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2021-04-30-accounts

CARING FOR GOD'S AERE ANNUAL REPORT 2020 - 2021

CONTENTS

Caring for God’s Acre Annual Report 2020 - 2021 .................................................................................. 1 REPORT FROM THE CHAIR ...................................................................................................................... 3 GENERAL INFORMATION ........................................................................................................................ 4 OBJECTIVES OF THE CHARITY .................................................................................................................. 6 REVIEW OF COMMUNICATIONS ......................................................................................................... 6 REVIEW OF PROJECT ACTIVITY ................................................................................................................ 8 1 THE BEAUTIFUL BURIAL GROUND .................................................................................................... 8 2 EMERGENCY FUND ......................................................................................................................... 12 3 THE CARING FOR GOD’S ACRE CONSERVATION VOLUNTEERS ...................................................... 13 4 BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOTS ACROSS WALES ..................................................................................... 16 5 CELEBRATING BIRMINGHAM’S BURIAL GROUNDS ....................................................................... 17 6 WELSH BURIAL GROUNDS FOR WILDLIFE ...................................................................................... 19 7 THE GEORGIANS IN STONE – Listed Monument Conservation Project ......................................... 21 8 RESTORING SHROPSHIRE’S VERGES PROJECT ................................................................................ 22 REVIEW OF CORE ACTIVITIES ................................................................................................................ 23 1 SUPPORT LOCAL COMMUNITIES, GROUPS & INDIVIDUALS WHO MANAGE BURIAL GROUNDS .. 23 2 CHARITY & PROJECT DEVELOPMENT PLUS GENERAL FUNDRAISING ............................................ 24 3 GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF THE CHARITY ................................................................................... 25 4 ORGANISING LOVE YOUR BURIAL GROUND WEEK ........................................................................ 25 6 SUPPORTING & INCREASING MEMBERSHIP INCLUDING DIOCESAN MEMBERSHIP ...................... 25 7 RESPONDING TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC .................................................................................. 26 STAFF AND GOVERNANCE..................................................................................................................... 27 TRUSTEES .......................................................................................................................................... 27 GOVERNANCE ACTIVITY .................................................................................................................... 28 STAFF ................................................................................................................................................. 30 TREASURER’S REPORT 2020 - 2021 ....................................................................................................... 32 RESERVES POLICY .............................................................................................................................. 32 TREASURER’S REPORT FOR THE FINANCIAL YEAR 1[ST] MAY 2020 – 30[TH] APRIL 2021 ........................ 32 ANNUAL ACCOUNTS 2020 – 2021 ......................................................................................................... 34

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REPORT FROM THE CHAIR

I am sure many of you reading this Report will have been touched by Coronavirus over the last 12 months, how its virulence and tenacity have taken us all by surprise! But with help and the extraordinary dedication and generosity of so many people we have adapted the everyday to begin to live with it and the losses we have suffered both here and throughout the world.

Caring for God’s Acre is lucky to have such a robust and adaptable staff group who, as you read here, have adapted our technology during the last year, with help of

a grant from the National Lottery, to redesign aspects of our work and reach out further to connect with even more of you on line and open a virtual door to the natural world on your doorstep.

We have been so lucky to have the steadfast support of so many of our funders through the pandemic which has given us the confidence to think creatively and do our best to support so many of you who keep the teeming biodiverse life in our burial grounds open to all.

When faced with the challenges of the last year, the Charity is lucky to have personnel throughout, members, trustees, staff and volunteers, who are not frightened of change, but who are excited by it and who have, I hope you agree, done their best to adapt what we do and get us to a position where we can grow sustainably.

I do hope you will enjoy reading this Report.

Oliver Goode, Chair, Caring for God’s Acre

November 2021

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GENERAL INFORMATION

PRESIDENT HRH The Prince of Wales

PATRONS

Lawrence Banks CBE, DL., VMH.

