Co-op stumps up £3 rent for centre
Melton Times, February 1, 2001

Midlands Co-op director Geoff Mabbott paid the society’s annual £3 rent for Melton Bell Centre site to the Sir John Sedley Trust last week as part of an ancient property agreement.

The Trust was set up by Dame Elizabeth Sedley on January 21, 1639 to support the education of children in Wymondham.

Dame Elizabeth bought some land in Melton to provide income for the charity and in 1691 that land, which centuries later became the Bell Centre, was sold.

That original sale was subject to landowners down the years paying an annual rent of £3 to the trust.

Trust chairman Trevor Hickman revealed that under the original agreement the owners of the land were bound to pay £3 a year for the next 3,000 years.

Today the Sir John Sedley Trust gives around £5,000 a year in grants for further education students in Wymondham and the surrounding villages.