The 2024-25 Winter Coal Fund came to £2,420 in total. It is the largest annual outlay the trust has made in any of the eight years for which I have read the cashbook back, and it is the headline number in the year-end accounts to 30 June 2025. The trustees agreed at our August meeting that the fund had been right to lean a little into the carry-over reserve to meet the colder February, and that we should write more openly than we have done before about where each of the nine grants went.
What follows is the ledger, edited to remove names but otherwise faithful. Each entry has been signed off by two trustees and minuted.
No. 14 · Princess Street
Smokeless fuel delivery, two sacks. £58. Delivered 7 December 2024.
The household had been on the Sunday Doors round since 2018 but had never asked the trust for material help. The November visit reported that the front-room fire had not been lit in three weeks. A trustee called the following morning and the two sacks were delivered by the local fuel merchant before the weekend.
No. 4 · Manor Park
Boiler call-out and parts. £240. Paid 18 January 2025.
The largest single distribution of the winter. The boiler — an oil-fired model installed in 2008 — had failed on the night of 16 January. The household, a single retired teacher, had no immediate funds for a call-out. The trustees agreed by telephone the same afternoon and the plumber attended the following morning. The boiler was running again by 17.30 on 17 January.
'We had not expected, in 2025, to be writing a small cheque for a sack of coal on a Friday afternoon and a plumber's bill on the following Monday. The deed of 1830 expected nothing else.'Stephen John Lee · trustee
No. 22 · Tatton Street
Smokeless fuel delivery, one sack. £29. Delivered 23 December 2024.
A small request, declined a year ago by the household out of pride, and accepted this year after a fortnight of cold weather. The trustees have learnt, over years, that pride is one of the most expensive things in our cashbook — the small grants we did not make are sometimes the ones we wish we had.
No. 8 · Mobberley Road (the new flats)
Electricity prepayment meter top-up. £45. Paid 11 February 2025.
A young household, newly moved into the parish, on a prepayment meter that had run down through a particularly cold week. A befriender on the round noticed the meter on the visiting call. The trustees agreed by email within twenty-four hours.
No. 3 · the cottages above the Lily Pool
Boiler service and minor repair. £160. Paid 4 February 2025.
A planned grant rather than an emergency. The cottage had been struggling for some time; the trustees agreed in November to bring forward what would have been a routine service to a full service and minor repair. The plumber attended on a Tuesday morning.
No. 5 · King Street
Boiler call-out, no parts required. £85. Paid 22 February 2025.
A 'come out and have a look' call-out at the start of the half-term week, on the request of an older couple who heard a worrying noise from the boiler cupboard. The plumber found nothing of immediate concern but bled the radiators while he was there. The bill came to the standard call-out charge.
No. 11 · Princess Street
Smokeless fuel delivery, three sacks. £87. Delivered 27 January 2025.
The largest single fuel delivery of the winter, to a household with an older fire that runs through fuel quickly. The trustees prefer to deliver three sacks than to make three small calls; it saves the merchant a trip and saves the household the awkwardness of three knocks at the door.
No. 19 · Manor Park
Boiler call-out and emergency parts. £216. Paid 9 February 2025.
The second-largest distribution. A failed boiler, an older resident in residence alone, the temperature near freezing. The trustees agreed by telephone within the hour. The plumber attended within two; replacement parts were sourced from the Macclesfield depot the following morning.
No. 6 · the cottages above the Lily Pool
Replacement kettle. £14. Delivered 8 February 2025.
The smallest distribution of the winter, included here because it matters. The household's kettle had given up on the morning of 7 February. A new kettle was bought from the small electrical shop on Princess Street and delivered by a befriender the following morning. The Honorary Almoner notes in the ledger: 'The cup of tea is, very often, the help.'
Totals and reconciliation
Total distributed: £934 on the nine entries above, in nine households. The remaining £1,486 of the £2,420 year-end figure went out in Quiet Grants over the same winter — fourteen of them, ranging from £14 to £240, a list of which is in the year-end report on the Annual Reports page.
The Winter Coal Fund balance carried forward to the 2025-26 winter is £618. The 2026 appeal target, as published on the homepage, is £1,800 — slightly higher than 2024-25 to reflect the boiler call-out average creeping upwards. As of the date of this post, the appeal stands at £1,152.
With thanks to the parishioners of St John's, the carol-service offertory, the open garden weekend on Tatton Street, the trustees' personal giving, and the small endowment dividend that funded the rest. None of this happens without you.