Sir Roy Strong, CH

TRUSTEES

STAFF

The Rt Revd Dr Alan Smith, The Bishop of St Albans Dr George Peterken OBE Prof Chris Baines Prof Stefan Buczacki Oliver Goode Chair Gillian Binks Vice Chair Joe Manifold Treasurer Lisette Davies Secretary Anni Holden Judith Leigh Catherine MacCarthy Alex Glanville Simon Cooter Harriet Carty Director Andrea Gilpin Development & Communications Manager Alex Logan Conservation Volunteer Manager Prue Dakin Office Manager Georgina Sharp Beautiful Burial Ground Community Coordinator Liam Taylor Beautiful Burial Ground Data Manager

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Mick Clifton

Fund Raiser and Project Manager

Anna Wilde Project Support Officer

BANKERS HSBC, 6 High Street, Bishop’s Castle, Shropshire, SY9 5BJ

INDEPENDENT EXAMINER

S.E. Hardwick, Armstrong Rogers & Co., 45 Etnam Street, Leominster Herefordshire, HR6 8AE

CONTACT 11 Drover’s House, The Auction Yard, Craven Arms, Shropshire SY7 9BZ 01588 673041 - info@cfga.org.uk - www.caringforgodsacre.org.uk

Charity Registration Number 1155536.

CfGA commenced operations as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) on 1[st] May 2014 - CIO Number CE000722.

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OBJECTIVES OF THE CHARITY

The charity’s objectives are to promote, for the benefit of the public and for the advancement of education, the conservation, enhancement and interpretation of the natural and built features of burial grounds of all types and denominations.

ACTIVITIES

REVIEW OF COMMUNICATIONS

Communication developments are led by Andrea Gilpin and Anna Wilde

All of our project and core work relies on excellent communications and we have focussed on this over the year, partly as a response to the lack of face-to-face meetings and activities. This has resulted in a marked increase in our reach via digital platforms including our own website and social media.

The website continues to be well used. There has been a 35% increase in the number of visitors to 10,700 during the period 1[st] October 2020 – 31[st] March 2021; visitors viewed 33,884 pages over

this time. During March 21 (when Churches Count on Nature was gathering momentum) the number of visitors more than doubled . The majority of visitors are finding us via Google search, although social media continues to send traffic to the site, with Facebook sending the highest number. Engagement via Twitter was also good.

To support the work done for Diocese of Chester and for the Biodiversity Hotspots across Wales Project we set up another website at https://community.caringforgodsacre.org.uk . This site can be logged into by groups participating in these projects and they can see content such as webinar recordings, downloads and links specific to certain topics which were covered in talks. There is also a forum chat feature for the visitors to leave questions and to interact with each other.

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Publicity and communication via social media continues:

Screenshot from the home page of https://community.caringforgodsacre.org.uk

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REVIEW OF PROJECT ACTIVITY

Project activity undertaken this year :

1 THE BEAUTIFUL BURIAL GROUND

Delivered by Harriet Carty, Georgina Sharp and Liam Taylor, supported by Prue Dakin, Andrea Gilpin, Anna Wilde and Mick Clifton

The Beautiful Burial Ground (BBG) project was running for the whole of this reporting period. It started in May 2018 and is scheduled to end by December 2022.

This remains our largest project, it involves two dedicated members of staff , George (4 days) and Liam (4 days), plus combined nine days per week from Prue (2 days), Andrea (1 day), Anna (1½ days) and Harriet (2½ days). Mick Clifton joined the BBG team and has worked throughout this year (2 days). The third year of the Beautiful Burial Ground Project has been seriously interrupted by Covid-

19 and lockdowns but much has continued and gone well.

All of our training activities on site were stopped completely during the first lockdown then resumed in reduced and controlled ways once this lifted. These activities are seasonal, with most taking place in the spring and summer. Biological recording takes place in the main during these seasons (apart from autumn fungi) and built heritage /social history recording tends to run in warmer months as this is pleasanter for participants. The cancelling of training until mid-July 2020 meant in effect that we lost the best part of a year of activity .

