passionate gardener, baker, crafter and true countrywoman, Ann says she feels fortunate that she has been able to give a lot of her time to the causes that have inspired her. More than two decades ago was made an MBE for preservation work protecting rural areas.
“For many years I was lucky enough to have been able to work as a trustee of environmental charities both nationally and locally, reflecting my interest in the historic built environment and in the natural world,” she said.
“I have been a trustee of the National Trust, vice chairman of CPRE as well as chairman of the local branch here in Essex. My husband set up a building preservation trust here in north-east Essex whose mission is to repair and find new uses for historic buildings in distress.
“As well as supporting national wildlife and nature conservation charities such as RSPB, Plantlife and the Woodland Trust, we have always contributed to Essex Wildlife Trust.”
Along with devotion to heritage and the countryside, Ann also has a lifelong love for music, having sung in choirs for 70 years, since she was a schoolgirl.
She said: “Music and the arts always played an important part in our lives, and we have been contributors to charities which support music in cathedrals. My husband was a trustee of a small opera company and we have been contributors to the Art Fund.”
Grants from the Bartleet Family Fund have helped to restore and repair bells and organs in several Essex churches and have also supported music festivals and choirs in the county.
Being involved in so many causes and organisations has given Ann a great insight into the power of harnessing people’s interests to ensure that everyone can benefit from healthy and sustainable surroundings.
“It is amazing what communities can do – and there is always plenty to do if you look out for it,” she says.
But Ann believes that the word community does not just relate to the people of the county. She feels it is also about preserving and restoring the important structures in our communities, so that people can appreciate their history and beauty now and in the future.
Although she says that advancing years mean restricting her activities to closer to home, Ann relishes her connections with the whole county. Her family fund is helping to fulfil the vision she and husband Anthony had to enhance the environment and help secure the precious heritage of Essex for future generations to enjoy.
A grant from the Bartleet Family Fund came to the rescue when members of Writtle Bowling Club feared that an historic grade two listed wall surrounding the club’s green could fall down.
The club, based in a conservation area in the picturesque village of Writtle, has sole responsibility for maintaining its boundary wall, parts of which date back to Tudor times.
Funding was desperately needed when investigations revealed that a section of the wall bordering the busy Lodge Road, needed extensive work to prevent possible collapse.
The club made an application to ECF for a grant and received £4,000 from the Bartleet Family Fund, as the project fitted perfectly with the fund’s aims.
Wendy Harvey from Writtle Bowling Club, who submitted the application on behalf of the club to ECF said: “We appreciate that we are in a conservation area with an historically important wall and take our heritage very seriously. But maintaining the wall is a huge burden and if we had to meet all the costs ourselves it would take us to rock bottom.
“We knew the wall wasn’t stable and it was a real worry that it might fall on to people walking by or on to cars in the road. I remember lying awake one night when we had some hefty storms, wondering if the wall was still going to be there in the morning!
“We are so very grateful for the grant from the Bartleet Family Fund towards the cost of repairs to the wall – it was a real lifesaver for us.”
If you would like to discuss your charitable goals and how ECF can help you to achieve them, click here or call us on 01245 355947.