Langley House Trust

History & Ethos

The Langley House Trust is a Registered Charity and Housing Association, registered at the Charity Commission on 1st September 1958 by a group called “Team K” who were associated with an organisation called Christian Teamwork. They were a group of committed Christian businessmen and women who had become aware of the needs of prisoners leaving custody. They had been approached by a man who wanted them to give him a car so that he could start his own business. They wanted to help but knew that providing material goods alone would not solve his difficulties.

Prisoners leave behind an environment where food, warmth and shelter are provided and there is little incentive to think for oneself. Outside, especially when money is short, the temptation to resort to crime is huge and for many irresistible. Then, as today, a large proportion of prisoners re-offended within a very short time and returned to prison. “Team K” dreamed of offering such men a home environment with a husband and wife team acting as house-parents, where they could be helped to make the difficult transition to a crime-free life with every chance of success.

The first General Secretary in 1958 was John Dodd who had been held as a prisoner of war in Changi Jail during World War II. His death-defying wartime experiences had made a huge impact on him so that after the war, when he began to visit prisoners in Parkhurst Prison he was only too aware of the issues they faced daily. As God became more central in his life, he began to sense a real call to do something more to help them. In the early days of the Trust, he headed up operations, visited prisoners, raised funds, recruited staff and set up the first “houses”. (You can read more about John’s life in a book by Diana Norman, wife to the broadcaster Barry Norman, entitled “Road from Singapore” ISBN 0 340 23483 0). John continued as General Secretary until April 1982 although he continued to be active as a Trustee and a lifelong supporter of the work. John Dodd M.B.E. died on January 11th 1987, having been succeeded in 1981 by Anthony Richards O.B.E.

The name Langley House Trust is derived from a property they applied to purchase in Hampshire, called Langley Farm House. In fact, the Trust was “gazumped” during the sale and never actually owned that property. The first house was near Winchester, UK, which opened in 1959 and is still owned by the Trust. The houses are nw called “projects” and are organised along highly professional lines being subject to egulation by the Housing Corporation, Supporting People departments of Local Authorities, Care Standards and the Ministry of Justice.

There are 16 projects across England, arranged into 6 broad types: Fresh Start Projects, [...] Rehabilitation Centres, Resettlement Projects (including Women's Projects), Residential Training Centres, Registered Care Homes and Homeless Projects

In 2005, the Trust merged with a smaller Christian charity, The Torbay Churches Homeless Trust, whose facilities became part of Langley and were renamed The Torbay Project.