Registered Charity Number 236319/5

The Community of St. David is a non-profit making Educational Trust. Its centre is at Court House which has been gradually and lovingly restored to a comfortable home.

The Trust was originally set up in 1961 by Arthur Curtis, a professor of new testament theology at the Selly Oak Colleges in Birmingham. Arthur, together with sympathetic colleagues and students, sought out a property in need of renovation in the pilgrim city of St. Davids.

His vision was to establish a simple retreat centre to help rebuild and restore people from urban areas. This would be done by inviting people to live as a simple community in Court House for a week or more in the summer, physically helping to restore the House for a part of each day and engaging in conversations on relevant educational, spiritual and social themes in the evenings. Afternoons were always kept free to enjoy the beautiful surrounding area.When the House was sufficiently restored to accommodate them, it was hired out to other educational, youth and community groups for weekly periods during the rest of the year.

The Community of St. David has always operated a simple, two tier structure of four or five Trustees and a small but inclusive Council, formally meeting three times a year to manage the Trust’s operations and plan future directions.

Originally the Council was strongly led by Arthur Curtis, followed in the 1970s by his energetic successor, Alun Davies, both of whom devoted much of their lives to the Community’s development.

Over a decade ago, Alun and the Council felt it was time to move towards a shared leadership model with the Council as a whole taking over the leadership responsibility, though Arhur and Alun continued to play dynamic and active roles throughout the remainder of their lives. Currently the Council consists of about a dozen active members, including the four Trustees and the two Wardens of Court House and its newly developed barn converstion, Curtis House.

The summer “Conversation Weeks” continue, though the groups’ physical work is now limited to cooking and cleaning as the restoration of the house has been completed. We have a wide variety of groups hiring the House during the rest of the year, now as often for long weekends as for weekly stays.

Court House can be hired for your own group activity but, if you are interested in learning more about the Community or the Conversation Weeks, please email Hilary Tucker at hiltucker@googlemail.com. Clicking on the blue address will automatically begin an email for you.