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Some of the BBG staff were furloughed or worked reduced hours (see Staff section for details).

We have continued to work in partnership with the National Biodiversity Network, the Church of England and the Church in Wales to deliver this project and continue to build relationships with interest groups.

BUDGET

Spend was reduced this year by just under £28k, largely due to very few training sessions with groups taking place during lockdowns.

In December 2020 we applied to the Heritage Fund for an uplift of £26,736 which was

granted . This will cover the costs of maintaining staff and running activities until December 2022. Initially BBG was due to complete by May 2022 so this extension will give us a further spring and summer for training activities and encouraging recording .

TRAINING AND EVENTS

We have run 94 events in the project so far against a target of 124 for the whole project . Due to Covid restrictions we were only able to run four botanical sessions and five fungi sessions this

year.

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UNDER-REPRESENTED GROUPS

We are working with three groups of people , frequently under-represented in heritage projects that we have identified as being particularly suited to our type of activity. These are families with younger children, people with disabilities and people with mental health issues. 40

sessions have taken place in the project so far, many facilitated by partner organisations. 764 people have been engaged with the project. No activities for these groups were possible in this year due to Covid-19.

Learning about small mammals in burial grounds in a British Sign Language interpreted session.

DATA MANAGEMENT

54,272 records have been shared with the

project

38,312 gathered independently, and 4,180 generated through BBG sessions

325 recorders submitting data who have not submitted data on burial grounds into systems previously

Volunteer recorder time equivalent to

£363,363

We have finished mapping the burial grounds of England and Wales, and now have complete coverage across England but lack cemeteries and non-conformist chapel yards in Wales.

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RAISING THE PROFILE OF THE PROJECT

724 subscribers to our 12 72 articles in partner newsletters, local e-newsletters newsletters and national press 10 webinars to 724 people 37 Presentations to interest groups capturing 2099 people 21,832 direct hits to BBG 2823 followers website pages 1,254 followers 274 posts Regularly updated website reaching 111,751 people

CHURCHES COUNT ON NATURE

This initiative is part of the BBG project and is a partnership between Caring for God’s Acre, the Church of England, the Church in Wales and A Rocha (a Christian charity who run the Eco

church award). Churches of all denominations were encouraged to take part in Churches Count

on Nature and to run biological recording events . The first event took place during Love Your Burial Ground Week (p.26) in June 2021 so is out of this reporting period, but the planning took place during it. All participants were directed to the CfGA website which contained information, Frequently Asked Questions and registration forms.

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Screenshot of FAQs for Churches Count on Nature

2 EMERGENCY FUND

Delivered by Mick Clifton, Anna Wilde and Andrea Gilpin

In October 2019 we were awarded a grant of £40,500 by the National Lottery Heritage Fund under their Emergency funding stream, this project finished in January 2020.

This project allowed us to make a series of technological advancements to both increase our ability to manage under Covid-19 restrictions and also to equip us going forward. In addition, the

Fund helped us to maintain our Conservation Volunteering in the face of social distancing restrictions and additional costs such as increased volunteer mileage as we could not lift share.

We have:

place and reduced volunteer numbers.

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The Emergency Fund is funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, thanks to National Lottery players .

3 THE CARING FOR GOD’S ACRE CONSERVATION VOLUNTEERS

Delivered by Alex Logan

This project is on-going and the team have been active now for over a decade . We continue to build our conservation volunteers and to seek funding for their work.

This year has been difficult for the Conservation Volunteer team due to Covid-19 and lockdowns. Alex was unable to lead work parties and was furloughed from 25[th] March to 25[th] June and then

again from 3[rd] November to 31 March 2021. He was able to resume work at the end of June 2020 and then again in March 2021 with strict Covid-19 protocols in place and reduced numbers of

volunteers. He has been able to run conservation tasks since then, managing to keep on top of the work within 42 burial grounds that the team visit. With the support of our church contacts and volunteers, the CfGA volunteers completed 64 task days . We’ve given advice, support or practical assistance to burial grounds in Shropshire, Herefordshire and Powys, having taken on another three sites within this period.

