## 2024-2025 ANNUAL REPORT ## for the ## ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING of the Fordingbridge Museum Trust To be held on THURSDAY 1st May 2025, 2.30pm at Avonway ## Published April 2025 Patrons: Rowan Brockhurst, Philippa Duckworth Registered Charity No. 1072427 King’s Yard, Salisbury Street, Fordingbridge, Hampshire, SP6 1AB ## **Table of Contents** About this report ……………………………………………………………………………………. 3 Agenda 16th April 2025 ................................................................ 4 The Chair's Report 2025 …………....................................................... 5 The Treasurer’s Report for the year ending 31[st] December 2024…………. 11 Trust Receipts and Payments Accounts 2024-2025 …......................... 12 Museum Friends Income and Expenditure Account 2024-2025 ………….. 13 Trustee Nominations …………….......................................................... 14 Trustee Resolutions …………………………………………………………………………………. 14 Members Resolutions …………………………………………………………..…………………. 14 2 ## **About this report** ## Dear Members, Enclosed in this report you will find the following papers for the Annual General Meeting: - - Agenda - Annual Report and Accounts - Appointment of Trustees - Trustees’ and Members’ Resolutions The AGM is an opportunity for Members to make suggestions as to how the Trust is run. No such members’ resolutions have been received. ## **Election of Trustees** The Trustees are elected for a period of three years. The constitution stipulates that a third of Trustees retire on rotation each year. At the March 2024 Trustees meeting, it was decided that Joan Miller, Anna Wilson, Jane Ireland and Pamela Shering would retire the first year. They will become available for re-election immediately. 3 ## **THE FORDINGBRIDGE MUSEUM TRUST** ## **NOTIFICATION OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING** ## **to be held in the West Room, Avonway Community Centre** **on Thursday 1[st] May 2025 at 2.30pm** ## **Agenda** 1. Welcome 2. To receive and approve the minutes of Annual General Meeting held on Wednesday 28[th] February 2024 3. To receive the Trustees’ report by the Chair Peggy Jackson 4. To receive and approve the accounts for the year ending 31stDecember 2025 5. To elect 4 Trustees of the Fordingbridge Museum Trust CIO 6. To appoint an independent examiner of accounts for 2025 Mr John Williams has been proposed by Helen Tague and seconded by Joan Miller 7. To consider Trustee resolutions 8. To consider Members’ resolutions 9. The AGM of the Fordingbridge Museum Trust is formally closed ## **The meeting will be followed by a presentation on Heyward Sumner by Jeremy Houghton Brown** ## **To be followed by refreshments** 4 ## **The Fordingbridge Museum Trust 2025** ## **Annual Report of Trustees to the Members** ## **Report of the Chair** I am pleased to present this Annual Report of Trustees to the Members, in this the year of our Silver Jubilee anniversary, and after completion of our first full year in operation, as a CIO (Charitable Incorporated Organisation). ## **Organisation and Development: -** This time last year, we completed the merger of the Friends of Fordingbridge Museum with the former Fordingbridge Museum Trust, and since 28[th] February 2024, we have been operating as a single legal entity. Our thanks to those trustees who negotiated the complex path through the necessary legalities. Since then, we have started the process of rationalising the various internal Museum groups and committees, and are confident that this will help us manage the Museum’s affairs even more effectively in future. A growing number of volunteers have continued to work ‘behind the scenes’ throughout the year, on cataloguing and sorting out our collections; and we are very grateful to all of them for the time and dedication. For this process, we have been grateful for the opportunity to draw on wider expertise from the museums world, in particular from Alice Le Page and Sheila Pott, Museum Development Officers for the Hampshire Cultural Trust and Museum Development South-West (MDSW), and also advisers from the Association of Independent Museums (AIM), which the Trust joined in 2024. Trustees have attended Forum meetings of MDSW and enrolled on training courses for ‘Kids In Museums’ and ‘Volunteering Fit for the Future’. ## **Celebrating 25 Years: -** Our twenty-fifth anniversary will be celebrated over the weekend of 1[st] -3[rd] August 2025. The detail will be well-publicised nearer the time; but highlights to look forward to include the publishing of a new book on the History of Fordingbridge Museum, the unveiling of the first of a series of Green Plaques around the town, giving details of historic buildings, indoor displays and outdoor activities on the Rec and the river, referencing the 5 historic Fordingbridge Regattas of the late nineteenth/early twentieth centuries. ## **The Museum in the Local Community:** One of the most valuable discoveries during the planning of this celebration has been the goodwill which exists towards the Museum, from across the town, and among the many