History of the Trust

Who was Ron Summerfield?

Ronald Ernest Summerfield was born during the First World War in Derby, where his father ran a decorating business and his mother a hardware store. Unable to find work after leaving school, he displayed antiques in his mother’s shop before opening his own antiques shop in 1935.

In the early 1950s, Ron moved to Cheltenham with his parents, where his father bought him a shop in the Montpellier area of town (see photo, left, taken in 1978. Image courtesy of Terry Langhorn).

It did not take long before the flat above the shop became uninhabitable owing to surplus stock, so they purchased a large four-storey house in Bayshill Road, which had previously been used as a nursing home. It was decided to let the rooms out, but as each room became vacant, it was quickly filled by Ron with more stock, until only one tenant remained, and the venture eventually folded.

After the death of his father, the accumulation became more intense until his mother decided to return to live in Derby. Gradually, he became less interested in selling the better pieces, keeping the best for his own pleasure and putting the lesser in his shop. Increasingly, the shop was run for intellectual stimulation rather than reward. He developed a reputation for being a rather eccentric character, loving to haggle with customers and even refusing to sell at all if the mood took him.

He would often visit the local offices of Christie’s on the Promenade three or four times a day to discuss his latest finds or invite a member of staff to evaluate one of the many antiques he had stored at his home. The few people who were invited into the house would find that getting through the front door was an adventure in itself. After squeezing along piles and piles of books and up the stairs, spotting valuable pieces half buried in the rubble, one would find the rooms were all full, the passages were impassable, and every piece of furniture was stuffed with small objects. There was no room for habitation. The collection obsession lasted so long and had been so intense that by the time Ron fully realised the problems he had caused himself; he no longer had the motivation to dispose of more than a fraction of it in his lifetime.

The establishment of The Summerfield Trust

Ronald Summerfield set up the framework for the Trust just weeks before he died in March 1989. At the time, only his few closest friends were aware of the legacy he was to leave behind.

It took a team of 10 men four months to sort through and catalogue the two million items stored at his shop and home, including paintings and artwork, silverware, jewellery, textiles, clocks, ceramics, statues, furniture and books. The treasures went under the hammer at a series of auctions carried out by Christie’s of London, Sotheby’s and Gloucester-based Bruton Knowles, raising a total of £7 million. Virtually all the money raised was left to the Trust and was invested. With the help and foresight of the founding Trustees – Earl Fortescue, who was working at Christie’s Auctioneers at the time, and Cheltenham solicitor Martin Davis – the money raised from Ronald Summerfield’s estate went on to support many charitable projects and good causes throughout Gloucestershire, ensuring a lasting legacy.