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Over 1,440 volunteer hours were given in the management of churchyards and burial grounds, supporting community and church groups and the work of CfGA.

The support of our enthusiastic volunteers was vital in enabling this to happen and thanks go to them for their fantastic efforts and continued support. We have 72 volunteers registered

(three more than the previous year) and 37 of these come out on tasks regularly. There are usually

up to 16 of our regular volunteers on a task, often joined by local people, although this was reduced to follow the varying government guidelines which were in place over the year.

PARTNERSHIP WORKING

This year saw the CfGA Conservation Volunteers working with several partners to deliver

conservation management to as many burial grounds as possible . Partnerships included:

The volunteer team have always been interested in the biodiversity of the sites they visit and this

year we started recording species more systematically and making biological records after each task. These records are submitted to the local record centre and to NBN.

This year we have widened the type of work that we do, and our volunteers have been involved in building and siting of an additional 36 dormouse boxes at one site known to have dormice. Volunteers have been making open-fronted bird nest boxes to target spotted flycatchers , which have been installed at several

sites.

Conservation Volunteer Fred Porton in Bromfield Churchyard with the 36 dormouse boxes and a tawny owl box he made

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Despite the unprecedented circumstances during this period, the volunteers collected well over a kilo of yellow rattle seed from local meadows some of which we used to enhance our churchyard sites and some was sold, creating much needed funds for the project . We also ran several volunteering days near Bishops Castle where we were paid to provide conservation work on a scheduled monument. This involved thistle removal, scything and sowing yellow rattle seed. Our part in the National Trust Stepping Stones Project was a little reduced by the lockdowns however Alex did run two scythe courses for National Trust volunteers and staff as well as local smallholders, this also generated scythe sales through our CfGA shop. We also manage 2 roundabouts in Presteigne, introducing meadow species including oxeye daisy, red clover and yellow rattle. Working

with the South Shropshire Youth Forum we ran joint activity days for young people who learnt about the importance of churchyards and their associated wildlife.

ENVIRONMENT AGENCY GRANT

The Conservation Volunteer team received a grant of £1,500 from the Environment Agency towards work to improve the biodiversity within churchyards in the catchment of the River Clun . This grant covered visits to

churchyards within this catchment and the Environment Agency also purchased a range of habitat boxes including a Barn and Owl box, bat boxes to go in trees and other bird boxes. These will be erected in churchyards in the Clun catchment during 2021-2022.

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4 BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOTS ACROSS WALES

Delivered by Andrea Gilpin and Mick Clifton

This project started on 1[st] October 2020 and will continue until 31st March 2023.

This is the first year of a three-year project which is enabling and supporting managers of burial

grounds to help preserve and enhance their flower rich grassland and engage the wider community . The project runs across the counties of Wrexham, Flintshire, Denbighshire, Ceredigion and Powys .

Since the 1940s over 97% of flower-rich grassland, that was once widespread in the countryside, has vanished, with burial grounds remaining one of the few strongholds of this incredibly important habitat. As a response to this we are offering a range of free services to burial ground managers across the project area which include:

The majority of work to date has been spent on planning the project, developing resources, undertaking awareness and publicity and developing electronic systems for the project to flow over

the three years lifespan. Currently, we now have 51 burial grounds registered with the scheme .

A series of 7 training webinars have been developed with the first two of these running in April 2021 ( What’s so special about churchyards and Blooming and Beautiful – getting the balance right) which were very well attended by participating burial ground managers.

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An element of this project includes a limited number of free grassland surveys to be undertaken of burial grounds (to be completed over the summer of 2021) so that this information can be used to help develop management plans for specific sites. Nominations for grassland surveys opened in April 2021 and it is expected that over 20 sites will be surveyed later in the year.

Biodiversity Hotspots across Wales is funded by the Welsh Government via Natural Resources Wales.