local community groups in Fordingbridge. Many local community organisations have shared in the planning and active support for this weekend. We are particularly grateful to Avon Valley Shed, who have given us excellent help this year, enhancing the physical displays in the Museum, as well as collaborating in plans for our Jubilee. We have valued our continuing ties with Fordingbridge History Society, attended meetings of the former Fordingbridge Events Group and been involved in plans for this year’s VE Day commemoration in the town. Most recently, we are among the founder members of the newly formed Fordingbridge Arts Network, and supporting their work to enhance the overall cultural life of the town. ## **Trustees: -** At the last AGM, on 28[th] February 2024, twelve trustees were elected who have all served throughout the year: |Peggy Jackson (Chair)|* Joan Miller (Secretary)| |---|---| |Jon Ingham (Vice-Chair)|Julian Hewitt| |Philippa Duckworth|Helen Tague (Treasurer)| |* Pam Shering|Sue Broderick| |* Jane Ireland|* Anna Wilson| |Katharine Puttick|Tina Woodley| * At the forthcoming AGM, these four trustees will retire by rotation. Each of them is eligible for re-election and has indicated their willingness to stand again. No trustees received any remuneration from the Museum Trust. The trustees have met seven times during the year, to ensure a smooth transition into the new organisation. The reports which follow illustrate the immense amount of work undertaken by them for the Museum, along with our committed volunteers, during the past year. I am grateful to them all for the dedication and energy they have brought to this task - ensuring that the Museum has continued to operate smoothly, while also preparing to expand our horizons in future, and grow ever further into the community life of the town. ## **The Museum in Operation: -** ## **The Museum and Visitors: -** The Museum opened its doors for the 2024 season on Tuesday 26th March and closed on Saturday 2 November. Although we had a few new stewards, numbers were still very low, and we only managed to keep the museum open thanks to a small group of dedicated volunteers; so, if you know anyone who you think might be interested, please try to encourage them to join us! Our visitor numbers totalled 3,892, amazingly consistent, as it was only twenty-five more than the previous year! The visitors’ comments have again been overwhelmingly positive, saying how all the stewards are very welcoming and knowledgeable. As always there has been praise for the Doll’s House and the Pianola and general comments such as ‘Wonderful, one of the loveliest museums around’ and ‘simply superb.’ As usual the Museum had stalls at Frogham, Sandleheath and Damerham Fairs and will do so again this year, so please come and support us! The Take Over day held in November last year was another success. The children were incredible, a real credit to their school. We joined in the town’s festivities with ‘Christmas Lights switch on’ when two hundred or so visitors joined us for Glühwein and stollen! A fantastic group of volunteers have worked hard through the closed season to get the Museum ready, and I must thank them for doing such an amazing job, the museum looks fantastic. ‘Temporary displays’ have been built commemorating VE Day, Local heroes, Women in war and Modern technology. All the displays are fascinating so please make sure you come in to see them. We will be in the Recreation Ground for the Fordingbridge celebrations for VE Day on 10th May, and then, of course, there is our own celebrations ………! Jane Ireland ## **The Collections and Conservation Group: -** The Collection and Conservation group has met regularly throughout the year. When the museum was open, they focused on rationalising the collection and looking at how to conserve and store artefacts within the limited space available. 7 Having spent a considerable time clearing the garage store in 2023, it is sad to see that the space has filled up again and needs to be cleared once more. During the closed season, the Collections team have spent considerable time planning and constructing the new displays and cleaning the Museum in readiness for the 2025 season. We will continue planning and constructing our displays for the town’s VE Day Celebrations and the Museum’s 25th anniversary weekend in August. Jane Ireland ## **The Photographic Team: -** The four members of the Photographic team met on 43 Tuesday mornings during 2024. It has been a very busy year. Work included selecting and accessioning both original photographs and originals loaned for copying. Photos of Damerham from the Michael Jerrard collection and Fordingbridge photos taken by Janet Elkins were lent for copying and accessioned. Original photos from the Bill Edward and Bill Bray collections of Fordingbridge events during the late 1900s and an extensive collection relating to the Read family brickyard at Sandleheath were accessioned. Photos were prepared for WW2 and D-Day displays. During the summer specific village related displays were produced for our outreach