The Role
David Partridge served as a trustee of the Daniel Taylor Almshouse Trust from 2007 to 2023. He was a trustee — not the chairman — and resigned from the role in 2023 after sixteen years of voluntary service.
The Daniel Taylor Almshouses is a Bridport charity with a history stretching back more than three centuries. Its purpose is to provide almshouse accommodation for people in need in and around Bridport — a mission as relevant today as it was when the trust was founded.
Rescuing the Governance
When David was invited to become involved in 2007, the charity was in a precarious legal position. It was an unincorporated trust. The people who believed themselves to be trustees had no formal standing. The officially recorded trustees dated from the 1980s and had mostly died. In effect, a three-hundred-year-old charity was operating without valid governance.
David's first task was to put this right. With the pro bono assistance of Mike Harvey of Nantes Solicitors in Bridport, the trust was properly registered and incorporated — first as a company limited by guarantee and a registered charity, and later converted to a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO): the Daniel Taylor Almshouses CIO. The CIO structure was significant because it secured the trust's land within a proper legal entity, protecting it for future charitable use.
Throughout his trusteeship, the accounts were managed pro bono by Tim Alder — formerly of Frampton Smith & Partners, Bridport, and latterly of Alders Accountants. All accounts were properly filed with the Charity Commission under his FCCA oversight. The contribution of both Mike Harvey and Tim Alder, given freely over many years, was indispensable to everything the trust went on to achieve.
What the Trust Achieved
During the period of David's trusteeship the charity grew substantially in both assets and income. Three achievements in particular stand out.
Chancery Lane — eight homes from nothing. The trust acquired the Chancery Lane property for no consideration — at no cost whatsoever. Planning permission was obtained to create eight new homes. The sale is expected to complete on 30 July 2026, with the property covered by a Section 106 agreement ensuring that all eight homes will be reserved for people in housing need in Bridport in perpetuity. In doing so the trust directly fulfilled a mission that is more than 325 years old: providing homes for the poor of Bridport.
A home recovered after sixty years. In the 1960s, a warden named John Sales looked after both the almshouse residents and the adjacent Quaker meeting house. Because of his large personal library, the Quakers permitted him to occupy a second home — Unit 2 of the Porch House at 95 South Street — to house his books. When he ceased to look after the meeting house, both properties should have reverted to the Daniel Taylor trust. A 2011 boundary agreement resulted in the trust losing the original home, but during David's trusteeship — with the advice of a local solicitor — the trustees successfully recovered Unit 2 for the trust's proper charitable purposes. It had been improperly retained for the better part of sixty years. The trust's assets were restored.
South Street — complex restoration of a listed building. The Grade II* listed South Street property required negotiations with Historic England, a complete new heating system, insulation works, and the securing of planning permissions — all achieved under professional FCCA accountancy oversight, with accounts properly filed with the Charity Commission throughout.
Over the sixteen years, the trust's balance sheet grew by £363,000 and annual income reached £32,000. The trustees worked as volunteers throughout.
Bridport's Housing Challenge
Bridport faces the housing pressures common to much of coastal Dorset — high property values, limited stock, and growing need. The work of the Daniel Taylor Almshouse Trust, and of other local initiatives, matters because the market alone will not house everyone.
David continues to take an active interest in housing matters in Bridport, through his writing at stpd.net and snsbl.org.
For a full response to inaccurate statements that have been published regarding David's trusteeship, see Setting the Record Straight.