5 CELEBRATING BIRMINGHAM’S BURIAL GROUNDS

Delivered by George Sharp, Harriet Carty and Anna Wilde

This project started in December 2019 and will continue until December 2022. This project is primarily concerned with social history and it takes place within 5 burial grounds in Birmingham , which are:

Local people are encouraged to discover the interesting social history to be explored in these burial grounds which were chosen by Birmingham City Council bereavement staff, focusing on sites representing particularly multi-cultural communities . The sites were mapped using a mapping and recording system called the Burial Ground Management System which has been created by Atlantic Geomatics, a private company. The system allows users to interrogate data, searching for

specific names, dates or other parameters. Once full of monument records, this will be invaluable for local history research and will be stored within the Birmingham archive.

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Progress on the public aspects of this project were hampered by the successive lockdowns and their effect on our ability to run sessions. This hiatus did give us the opportunity to make connections with friends’ groups and partners that we are working with on this project.

As lockdown eased it became evident that the Handsworth Municipal Cemetery was not the site for this stage in the project. It is a busy cemetery with lots of grave visitors and multiple digging teams active. Unlike other cemeteries we operate in there was not an 'older, unvisited' area but new and regularly visited graves were amongst the oldest graves in every section. We felt the opportunity for upsetting the recently bereaved and grave visitors was too high to be bringing in groups of memorial recorders, although recording in pairs once people were trained up remains a possibility.

Still wishing to be active in the Handsworth area we have turned our attention to the burial ground of Handsworth Parish Church (St Mary's) . There has been a church on the site since at least the 1200s and the burial ground has some interesting memorials from the Georgian period as well as some memorialising the local Roma encampment and other notable locals. The mappers have been out to collect the data from this site, and we expect the map by the autumn.

St Barnabas Churchyard in Erdington has had all its memorials recorded and photographed and added to the map thanks to the efforts of two people from the Erdington Historical Society. There is a wider churchyard project here to try and make the churchyard a safer and more pleasant place to spend time. Through the project we are supporting the church team in setting up a Friends group and moving their churchyard initiative forward.

In the Jewellery Quarter Cemeteries , we are ready to start recording as soon as restrictions allow.

We are working with the Jewellery Quarter Cemeteries Project Officer Josie Wall and the Friends group to stimulate interest and arrange some sessions.

The Friends Group at Brandwood End Cemetery are keen, key partners and we are planning a programme of recording sessions over the summer

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Celebrating Birmingham’s Burial Grounds is funded by the National Heritage Lottery Fund, Historic England and the Garfield Weston Foundation .

6 WELSH BURIAL GROUNDS FOR WILDLIFE

Delivered by Mick Clifton and Harriet Carty

This project started in November 2019 and will continue until December 2022.

The project will build on the work done by the Beautiful Burial Ground, taking the raw, biodiversity information that is being generated by this project and using it to influence management . Whilst most of the project will be Wales based, some aspects span Wales and England. The project will now last for 3 years , as the funders have agreed to an extension, it will end in December 2022.

We will:

Veteran Trees, Interpretation and Meadow Management

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So far we have made a good start and are close to creating the bespoke IT system linking the

Burial Grounds Portal with the two Church Heritage systems. Wales is now mapped and visible within the Burial Grounds Portal and we are encouraging recorders to visit sites and submit records . We launched our membership drive at the start of 2020 and now have 162 members, an

increase of 56 since we launched this drive. We have developed a system for selecting the ‘excellent’ sites across England and Wales and have been contacting churchwardens or other

site managers of the chosen sites. We have 28 sites up on the webpage with 13 more in the pipeline awaiting full information from the site managers.

----- Start of picture text -----
Screenshot from CfGA website showing a page
from Burial Grounds to Inspire section
----- End of picture text -----

Three of the four toolkits are nearing completion and one minifilm awaiting editing . It is

not possible to identify the most important sites for wildlife until the Summary Field has been created on the Church Heritage Record and Church Heritage Cymru. This work is currently underway with completion expected by autumn 2021.

Welsh Burial Grounds for Wildlife is funded by the Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund.

