Peel Heritage Trust was formed in September 1989 by Malcolm Kelly, then chair of Peel Town Commissioners.
The Trust has organised hundreds of events relating to the social, economic and architectural history of Peel and the Isle of Man. See forthcoming events on our Facebook page.
We currently host around a dozen events each year comprising outdoor visits and walks in the summer, and a series of lectures in the winter. The ‘Secret Gardens of Peel’ are opened to the public every couple of years, bringing hundreds of visitors to the town.
A key project for the Trust is the railway display (near to the harbour bridge) to pay respect to the Isle of Man railway, which served Peel from 1873 until 1968.
Another important development was our sponsorship of Peel 2011, a project that recorded images of over 130 shops and shop keepers in and around Peel at the end of July 2011. This will become an ever more valuable record of Peel as time passes. The project was repeated in 2021 and the comparison photos are fascinating and can be seen at manxshopfronts.com.
Peel Heritage Trust is now also providing volunteers to the Leece Museum.
The Peel City Guardian newspaper was first published in 1882 and brought news and information to the west of the Island until 2001. There was then a three-year gap until owners, Ian and Clare Faulds, gave the rights to the title to Peel Heritage Trust. The newspaper restarted in April 2004 on a non-profit making basis, as a quarterly publication, for several years. The editor, production manager, writers and photographers were all volunteers, working to produce what was then the Isle of Man’s only regional newspaper. The paper is not currently being produced.
The Trust is managed by a Committee of 6 elected members and representatives from Peel Town Commissioners, the MHK for Peel and a number of co-opted members. The Committee meets monthly to organise the work of the Trust. A planning sub-committee considers all Peel planning applications and comments to DoLGE when appropriate.