About the Trust
We are often asked ‘what exactly is The Arkleton Trust?’. In response, we refer to the Trust’s original aims, ‘to study new approaches to rural development and education’ and to ‘improve understanding between rural policy makers, academics, practitioners and rural people’. The Trust was founded in 1977 and during the early years it was difficult to get ‘rural development’ on the European agenda - rural development was widely considered to be something which happened in the ‘third world’. Times have changed - hardly a week goes by without a conference on some aspect of ‘rural development’. New policies and initiatives have multiplied, particularly in the past five years and the Trust’s place in this process is by now well recognised.
Other than organising seminars and workshops on matters of rural interest and concern, the Trust has a series of publications and makes a number of small awards, mainly to individuals and non government organisations working in the ‘third world’. These are made from three small funds: The David Moore, The Bernard Conyers and The John Higgs.
The Arkleton Trust (‘The Trust’) is registered as a charity with the Charity Commission for England and Wales, registration number 275153.