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Delivered by Harriet Carty and Prue Dakin

This project started in April 2019, it was due to end in October 2020 but was extended because of COVID-19 until June 2021.

It is a built heritage project , based around the restoration of 12 listed Georgian tombs in St John the Baptist churchyard of Bishop’s Castle, Shropshire.

In addition to the stone conservation work , the project has seen volunteers from Bishops Castle

Heritage Resource Centre investigating all things to do with Georgian times in the locality and

specifically, what information exists about the people commemorated by the 12 tombs . A local

folk singer and song writer, John Kirkpatrick has been working with pupils from the local secondary school and events have taken place including a heritage drop-in to showcase the information discovered by the volunteers. A History Day with several speakers took place digitally

in March 2021 and the project will close with a final celebration in May 2021.

Georgians in Stone Project, May 2021

This project was submitted by the PCC of St John the Baptist, Bishop’s Castle with support from CfGA. it is funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, with thanks to the National Lottery players.

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8 RESTORING SHROPSHIRE’S VERGES PROJECT

This project started in August 2019 and was due to run for 12 months but has been extended due to COVID-19 until August 2021. It is a partnership project between CfGA, the National Trust,

Plantlife, Shropshire Council and several Parish Councils . The project aims to manage 10km of flower rich verges well, showcasing how this can be achieved, how attractive and good for biodioversity this is and also how cost effective .

volunteers and machinery

The project was going well until lockdown stopped activity with over 10km of verges selected , surveyed and managed, and 5 talks given by local volunteers. The film was completed in August

2020 and is on our website and the Action Day is taking place in July 2021 as part of a larger Hay Meadow Festival . A leaflet is in the design stage at the end of this year. In addition, RSVP has

widened to include several members of the local community and has become a Constituted Group. RSVP has been working closely with Shropshire Council and Kier, their main contractor for verge cutting and are in discussion regarding embedding this improved management of verges into council policy and contractor work plans.

This project is funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, with thanks to the National Lottery players.

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REVIEW OF CORE ACTIVITIES

Delivered by Andrea Gilpin and Harriet Carty with office support from Prue Dakin and Anna Wilde.

1 SUPPORT LOCAL COMMUNITIES, GROUPS & INDIVIDUALS WHO MANAGE BURIAL GROUNDS

We offer support and guidance to anybody involved in managing a burial ground . We encourage them to consider the full range of features within their site; biodiversity, built heritage and social history plus the opportunities to involve their local communities and inform their visitors. We advocate investigation, recording and research within burial grounds, to increase the body of knowledge about these fascinating places.

This is achieved through a combination of phone calls, emails, public speaking and visits , and

through the provision of resources including written material, video, website content and social

media. This year we added virtual visits to our methods of reaching and supporting burial ground managers.

CfGA also supports burial ground managers through the resources that we provide: our Action Pack, Education Pack, Field Studies Council Fold-out Chart, Botanical Companion, Beautiful Burial Ground DVD and Starter Guide. All of these are available to download and/or buy via our

website. The Starter Guide is currently sent out in hard copy to anybody who requests it as part of the BBG project . In addition, we now have 14 mini-films available on our website.

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2 CHARITY & PROJECT DEVELOPMENT PLUS GENERAL FUNDRAISING

During this year, focus has been on continuing the delivery of the Beautiful Burial Ground project plus building resources via grant applications and increasing the income raised by staff through management planning and paid practical work for our volunteer manager. We have been building projects which were submitted during this financial year or shortly afterwards by Mick Clifton our Fund Raiser.

These include:

Opening the Ark : a project aimed at spreading the biodiversity from within a burial ground into the wider community, involving people in improving their locality. At the end of April 2021 we were awaiting a decision on this.

Hotspots for Wales: expanding the successful Hotspots project to new areas of Wales including Mid Wales and North-East Wales. This was successful and is now in delivery.

Covid-19 Emergency Funding: this was submitted in September 2020 and delivered by January 2021.

