About the Trust

It’s not always been The Farnsfield Trust…

In the 1970s a man called John Brown was chairman of a company which developed smokeless fuel.

Smokeless fuel was pioneering technology back then, which attempted to tackle high pollution levels at a time when coal-burning was rife.

The business was extremely successful and the company was soon sold and earned a small fortune, which John was able to pocket.

After a hard working career and living around the Mansfield area, John and his wife Nellie Brown, decided to moved to the parish of Farnsfield in the 1980s.

Farnsfield was a village where the couple felt most at home, they felt part of the community and in 1999 decided they were in a generous position to start a trust, which they named The John and Nellie Brown Farnsfield Trust.

The founding Trustees of The John and Nellie Brown Farnsfield Trust were John Brown (Chairman), Nellie Brown, Alan Dodd, Joan Hillier and Frank Reynolds.

Alan Dodd was the “key Trustee” whose tireless energy and devotion to the Trust enabled it to become stabilised and saw it provide help to many people and organisations in the village for the following years.

During those years, John and Nellie Brown continued to make contributions to the trust totaling more than £250,000.

Sadly, in 2013 John Brown passed away after a short illness, in his will he left the majority of his estate to the Trust, which allowed it to continue providing help and support to the residents of Farnsfield.

In the following years, more trustees joined the charity and worked on combining three charities together and after protracted discussions with the Charities Commission the new combined entity was named The Farnsfield Trust.

Since 2019 we have been working to promote The Farnsfield Trust. 

Current Trustees

Peter Teather (Chair) 
Rachel Waterfield (Administrator)
Kevan McGerity
Nick Onslow  
Peter Bird
David Harvey