Tavistock Heritage Trust is among the beneficiaries of a £17,500 support fund from the Devon Freemasons.

Tavistock Heritage Trust will use their £1,000 funding from the WAKE Fund to help pay for the restoration of an important Tudor wall painting found in Tavistock. The group made a direct application to the WAKE Fund.

Dr Geri Parlby, chairman of the Tavistock Heritage Trust, said: ‘We are very grateful to the Freemasons of Devon for their generous donation which will enable us to start the first stage of our conservation work on this very rare painting which is already being hailed as the finest surviving example of depiction of a Tudor warship in England.’

Nineteen charities in all have been given donations, having been put forward as deserving of support by local masonic lodges.

Every spring and autumn Freemasons from all around Devon meet to support local organisations who require financial assistance, among them children’s charities, schools, youth centres and locally-based charities including hospices, hospital services and cancer charities.

The WAKE Fund is a trust conceived by William Alexander Kneel, the Devonshire provincial grand master from 1970 to 1984, the late owner of Kneels laundry & dry cleaners (now Johnsons).

Since the idea was initiated, the fund has grown through the continued generosity of Devonshire Freemasons and wise investments.

Today it stands at £2.3 million from which the trustees distribute the income generated, currently around £50,000 each year.

Read more about other West Devon charities to benefit in the latest round of funding in the Times, out today