Small grants for our Conservation Volunteers and other aspects of our work: numerous applications have been made to other trusts and agencies, many of which have been successful. Successful applications were:

The Golden Bottle Trust £500 - conservation volunteering Powys County Council Nature Partnership Fund £600 - volunteer training The Lennox Hannay Trust £1,000 – conservation volunteering The Rowlands Trust £1,000 – conservation volunteering The Southall Trust £2,000 – conservation volunteering The Church of England £300 - Churches Count on Nature £5,000 – Wildlife poster and research work Tesco Plastic Bag Grant £1,000 – conservation volunteering

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3 GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF THE CHARITY

Core staff are charged with management of the charity including:

4 ORGANISING LOVE YOUR BURIAL GROUND WEEK

This national event takes place in the second week of June, spanning two weekends. People are encouraged to run an event of their choice to encourage the public to visit their burial ground, learn something about it and have an enjoyable time. Events are logged on the CfGA website. This was cancelled in 2020 due to COVID-19.

6 SUPPORTING & INCREASING MEMBERSHIP INCLUDING DIOCESAN MEMBERSHIP

INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP MEMBERSHIP

The individual and group membership of CfGA stood at 162 individual or group members at the end of April 2021. Two editions of the members’ newsletter, The Lychgate were produced and

distributed.

This year we ran a virtual AGM on Zoom ,

the speaker was Professor Harold Mytum whose talk was titled Recording Monuments. 64 people attended the AGM.

the speaker was Professor Harold

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DIOCESAN MEMBERSHIP WITH LICHFIELD DIOCESE

We have a rolling membership with the Lichfield Diocese through which CfGA supply a range of services including advice, support, communications and our printed resources. The Lichfield Diocese commit to monthly financial support of the charity.

We have:

7 RESPONDING TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

All of our work was greatly affected by COVID-19 throughout the year. During April of 2020 we furloughed 3 members of staff who became unable to do their work as a result of lockdown. We have continued to improve our distance working systems and protocols for working and for volunteers returning once it became safe to do so. We kept up to date with advice from a variety of sources including government websites, ACAS website and the Small Charities Coalition. The Finance and Risk Committee gave governance to the decision-making taking place which needed to react to rapidly changing conditions.

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STAFF AND GOVERNANCE

TRUSTEES

The trustees who held office during the financial year and at the date of this report are:

Oliver Goode Chair
Gillian Binks Vice Chair
Joe Manifold Treasurer
Lisette Davies Secretary
Anni Holden
Judith Leigh
Catherine MacCarthy
Alex Glanville
Simon Cooter

New trustees are recruited as needed, either by appointment at the AGM or by co-option. In 2015 we carried out an initial skills audit of trustees which is updated annually. New trustees are recruited as needed and we have invited Revd David Primrose to join the trustees in June 2021. The charity is governed by its constitution.

TRUSTEE RECRUITMENT

CfGA Director or existing trustees suggest potential new trustees and identify the skills and experience which they would bring to the group. This is then considered by the Director and Chair of Trustees, assessing whether the new individual will fit with the existing skills of the trustees and whether a balance is being maintained regarding skills and experience and the objectives of the charity. If the potential new trustee is deemed to be suitable then either the Director or Chair of Trustees will approach them to see if they will be willing to stand and the other trustees are informed of this by email or post. If interested, the individual is invited to the next trustees meeting to learn more about the charity and the role of trustees. They are then invited to join.

New trustees meet with the Director prior to their first trustees meeting, who explains the work and objectives of the charity. They are given a full set of our publications and also a copy of the Roles of Trustees and generic guidelines on being a trustee from the Charity Commission. One individual was invited to join the trustees during this financial year; this is Revd David Primrose who brings with him

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a great deal of experience in community engagement and cohesion as well as working within a diocese.

The Trustees have assessed the major risks to which the charity is exposed, in particular those related to its operations and finances, and are satisfied that systems are in place to minimise exposure to those risks.

