Ernest Cook Trust

The ECT is a charitable trust which was set up in 1952 by the late Ernest Cook, a grandson of Thomas Cook, the founder of Cook’s Travel Agency. The endowment of the Trust consisted of country estates owned by the founder. The Trust has estates at Fairford, Slimbridge, Hatherop and Barnsley in Gloucestershire; Hartwell and Boarstall in Buckinghamshire; Little Dalby in Leicestershire; Trent in Dorset and at Filkins in Oxfordshire.

The estates cover some 21,600 acres, mainly made up of let farmland but also including woodland, houses, cottages and other let property, including a few commercial premises. It is the surplus income from these estates, and from other investments, that forms the fund from which educational grants are made. In 2005/6 the Trust awarded a total of £1.25m in grants.