Nailsea Tithe Barn Trust
Chair’s Annual Report 2020-21
This year the Trust has continued to be hugely affected with the challenges related to the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent limits on our four key purposes. 2020 ended with limited delivery across all four of our purposes promoting social activities, providing education, developing the heritage of the barn and supporting needs within the local community. However, the restrictions to our face-to-face activities led to a number of creative solutions to the problems in our midst, and much work carried on remotely.
The Education team hosted three school visits in 2021, focusing on the work and activism of Hannah More, and the Victorian period and our volunteer team remain active. Many schools have not yet returned to allowing school trips, and we have been mindful of the health and wellbeing of our volunteer teams, especially in period of high rates of Covid in the area. However, whilst visits to the barn have been curtailed, we have continued to build links with The Hannah More Trust, an organization led by academics for further research, and Nailsea Tithe Barn’s heritage activities will be featured in ‘Hannah More in Context’ published by Routledge in 2022. We have also applied for funding to produce a Tithe Barn heritage publication on Hannah More and 18[th] century Nailsea. We have supported schools with remote activity packs and resources, and provided engagement activities to schools on ‘zoom’.
Our Memories at the Barn and Memory Café programmes have expanded their portfolio of activities during the year, including the Barn Owls choir. Our volunteers have been dealing with unprecedented need which has been exacerbated by the social restrictions of isolation in the pandemic. The importance of meeting the social needs of some of our most vulnerable members was even more pronounced during the lockdown period, and innovative
ways of keeping contact within the legal limitations of contact were made. We are very grateful for the energy and creative thinking of our volunteers, and also for the funding and support from the Quartet Foundation, Grateful Society and Nailsea Town Council which have enabled these activities to continue, even without the built environment of the barn to sustain them. We continue to pursue funding to ensure the sustainability of this programme.
This year The Christmas Fayre, organised jointly with Holy Trinity Church is also being joined with stalls and activities at the Ring O’Bells pub adjacent to the barn, creating a larger venue and increasing our friendly links with out neighbours.
There are many people who support the work at the barn and we have wonderful volunteers. We continue to have tremendous support from our team at our Education workshops and the Memories at the Barn activities this year, and through our links with Leg Club. We value our relationship with Holy Trinity Church, and the Christmas fayre is an important link to the community outreach of the church.
The project to restore and develop Nailsea Tithe Barn has far exceeded the aims we set out to achieve in 1999. We have some unique ventures and partnerships and had built a sustainable platform to ensure the future of the barn. 2021 will challenge this, and we must adjust and reframe our ambitions and assess the viability of some of our activities going forwards. We look forward to working with Nailsea Town Council and their staff and town councilors to do so. We are indebted to our volunteers and the continuing support of the Friends of the Tithe Barn, who demonstrate their enthusiasm in so many ways. In order to ensure the sustainability of our projects, we will continue investigate funding opportunities as we attempt to retain our portfolio of activities, and deal with the ongoing challenges of the Covid19 situation.
The Trustees are aware of the unique challenges faced by all CIOs in the wake of the public health emergency of 2020-1. We will continue to review the ways we can support our community and the barn itself going forward, understanding that we must innovate and embrace new ideas to underpin our past successes.
Jo Edwards Chair October 2021.
| Nailsea Tithe Barn Accounts Summary |
2020 - 2021 |
|---|---|
| Income Social Engagement Social Needs Heritage Schools & Education General TOTAL |
Restricted Unrestricted Total 0.00 0.00 1500.00 4001.00 5501.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 2061.14 2061.14 1500.00 6062.14 7562.14 |
| Expenditure Social Engagement Social Needs Heritage Schools & Education General TOTAL |
0.00 0.00 1500.00 5800.98 7300.98 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 2842.54 2842.54 1500.00 8643.52 10143.52 |
| Variance | 0.00 -2581.38 -2581.38 |
| No 1 Account Memories Account Total Bank Cash On Hand Consumable stock value 2021 Prepayments |
13152.97 9552.04 22705.01 0.00 46.99 40.00 22792.00 |
| Brought forward Account Balance Total Creditors/Debtors |
25373.38 -2581.38 22792.00 0.00 22792.00 |