Francis Coales Charitable Foundation

FRANCIS COALES CHARITABLE FOUNDATION

ABOUT US

H. Martin Stuchfield, M.B.E.,
J.P., D.L., F.S.A., F.R.Hist.S..
Appointed a Trustee in 1999 and Chairman in 2006.
Martin is a retired businessman and a trustee of numerous registered charities concerned with heritage, history and archaeology.

He is the co-author of the County Series established in 1992 to publish a comprehensively illustrated list of monumental brasses, indents and lost brasses in the United Kingdom. He is a Vice-President of the Monumental Brass Society having served as President (2011-22) and Hon. Secretary (1994-2007 and 2009-11). He is also the Society’s Conservation Officer and is a consultant on monumental brasses to the Chelmsford, Norwich and St. Edmundsbury & Ipswich Diocesan Advisory Committees (‘D.A.C.’).

He is a Vice-President of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History having served as President (2008-11) and is Chairman of the Friends of Essex Churches Trust. He is a former Chairman of the Victoria County History of Essex Trust.

He was elected as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 2000 and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He was appointed a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in the 2014 Birthday Honours List for services to Heritage, Charity and the Community in Essex. He was also appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for the County of Essex and a member of the Court of the University of Essex in 2015.

H. Martin Stuchfield, J.P., F.S.A.

Matthew J. Saunders, M.B.E.,
M.A., F.S.A.
Appointed a Trustee in 2008.
Matthew is a member of the Historic England Advisory Committee and the Diocesan Advisory Committee for London and is a member of the Church Buildings Council. He has written extensively on architectural history and conservation - particularly churches. He is a Vice-President of the Ecclesiological Society.

He was Secretary of the Ancient Monuments Society (1977-2018) and Director of The Friends of Friendless Churches (1993-2018). He was a Trustee of the Heritage Lottery Fund and the National Heritage Memorial Fund (2005-11).

He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1987. He was appointed a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in the 1997 New Year’s Honours List for services to the Ancient Monuments Society and to Architectural Conservation.

Rev. Brian H. Wilcox
Appointed a Trustee in 1988.
Brian was ordained in the Diocese of Peterborough in 1973 and was Curate
at St. Peter and St. Paul, Kettering (Northamptonshire). He was appointed Vicar of Eye (Cambridgeshire) in 1978 and subsequently became Rector of Clipston, Naseby, Kelmarsh and Haselbech (Northamptonshire).

He was also a member of the Peterborough D.A.C. He was Vicar of Hornsea with Atwick in the East Riding (Yorkshire) and served on the York D.A.C. from 1990-7. From 1997 he was Rector of Uckfield, Isfield and Horsted Parva (Sussex) in the Diocese of Chichester and served on the D.A.C. until he retired in 2011.

He is responsible for the technical aspects of applications.

John Barker, M.R.I.C.S.
Appointed a Trustee in 2021.
John has practised as a chartered
building surveyor specialising as an ecclesiastical and historic buildings consultant for a considerable number of years and has been involved with work on over 160 churches and chapels.

He gained conservation accreditation status through the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and has been involved with quinquennial inspections of churches in the Dioceses of Peterborough and St. Albans over a significant period of time.

He has been recipient of national awards including the King of Prussia’s Gold Medal Award for greatest aesthetic and technical challenge in a scheme for church repair, and surveyor to a project which won the John Benjamin Memorial Award for exemplary repairs to churches.

He was formally a consultant surveyor to the Churches Conservation Trust dealing with redundant churches in various counties.

He is a member of the Peterborough Diocesan Advisory Committee for the Care of Churches, and Trustee and Vice-Chairman of the Northamptonshire Historic Churches Trust.

John E. Vigar, M.A., F.S.A.(Scot.), F.R.S.A.
Appointed a Trustee in 2024.
John has worked as a professional ecclesiastical historian for over 45 years, having been personally encouraged in his career by Sir John Betjeman. He is the author of eighteen books, several hundred church guidebooks, and frequently appears in the broadcast media. In 2003 he was voted the most popular living Kent author in the B.B.C. Big Read.

For many years John taught at the University of Kent and he was a member of the academic board of the Centre for Parish Church Studies. In 2012 he was project coordinator for the Medway Valley Survey for the Victoria County History and subsequently contributed to its publication. He was also a contributor to the Historical Atlas of Kent.

John leads church tours for groups and individuals across England and Wales and has personally visited and recorded over 13,000 parish churches. For 35 years John was History Tutor at Denman College, specialising in churches of the Cotswolds, and still speaks at meetings across Britain as an accredited Arts Society lecturer.

For 12 years John was Regional Development Manager in the south east of England for the Churches Conservation Trust where he developed greater access for church visitors and formed support organisations to help keep historic churches open. Most recently he was invited to contribute to the Diocese of Ely's REACH project to assist in the better promotion of historic churches.

John has served on many heritage-based church charities, notably the Friends of Friendless Churches where he has been a Trustee for over 40 years and currently serves on the Advisory Council of the Norfolk Churches Trust with special responsibility for three redundant churches.