Merchant Taylors school and old boys association vs Peter Cawdron and Robert Hurran

The trustees of a First World War memorial fund created by old boys of Merchant Taylors School in 1917 are seeking the High Court’s assistance concerning a scheme that could allow Barratt Homes to carry out a substantial residential development project in Rickmansworth, Herfordshire.

The trustees are the legal owners of a sports ground at Durrants, Croxley Green, which has for many years been the home of the school’s old boys’ association, the Old Merchant Taylors Society. There is uncertainty as to who the trustees hold the land in trust for, and as a result the trustees, Peter Cawdron and Robert Hurran, are asking the court to decide that question and approve a compromise deal agreed by the school and Old Merchant Taylors’ Society which will enable Durrants to be sold to Barratts for development, and the old boys to move their headquarters and sporting activities to new facilities elsewhere on the school’s grounds.

The trustees’ High Court claim form brings together the School, The Old Merchant Taylors’ Society and the Attorney General (because of the charitable purposes of the War Memorial Fund) as parties.

It also asks the court to approve the trustees’ conditional contract with Barratt Homes, entered into in January 2004.