IT IS often said that charity begins at home – and that is certainly the case in North Waltham.

Members of the North Waltham Village Trust have just published their 2010 calendar.

Featuring early 20th century photographs, it will raise funds for North Waltham Charities, which provide limited support for locals who find themselves in financial difficulties, as well as providing Christmas parcels for some members of the community and student grants.

Community stalwart Richard Tanner, chairman of North Waltham, Steventon, Ashe and Deane History Society, is behind the 2010 calendar.

He said: “There are two North Waltham charities – the older of the two is the Pincke Charity, with the other being the Batchelor Charity.

“In the early 1700s, a gentleman farmer, Walter Pincke, left £50 in his will to help young people to learn trades.

“Lots of people had large families and many of them were too poor to look after them properly and so often their children were taken away, virtually into slavery by landowners, trades people and craftsmen.

“The Pincke charity paid for poor children to have proper apprenticeships with brush makers, blacksmiths or shoemakers – the traditional village craftsmen.

“But they didn’t necessarily stay in the village – one went down to Alton and another to Odiham. We’ve got records of at least a dozen of these and their indenture documents, the originals of which we have passed to the Hampshire Record Office in Winchester.

“The documents give details of their working conditions during the 18 and 19th centuries and show girls were apprenticed too into skills like needle work and spinning. There were no equal opportunities then.

The girls' indentures ran until they were 18 while boys went to 21.”

Among those to benefit from the charity was William Barfoote whose father had died. In 1707 at the tender age of 10, William was apprenticed to a shoemaker called John Wilson, of Elvetham, near Odiham.

Another to benefit was John Heath, a poor child from Cold Waltham, as North Waltham was sometimes called, who in 1718 went to work for a serge weaver in Whitchurch for eight years.

Richard said: “The Pincke charity was supervised by the rector and a church warden. Sometimes, overseers, who were often the same people, got involved because they were responsible for looking after people who were impoverished – it was all done through the church.”

Richard said the Pincke family were local notables, Robert being Warden of New College during the Civil War and Thomas Pincke mayor of Winchester in 1690.

“Two brothers, William and John, are commemorated in St Michael’s Church. Both died young in the 1620s and their brass memorial tells us that William was a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, and John was ‘modest and excellent’.”

The other benefactors, the Batchelor family, were also a longstanding North Waltham landowners.

“They didn’t own the whole of North Waltham, but they had substantial farming land from the 1600s to the 1800s,” said Richard.

Their farmhouse stands to this day in the centre of the village, owned until recently by Hollywood star Elizabeth Hurley.

Sadly in 2007, the Grade II listed building, still called Batchelors, suffered from a major fire, although it has since been rebuilt.

Richard said: “William Batchelor left £50 to support the poor. It was much needed because Napoleon’s blockade had caused bread prices to rise by 500 per cent, while wages rose by 50 per cent – and we think we’ve got it hard today!”

Today, the charities are still very much appreciated by their recipients in North Waltham.

“The charities have been combined, but remain under the administration of the Rector and two members of the church congregation,” said Richard.

“Some people may think that we’re so rich that these ancient charities aren’t needed, but we’ve got a dozen or more families and older people who enjoy a bit of festive cheer because of them.

“Fifty years ago, they would have received bags of coal, but nowadays it’s Christmas parcels, with food and other goodies.”

The calendar can be purchased from the village shop, Old Barn Stores. They cost £6 each or £10 for two and are excellent value.