The Walker 597 Animal Trust

Charity number: 278582

The Walker 597 Charitable Trust is an animal welfare charity.

The object of the charity is achieved by making regular payments and one-off grants to (mostly) smaller charities which work to promote animal welfare.

To ensure our funds are used correctly, we normally consider only UK registered charities, or charities with a UK bank account and contact.

Currently there are 8 Trustees, meeting four times each year, who administer the charity.

No Trustee receives any remuneration or benefits from the charity.

The background story is that the founders John and Jean Walker, had never had children and decided fairly late in life to set up a charity to operate during their lifetimes and to which they would leave their estates.

They both worked very hard in the business that John had started which was that of pickling and selling bottled beetroot. Largely their market was to chip shops and other outlets and they sold both in the Birmingham markets and directly to the shops.

John’s mother had once owned a "chippie", which is still trading on the Glascote Road in Tamworth, so he knew that market and when he came out of the army after the Second World War he decided to set up a business.

The business of growing, pickling and selling beetroot in vinegar went under the name of J.C.H. Walker (Beetroot) Ltd and “597” was his brand. It is thought to have been part of the number of his army truck or of his army number. 

John was Tamworth born, Jean was a “foreigner”, born in Hopwas just outside Tamworth. John was an only child but Jean had one brother who died several years before her.

By the very early 1960's he had bought number 19 Lichfield Street in the centre of Tamworth.

The beetroot boiling was at first done in the outbuildings behind No. 19 and he and Jean would slave away boiling and bottling the beetroot, often until gone midnight.

Number 19 originally had land stretching down to the River Tame. However, this land was compulsorily purchased by Tamworth Borough Council and is now occupied by the tower blocks which dominate the Tamworth skyline.

John therefore bought premises at Weeford just 5 kilometres west of Tamworth known as Weeford House Farm and transferred his pickling operation there whilst still living in Lichfield Street in Tamworth.

Over the years, as properties in Tamworth near number 19 came up for sale, John bought them and was very proud of owning a substantial number of the listed properties in Tamworth.

John decided to realise the project of setting up the charity and this was duly created on 16^th March 1979 and was active right from the start.

When Birmingham  City Council, the freeholder of  Weeford House Farm, wanted to buy in the lease in 1990, John and Jean decided to devote most of their time to their animal charity .

John and Jean also had a flat at Weston-super-Mare to which they travelled most weekends. They enjoyed driving around the area and looking for animal rescue centres, which is why the Trust originally had a preponderance of charities in the West Country. They were both very keen on animal welfare and John always refused permission to hunt on his land. Originally the Trust had a small amount of cash and gave £100 each annually to our first list of charities.

John and Jean wanted as far as possible to give to charities where the donated money would make a real difference. John referred to “hands on” charities. 

John died in 2000 and left Jean a life interest in his estate and Jean carried on as a very interested Chair of the Trustees up until her death in 2016. The board had by then expanded to include others with varied animal welfare interests, one of whom had been an experienced Trustee of the national Cats Protection charity.

Further Trustees were appointed over the years, all of whom were animal lovers and who had various professional skills to support the Trust.

All of the Trustees are mindful of succession planning and hope that with their skills the Trust will continue to flourish and promote the cause of good animal welfare so dear to its Founders' hearts.