Find out more about the Fielden Acre Community Shares
Thank you for helping us raise £270,000 in community shares so we can buy the land and buildings surrounding the historic Fielden Hall Community Centre.
We ran this community share offer through the ethical investment service, Ethex between November 2020 and January 2021.
We have prepared a short report on our experience of running the share issue, which you can read here.
The Community Shares Standard Mark is awarded by the Community Shares Unit to offers that meet national standards of good practice.
For more information about community shares, the Community Shares Standard Mark and the Community Shares Unit go to:
HOW YOUR INVESTMENT WILL HELP OUR COMMUNITY
Fielden Hall COMMUNITY Centre
Through investing in the Fielden Acre community share offer you can help secure the future of our beautiful Fielden Hall as a thriving community centre for all the people of Todmorden. The whole site will be owned and managed by the community, for the community.
Affordable Homes
By buying the two houses, the Masters House and The Old School House, that bookend the historic Fielden Hall, the CLT will ensure that they stay as affordable housing for the long term. It means we can make sure the whole site stays in community hands as a community resource, preventing unsympathetic development on the land.
FIELDEN ACRE HERITAGE
Pioneering philanthropist and educator Sarah Fielden helped make Todmorden the town it is today when she established a school on the site in 1871. In the 2020s, we are using community shares for a very modern kind of philanthropy, making our contribution to the town’s future.
Buying the land around Fielden Hall means we can ensure affordable community housing in the two properties that bookend the hall as well as enhance the Hall’s community facilities. But it’s more than that – Community ownership of the whole plot of land brings us possibilities. We have secured the space around the Hall, around an acre, for the community – a beautiful and historic building, protecting a community future for Fielden Hall itself and to perhaps better connect the Hall to Centre Vale Park.
THE FIELDEN ACRE PROJECT LEAFLET
For a quick overview of the Fielden Acre Project and the social benefit it can deliver, you can download a copy of our leaflet. Full details are contained in the Share Offer document further down the page.
The Fielden Acre Community Shares offer documentation
The following documentation provides guidance about the share offer and background information about Calder Valley Community Land Trust Ltd:
You could lose some or all of the money you invest in this share offer, without recourse to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme or the Financial Ombudsman Service.
What are Community Shares?
Community Shares are a way for local communities – and other supporters – to invest in community projects. They cannot be ‘traded’; you cannot sell your shareholding on to someone else. The value of Community Shares cannot increase, but can go down.
Community shares are withdrawable but at no more than their original value. Shares cannot be withdrawn on this offer before early 2024.
This share offer holds the Community Shares Unit Community Shares Standard Mark. This is awarded by the Community Shares Unit (CSU) to offers that meet national standards of good practice. These standards ensure that:
- The offer document and application form are easy to understand
- You are provided with all the facts you need to make an informed decision
- The facts are supported by the annual accounts and/or business plan of the society
- Nothing in the documents is purposefully incorrect, confusing or misleading
Societies are asked to sign a Code of Practice requiring them, among other things, to give the public a right of complaint to the Community Shares Unit.
For more information about community shares, the Community Shares Standard Mark and the Community Shares Unit, go to www.communityshares.org.uk
Statement from CVCLT Board
At the November CVCLT board meeting the trustees reaffirmed the priority it gives to protecting the community share investments that are made in the CVCLT. This is important because community shares are not formally regulated. The board’s statement includes the following.
“The Board of Trustees takes its responsibilities towards those individuals and organisations investing in CVCLT through its community share issue extremely seriously. It has launched the current Fielden Acre share issue having satisfied itself that the business plan and share offer document are robust and having received external validation through the Community Share Standard Mark.
The Board confirms its previous decision that these investments will attract 2% pa interest. While the Board is aware that it has the legal power to alter the rate of interest, the Board confirms that it has no current intention of changing the interest being offered in the foreseeable future and that any reduction in interest would not be introduced except in exceptional circumstances and only when the Board had first called a Special General Meeting of members.”
