Introduction
The Churchill & Blakedown Villages Trust began in 2015 to hold and manage a village heritage asset – the Signal Box. It is registered as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) with the Charities Commission, charity no. 1163029.
Structure, governance and management
The Trust has a sole corporate Trustee (the Parish Council) and has adopted Standing Orders parallel to those of the Parish Council. Councillors sit as a management committee to represent the Parish Council as Trustee.
Finance
The Signal Box is not funded by the Parish Council. It is not funded by the precept. It is funded by grants and donations, and private hire.
Our purpose, aims and objectives
The purpose of the Charity is to benefit the residents of the Parish of Churchill and Blakedown as set out in the governing document registered with the Charities Commission. For further information, please contact the clerk@churchillandblakedown-pc.gov.uk or visit the Charities Commission website.
The Box…
The box was deconstructed in 2015 by Network Rail after being decommissioned as an operating signal box located on the south side of Mill Lane, Blakedown opposite the railway cottages. The parish council decided to setup the Trust with its main activity to hold and manage the reconstructed box as a community asset on a 99-year lease from the Parish Council as a locally listed heritage asset. It is now situated just across the road from its former site in Mill Lane.
It was reconstructed using all of the original materials and decorated using the original colours. This is part of maintaining its heritage and originality. Many original features of the Signal Box have been retained with the most dominant feature being the upper floor “ribbon” windows that would have given any former signalman full sight of the railway activity and the road crossing.
It is set in its own grounds with a very pleasant wildflower garden area which was dedicated to the late Jim Long who was instrumental in conserving the Signal Box and caring for it in his capacity as the chairman of the Historical Society. The frontage of the plot is denoted by a white wooden picket fence which naturally blends it into the adjacent station area.
Please see photos below of the facility.