The Home of Devenish is a small charity based in Weymouth that you may well never have come across before. We have 23 pretty bungalows and two maisonettes which are available rent- and council-tax free to women who qualify under the terms of our trust.
The Trust was founded with a bequest by a local benefactor, Major John Herbert Clark Devenish. He saw that the widow of a clergyman or officer was sometimes left in quite dire straits after her husband had died. Due to the nature of her husband’s work, they had often lived all their working life in houses that didn’t belong to them. This meant that sometimes a widow could find herself without a roof over her head at at time when she was dealing with all of kinds of other stresses. So Major Devenish left money and property for homes for widows such as these. You can read more about the history of The Home of Devenish here.
