Join the Alfred Gillett Trust as it creates a cultural haven unlike any other. The Trust is an educational heritage charity and custodian of the globally-significant business collections of Clarks shoes and the eponymous Quaker family from which it grew.

The Board is looking for a finance Trustee to help navigate an exciting voyage towards the opening of Shoemakers Museum in 2025, and beyond. With collections showcasing a history of non-Conformist Britain, they also illustrate how an isolated village on the Somerset Levels helped shape the world from the ground up. Shoemakers Museum will stitch together the sole and upper of radical Britain in its stories of the innovating Clark shoe business and the Quaker work for abolition, suffrage and refuge which it helped power.

Housed in beautiful buildings which reflect the changing landscape of rural Britain, surrounded by orchards and lawns, the Trust is home to over 100,000 shoes, photographs, letters, papers, and machines spanning six generations of the family firm - not to mention the 190 million-year-old ichthyosaur fossils dug from local quarries.

The Trust has secured a capital grant of £4 million towards a new museum, Shoemakers Museum, in Street to share the rich history of Street’s shoe industry, informing and inspiring the public. The site will be converted into the new museum, which is scheduled to open in 2025, to coincide with the company’s 200th anniversary, creating a community venue and visitor experience to be enjoyed by one and all.

You can find out more about exciting plans for the new museum here.

The Board currently comprises seven Trustees, including representatives of the Clark family, who are responsible for the strategic direction of the archive and library, which advances public education through its historic and heritage collections of shoes, artefacts, records and materials relating to the history of Street and its footwear industry.

Working together, the Board is responsible for AGT’s governance, setting its strategy, policy, budget, and standards, reviewing staff performance, managing risk, and ensuring that the charity’s assets are used for their proper purposes. Trustees delegate the day-to-day management of AGT to the Director and the Senior Management Team.

This particular Trustee will join the Board and then be assigned to the Finance Sub-Committee, which provides further financial oversight for the Trust and reports into the full Board. It is hoped that they will, in time, go on to chair the Sub-Committee.

As it looks toward the opening of the Shoemakers Museum in 2025 - in time to celebrate 200-years of shoemaking, the Trust is looking for someone with an understanding of financial management to join the Board.

Applicants may come from a variety of backgrounds but will bring enough exposure to financial issues in order to provide effective oversight in this area, being able to scrutinise a set of management accounts where needed. An appreciation and understanding of charity finance and / or experience of oversight on a capital project or trading subsidiaries would be welcome but is not essential.

The successful candidate will be enthusiastic about joining at such an exciting and challenging new phase in the Trust's history, and keen to work closely with the Board to make its aims a reality.

Cato Pedder, Chair
Eleanor Gould
David Hill
Patrick Colton
Martin Lovell
Richard Clark
Hugh Pym

The position is unremunerated but reasonable travel expenses will be reimbursed. The Board meets four times per year, normally on a Saturday between 10am and 1.30pm. Board meetings are held in Street, Somerset, but some other meetings may be held elsewhere during the year; the Trust is currently trialling holding hybrid meetings to allow Trustees to attend virtually. There is, however, an expectation that Trustees attend at least 50% of the Board meetings in person. Finance Sub-Committee meetings are currently held quarterly in advance of the full Board meetings, and are virtual.

In addition to the Board meetings, Trustees may need to have sufficient time to:

• Attend an induction at the Grange in Street
• Study papers ahead of meetings
• Respond to emails and other correspondence between meetings
• Attend evening or weekend events to promote the Trust as required

This appointment is for four years, which can be renewed at the discretion of the Board.