Keep protecting the Dales into the future

September 8, 2021

Legacy gifts are helping to ensure the Yorkshire Dales remains a wonderful and inspiring place now and in the future. Legacies, large or small, make an enormous difference to this area, supporting a wide range of projects from new woodlands and wildflower meadows to education and training for young people.

Dominic’s Story

When the time came for Felicity King and her family to leave a lasting tribute for their son Dominic in 2020, they asked us to help create something fitting and special. Their legacy helped to plant a small woodland at Howgill side, Beamsley, near Bolton Abbey.

Felicity says that Dominic was a bright and original person who studied at Leeds Grammar School. He loved painting landscapes and had a real affinity with and love for nature. The family lived in Kenya when he was younger, and he wrote a poem about trees for the Laurentian prize for creative writing.

The gentle choirs of rustling leaves, on plain and hillside stood, to gently murmer ancient hymns, as oaken acres would. An extract from Dominic King’s poem.

He once saved all his pocket money to buy a square metre of forest in Belize.

Sadly, after a long illness Dominic passed away in 2019.

When we realised Dominic was going to be too ill to work full time, we put some money in to a trust, to help support him throughout his life. When he died, we looked at how to spend the money we’d set aside for him, and to use it in ways that he would have approved of.

Dominic was very concerned about the environment, especially in his young life, so we chose YDMT because it was a local cause, and we would be able to support the planting of trees in an area we knew. It sounded like just the right thing. Dominic spent most of his life in Yorkshire, and he cared about trees.

Dominic was a very special person and we hope that his brother Ben and his family will inherit his interest for trees. He’ll visit with his children, and they can take the time to remember their uncle.

Leaving a legacy to the Dales

To find out more about leaving a legacy gift to YDMT visit www.ydmt.org/leave-a-legacy or give us a call on 015242 51002.