Always on
This project successfully funded on 22nd February 2026, you can still support them with a donation.
Helliker Tomb Restoration Appeal
Trowbridge, Wiltshire, United Kingdom
Aim
We want to raise £2,000 for the restoration of the tomb of Thomas Helliker - the Trowbridge Martyr - in St James' churchyard.
The Trowbridge Martyr, Thomas Helliker was unjustly hanged in Salisbury on his 19th birthday, 22 March 1803, for a crime he did not commit during the industrial unrest that followed the introduction of machines in the wool industry.
Two hundred people escorted his body back to Trowbridge and a carved chamber tombstone was erected in his memory by the Shearmen of Yorkshire, Wiltshire and Somerset.
Today, the carved panels on the Grade II Listed box tomb that tell Thomas’s story of courage and injustice are fading and becoming hard to read.
Without urgent restoration, this vital part of Trowbridge’s history will be lost.
White Horse (Wiltshire) Trades Council's goal is to raise £2,000 to pay for the restoration of the inscriptions, ensuring that future generations remember Thomas Helliker’s story.
Every donation, large or small, brings us closer to saving this historic monument. Please help. Let’s make sure Thomas Helliker’s story lives on.
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made