visits to Sandleheath and Frogham Fairs and Damerham Show. In the autumn two significant donations of photographs relating to the Neave family were received. The granddaughter of Elise Constance Neave (born 1889), living in Canada, offered family photographs from her grandmother’s albums dating from the 1880s through to 1913 when the family emigrated. Included were original photos of the town in the 1880s, Fordingbridge regattas in the early 1900s, notable persons and families of the town at that time, local views and family activities: punting, picnicking and swimming in the Avon. The other donation, made locally, was from the granddaughter of Theodora Lillian Neave (born 1876). Studio portraits of the family of Josiah Neave of Highfield House were loaned for copying. (Elise Constance and Theodora were first cousins.) 8 Following the paper accession procedure, accession details and images are then entered onto eHive. The updating of these records and uploading of images onto eHive is ongoing. Katharine Puttick, Jon Ingham ## **The Cataloguing Group: -** After having trialled the free version of the online cataloguing system, eHive, in June 2024 the Trust paid a subscription for the silver level of the system. This allows us 3 user logins and 5120MB of storage space. The Trust also paid for the existing Access catalogue to be transferred to the new system. The Access catalogue had many errors and no photographs. A team was recruited to begin the mammoth task of checking and adding to each record. Three volunteers were recruited, through Community First’s online volunteer adverts. Steve Willoughby joined Joan Miller on the team in August 2024. He was followed by John Netherway and Ben Creasey. Work began by going through all the items in boxes in store room one. The existing entries are updated with as much detail as possible and a low definition photo added. The location of the items and their condition is also recorded. Two existing Museum volunteers, Jo Hewitt and Wendy Cracknell, later joined the team. Katharine Puttick has also been working on photograph catalogue entries. In the 8 months of work, more than 2000 items have been fully catalogued and the Museum collection is now available to be searched online. I would like to offer my sincere thanks to all those involved for their work on this important project. Joan Miller ## **Beyond the Museum Walls: -** ## **The Friends’ Sub Committee: -** The Friends AGM held in 2024 was the last of its kind as the decision to merge the Friends and the Museum into a single entity had been taken. This, as a proposal was accepted, the merger took place and has been a complete success. The following is a brief revue of activities in the year that will end on 1[st] May 2025 with the Museum AGM. We began with a talk by David Boyd-Haycock entitled Brilliant Destiny: the Age of Augustus John. This took place on 26 April 2024 and was extremely successful and well attended. Another talk was organised for 9 the 14th June when Gale Pettifer presented New Forest and Commoning. This was another successful evening. This completed our “formal” fund raising for the year but, as in previous years, the Museum had a presence at the Sandleheath fete, Frogham fair, a one-off Fordingbridge festival and Damerham fair. At each event our gazebo display comprised photographs from the Museum collection and depicted scenes and events associated with each of the places we attended. This turned out to be very popular. In each location, we had around a hundred visitors. I am hoping we can repeat this exercise for this Summer's events. To round off the year our Summer Barbecue was held, by kind permission of John and Sue Broderick, in their garden. This was, as always, good fun although numbers attending seemed slightly down on previous years. However, readers will take note that there will be another barbecue this year. This year we have had one talk by Doctor Cindy Crawford. Her subject was the Graffiti in Winchester Cathedral. This was held in the Town Hall on the 4th April and was reasonably well supported and very successful. As with previous talks refreshments were offered after the presentation. Although not as lavish as they have been they were much appreciated and grateful thanks are due to the donors. Another Talk is scheduled for 13th June, the subject being the Hardy Sisters. To conclude our sub committee continues to meet on alternate months and our active minds are busy working on ideas for the future. Jonathan Ingham ## **Public Relations: -** Since the last review I have continued to issue news releases for use by the news media and social media. The Fordingbridge Journal, the Lymington Times and the Southern Daily Echo are very supportive. Posters, leaflets and flyers are distributed to a wide range of outlets. The George Pub, Adrian Dowding Estate Agents and Tina at Timothy’s have been very supportive. The Museum has continued to host the take over day by Western Downland School. This is extremely popular with staff, pupils and parents. I have continued to give talks to local groups and organisations. I write a monthly article on historical topics for local magazines. The Town Trail is being revised in a more professional looking format. 