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In the second part of our series on the development and planning applications of the Plymouth Brethren, Brethren Exposed goes to Chippenham in the UK.
Chippenham
Chippenham is a market town located in Northwest Wiltshire, 13 miles from historic Bath. It is home to a Plymouth Brethren 'community' of approx. 200 members. The meeting rooms in the Chippenham area come under a charity called The Down Gospel Trust. The Down Gospel Trust The Down Gospel Trust has five trustees, Alan Lamming, James Nunn, Lyndon Pocock, Henry Turner and Tony Van As. Lamming, Van As & Turner are all company directors, whilst Nunn is a former finance manager for the brethren business advisory firm UBT. Turner is the brother-in-law of ex Chippenham MP and former Minister Michelle Donelan. He is a director of Toffeln Ltd; the first company located in the UK to be awarded a PPE contract during the COVID Pandemic. Van As was formerly a director of The Country Candle Company Ltd. Picture below with Michelle Donelan and Andrea Leadsom in Parliament, along with a factory visit by Michelle Donelan. The Trust owns six properties/pieces of land, five of which are meeting rooms in the Chippenham area and the sixth property was formerly the Plough Inn, a pub adjacent to the main Chippenham brethren City Meeting Room at Kington Langley.
The Plough Inn
The Plough is located on the A350 between Kington St Michael and Kington Langley and has been a pub close to 400 years. In July 2020 the Plough went on sale advertised by Fleurets with a guide price of some £475,000. Unfortunately, as everyone knows this was in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic and the pub trade had had one of the biggest shocks in its history. On 20th November 2020 the Plough was sold to the Sarsen Stone Group, a company based in Devizes. The Plough was the last of any type of community asset in Kington Langley, bar the village hall. A local community group was set up called Kington Communities Enterprise Ltd (KCEL), it campaigned for The Plough to be recognised as an Asset of Community Value, and ultimately to transferred to the community at a fair value and to remain open as a public house. 
The directors of the Sarsen Stone Group (now called Ca'Pietra Group), were Chippenham based brothers Hamish and Marcus Smith along with Michael Dible who was at that point a Trustee for the Down Gospel Trust. All three are members of the Plymouth Brethren.
In the Down Gospel Trust accounts for year ending 5th April 2020, there is a note in the future plans, stating they hoped to acquire land during 2020/2021 in the vicinity to the Kington Langley City Meeting room for additional car parking. They anticipated this would cost £180,000 plus VAT and that additional funds had become available. In the accounts for 2020/2021 it states under future plans, "Since the year end, the Trust has acquired a Property in the vicinity of the Hall at Kington Langley at a cost of £508,800, which will enable other development which is to come under consideration, and also improved vehicle parking for that Hall. Further finance has covered this accordingly. It is also intended to obtain two further local Halls when occasion permits. One such project, likely to cost in excess of E400,000 is currently progressing towards a planning application". The 2021/2022 accounts confirm that the Sarsen Stone Group sold the Plough to the Down Gospel Trust. The Trust funding appears to have been assisted by a grant of £140,000 from the Central Halls Gospel Trust and £120,000 from a special universal contribution*. The KCEL fought a long but unsuccessful fight to return the grade II listed Plough to the local community. Watch out for our next story as we look at the remarkable pattern of planning applications by one Brethren Community, the buying and selling of meeting rooms and the local impact of a brethren community on the move. * A special universal contribution is where a charity or an individual receives a donation from all the other Gospel Hall Trusts around the world. This is logged at the monthly Gospel Hall Trust care meetings. So for example if there were 600 trusts worldwide all donating £200, then the beneficiary will receive £120,000 in total. This giving is generally split between brethren charities like the Rapid Relief Team, Vision and other Gospel Hall trusts; as well as individuals such as the leader Bruce Hales and his family. It is likely on the evidence we have seen, that Bruce Hales receives millions each year by this method.
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