Our History
The Kenward Trust was founded in 1968 by Ray and Violet Sinden, who had a strong Christian faith.
Here is how it happened…
The couple had five daughters and two sons and they all worked hard together on the family farm in Weald (near Sevenoaks), which became a prosperous one. But Violet had another concern in her heart and her daily prayer was that Ray and the children might come to know the love of God in their lives.
In 1965, at the age of 48, Ray became a Christian when he began to read the Bible, after years of neglect. He had attended church with his grandparents, who raised him after his father’s death; each Sunday they would walk to a Baptist Chapel at Crowborough, which was a distance of 3.5 miles from Eridge (East Sussex).
Ray found that there was a God who loved and cared for him, and his attitude to life began to change. He was no longer interested in making as much money as possible for himself, but wanted to help people realise that there was a God who loved them, even if no one else did.
Ray and Violet’s eldest daughter, Olive, was friendly with a young Church Army Captain named Paul Deeming, who worked amongst the homeless people on the streets of London. Many of them had been sober for some weeks and wished to remain in recovery, but there was no place that would give them shelter once they left and the future was bleak, often leading back to the old habits.
Ray decided to take some of these men home for rehabilitation on the farm in Sevenoaks. He offered them a four-roomed flat over a garage block and they joined the family for meals, bible study and leisure at the farmhouse. The first man came in June 1967. He was a Canadian war pensioner who was able to pay a small amount towards his keep and did some work in the garden. He stayed with the family for about one year and was soon joined by three others.
The farm became overcrowded and the family decided to sell up the farm in order to purchase a much larger house, to help a greater number of homeless people. A large country estate near Maidstone called ‘Kenward’ was up for sale. It was a most impressive dwelling, with 37 rooms, standing in 15 acres of farmland and overlooking the river Medway (although it needed renovating). It had recently been vacated by Dr. Barnardo's Homes, because they had moved to smaller premises. In July 1968, Ray and Violet moved into Kenward House, with five children and five men. This became a charitable trust in May 1973 and our Patron Godrey Featherstone joined the staff in 1974.
Sandra Belton daughter of Ray and Violet Sinden to this day, is one of Kenward’s wonderful Trustees. She volunteers (with her sisters) every Thursday, runs fundraising bake sales monthly and maintains other duties, keeping her foot and interest in Kenward Trust’s wellbeing and future very close to her heart.
From those modest beginnings, the Trust today takes in around 100 residents each year across five locations, as well as reaching thousands of young people through prevention initiatives in schools and the community with advice and support. Our Christian ethos underpins our work.