10 The web site has been refreshed and we can now make changes ourselves without having to go through a web master. I gave a short interview for That’s TV and we have commissioned an advertisement in the Stour and Avon Magazine. We have hosted visits by local Cubs and Brownies groups. We have a presence on the Go New Forest web site. Julian Hewitt ## **Report from the Treasurer to The Fordingbridge Museum Trust** This is the first year that the accounts are now combined with the Friends with one Treasurer. There is £100 being retained by the Friends as Membership is still operated by them. John Williams, our Independent Examiner, made a few amendments on my layout and figures. His only comment of the new system with the banking and payments out was that perhaps the Trustees could consider a discretionary amount that the Treasurer can pay without the need for it to be authorised e.g. there is a great difference between a £7.80 payment and a £200 payment. I have been Treasurer now for a number of years and have come to the decision that I would like to relinquish the post at the next AGM. I would like to propose that John Williams is invited to be the Independent Examiner for the year ending 31st December 2025. Helen Tague 11 FORDINGBRIDGE MUSEUM FORDINGBR1[￿E MUSEUM TRLisr Recelpts and P*ywts for year endi￿a15t Derember Z024 INCOME 15itors Friend5 tian51er fjrft Aid Shop Grants Donations Outreach Outside Fairs Fund raisiTr¥-Talks& 88Q Membership Bank intere# 222B 9.220 1.079 618 931 520 325 1.735 211 PENDfTURE Insurance Electriclwater Brtsadbar￿ & telecoms Qinservation E4uipment/Softwaie Advertising1P¥orT￿10n Accountant fee 1.870 1,695 462 1,870 1.761 434 IA53 IM17 827 635 Shop Companlts House Avonway Room hire Avon Valley Shed Wèbsite AIM membershlp W￿ndOw cleanln8 ParTestln8 Sundries 641 163 221 71 iii Surp1¥5 of Inc￿ne a¥er expeThltw• .U79 Accumulèted lund5 blf 14.177 Ac￿mu411tdlUfft￿C1f3￿1¥14 iyJ 12.998 Uoyds- current Lloyd5-8usifie55 Bar¢1￿ current Cash 9495 I(KA)3 IrA) £ ll.998 to balance 5h••t Le8ary from thE lite FobErtConrad L4acyfrom the late Maryartt H&L75 Coop Érant remaining li( 1782 Ftofi. Treasurer April 2025 I haveexamined thptrafi5att￿3Trd 9JpWrti￿}rrf￿r￿ in fW*tofthE ret￿pts and payments inthis staternent ioverir*the pÈriod Istjanu￿¥ 2024 ta 31st De¢•nber2024 and l 53t15fiedthat this representsan Kcurate pre5ertat*on o¥the Fordlrw￿e Museum Twst firTrancial affairs. I confirm that ift ufvdertski￿ thi5examin3ti0n I ha¥efullo*td tbe 8uidantÈ Issued bythe Charity Comrn￿10n aThlthat I doth)thmarryconfiictof Entere# that prevents me frorn being èn independent ewamiw. Indep￿dÈnt Etsmiw 2025 FORDINGBRIDGE MUSEUM FRIENDS OF FORDW4GBRK)GE MUSEUM Income and Expenditure Account fort¥rfo monttts from 1 January 2024 to 28 Feb￿￿ry 2024 {being the date of the M￿ger of tho FriwKts T*th Fon15ngbrld9e Museum Tnjsti 31.11202) INCOM 28.02.2024 D￿0110￿5 In￿rne Ifom lun&Ai%ThJ events.. Sow) and Pud Lunth Proc*eds from 50: 50 Ch￿. from 2024 ban￿Orf￿] to Tft& AcTJMnt Tax reclaim&l under Gfft Aid Stheme 2458 650 138 4127 NDrruflE Fees Imemt*rshtp of &AIM) 100 23 Post8ge St*ionery'. caot (lA)ster￿1r*ets). paw fne*sletters) Funr&taislrKJ e￿￿- hi￿ of hall and varfous exwws for S&P Misc.." ol Avonway for AnThJal Gen. Mtg aThJ Speaal Ger4. K#g Purchases fcrf FrieNJs.' mini frKlge for kilchen Purrjw on behalf of Tntslees Regular £250.00 guarterly paymarts tCV4Ants wnniThJ co* of Museum 49 2137 108 745 SUMPAARY OF FINAPICIAL TRANSACTIONS 2023 2024 6585 85T5 745 9320 857S Balance in Boiciays AcoJA* as al 28 F8b. 2024 Transf8Ned to F￿d￿j￿￿￿e Museum Trua on 12 March 1C Hon. Trwurer I l Katharine pu￿1c& Il Pebruary 2025 I have exjmined the tranadion5 and supportrng information in respÈrtt¢yi of the ÉTrcome and expet)diture descfibed ths Income and ExpeDthiure Ststernent coverFrtr&the period l January 2024to 28 Fetrmuary 2024 and l am satisfied thÈs repre5eTrts an ￿CUlate presentstion of the Frie￿ts of Fordingbridze Museum financial •flasr5. 1 confimi that in undertakingthe avdit I havefollowed the &￿idanCe issued bythe CharityCI)mmi5Ston andthat I do not haN* al cor*flict of interestthat pr e frgm independent examiner. Indepe￿leftt Examiner John Wllli•m5 / 2tL February 2025 ## **Trustee Nominations** The following nominations for Trustees have been received: - |**Nominee**|**Proposer**|**Seconder**| |---|---|---| |**Jane Ireland**|Anna Wilson|Jonathon Inghan| |**Anna Wilson**|Jane Ireland|Jonathon Ingham| |**Joan Miller**|Julian Hewitt|Christine Pope| |**Pamela Shering**|Joan Miller|Julian Hewitt| ## **Trustees’ Resolutions – AGM 2025** The Trustees propose an increase in the annual subscription from January 2026 to £12 for an individual and £15 for a couple. Proposed by Jon Ingham Seconded by Julian Hewitt ## **Members Resolutions 2025** None received. ## **2026 AGM the Fordingbridge Museum Trust** Date to be set. **This concludes the 2025 AGM Report of the Fordingbridge Museum Trust.** 14