One of Warwick’s oldest charities, the Charity of Thomas Oken and Nicholas Eyffler, has appointed three new trustees.
Founded in 1571, the charity owns 14 alms houses in Castle Hill and Bowling Green Street and makes grants most years of some £50,000 for ‘relief in need’ in the town, including to Myton Hospice, Lord Leycester Hospital and Warwick Apprenticing.
The new trustees are Lyn Bolton, town councillor for Emscote Ward; Jane Marshall, the chair of governors for King’s High School for Girls; and Anita White, senior vet and a director of Avonvale Veterinary Centres.
The charity was formed in the reign of Elizabeth 1 by Thomas Oken, a wealthy cloth merchant who had already helped to establish the King Henry VIII charity – which makes grants to schools, churches and Warwick town.
His friend Nicholas Eyffler, another prominent and wealthy citizen, established a similar charity to Oken and the two were eventually amalgamated.
Each January the charity holds the annual Oken Feast, which begins with a procession from the Court House to St Mary’s Church for a service in memory of the founder, followed by a dinner in the Lord Leycester Hospital.
New trustees of Warwick charity Thomas Oken: (left to right) Lyn Bolton, Anita White and Jane Marshall.
