The charitable work of The Clothworkers’ Company is now carried out through The Clothworkers’ Foundation, our independent charitable arm. Nevertheless, charitable work has always been central to The Clothworkers' Company and its predecessor companies. One of the functions of livery companies was to support their members in times of need and as they grew wealthier, they were also able to benefit outsiders.

Relief of poverty has been a long-standing object. The Company controlled almshouses by 1540 and first paid pensions to needy Clothworkers at about that date. In the past, the Company has administered almshouses in the City of London, Islington and Sutton Valence (Kent). It no longer has any direct links to such bodies but makes grants to Friends of the Elderly and supports the disadvantaged through the Foundation's Reactive Grants Programmes.

Blind welfare is a cause with which the Company has been closely associated for at least 300 years. This connection was initiated by John West, Master 1707-8 and his wife, Frances, who endowed a number of charities to provide assistance for blind and other needy persons. However the Company has never been associated with the West Scholarships to Christ's Hospital. Anyone interested in these should contact the School at Horsham, West Sussex, RH13 0YP, tel. (+44) 01403 211293.

The Company has always been interested in education, both technical (which is treated more fully on the Textiles pages) and academic. The first payment to a non-Clothworker is probably the £5 a year given to a scholar at Christ Church, Oxford in 1551. The Company administered Sutton Valence School in Kent from 1580 to 1910 and the Mary Datchelor School in Camberwell from 1894 until it closed in 1981.

During the nineteenth century, the Company made pioneering grants to the higher education of women, supporting the new colleges for women at Oxford and Cambridge. From our interest in technical education developed a long-standing connection with The University of Leeds, again treated more fully on the Textiles pages.

Support for the work of the Church dates back to 1508 and St Paul's Cathedral seems to have received its first donation in 1631. The Company still provides grants towards the maintenance of the cathedral, which was replaced by the current structure by Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire of 1666.

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