GOVERNANCE ACTIVITY

During the year trustees held four trustees’ meetings in June, September, December and March. Our Finance & Risk Committee meets a few weeks in advance of each of these meetings and then reports to full trustees. Trustees are also sent the minutes of the Finance & Risk Committee meetings. All of these meetings took place digitally, on Microsoft Teams.

The Finance and Risk Committee oversees the management of the finance , monitoring expenditure against budget over the financial year. This includes the preparation of the charity’s annual accounts and the routine financial management. This committee also considers the risks to the charity and the projects being delivered by the charity. The risk log is considered and updated at each meeting. The Finance and Risk Committee were also consulted regarding changes to working practices brought about by COVID-19. These included decisions to furlough and unfurlough staff, decisions regarding whether staff returned fully or partially to work and also plans, risk assessment and protocols for returning to the office and restarting our volunteer group.

This committee reports to the full board of trustees which is responsible for approval of the

budget and the annual accounts . This committee met four times this year.

Members: Oliver Goode, Joe Manifold, Alex Glanville. Also attending: Harriet Carty, Prue Dakin .

2020 was the year of the mid-term review of the BBG project and marked the start of the

development of the new Business Plan. We held a facilitated trustees meeting in June, led by

our BBG evaluator Kate Measures and also a facilitated meeting of the BBG steering group to start discussion of both BBG and the Business Plan. Once the Business Plan is completed we will set

up a new Start and Finish Group .

The Project Champions meet or speak to the member of staff responsible for a project prior to the

full board of trustees’ meetings. They then present the report written by staff on their particular

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project and add their views and information . They take a lead in the governance of the projects for which they are champion.

Governance and support for the Director is given via the full board of trustees and also through quarterly informal meetings between the Chair of Trustees Oliver Goode and the Director Harriet Carty .

We have a Steering Group for the Beautiful Burial Ground project in delivery, which met virtually once in July via Zoom. This was a facilitated meeting, looking back at progress in the first half of the project and forward to the second half and the project legacy.

This group includes experts in ecology, built heritage, recording systems as well as the Church of England, Church in Wales plus four of our trustees.

Members: Jo Judge (NBN), Jenifer White (Historic England), Catherine Ross (CofE), James Miles (CofE), Tina Andrews (CinW), Sue Townsend (FSC), Charlie Bell (FSC), Caroline Uff (National Trust), Dan Wrench (Shropshire Council), Judith Leigh, Gill Binks, Oliver Goode, Catherine MacCarthy

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STAFF

George Sharp, Andrea Gilpin and Alex Logan were furloughed at various times over the year, having all been furloughed in April 2020:

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TREASURER’S REPORT 2020 - 2021

RESERVES POLICY

The Trustees believe that the Charity should hold financial reserves because:

The Trustees believe that the minimum level of balance on reserves should be the equivalent of at least three months operating costs for the Charity as a whole. This will be calculated, reviewed and approved annually. The reserves should be built up to the desired level in stages consistent with the Charity’s overall financial position and its need to maintain and develop its objectives. Based on the latest financial statements, three months operating costs amount to approximately £50,000 and this is more than covered by the reserves held.

TREASURER’S REPORT FOR THE FINANCIAL YEAR 1[ST] MAY 2020 – 30[TH] APRIL 2021

This year’s accounts show a significant surplus primarily due to the flexibility of staff and management in dealing with the financial impact of COVID 19, which if not handled well could have had a very adverse effect on the ability of the Charity to continue.

Income for the year was £13,000 less than that of the previous year, but expenditure was reduced by over £60,000. These figures reflect funds successfully realised from the government furlough scheme, £20,000; the HLF emergency fund, £18,000; and Shropshire Council, £5,000. This funding is partly shown in increased income and partly in reduced expenditure.

The outcome is that at the end of year funds have risen from £113,000 at the beginning of the year to £150,000 at the end of the year. It should be noted that at the beginning of the year the Charity liquidated its equity investments held in the Sarasin Fund (approximately £26,000) in view of the potential instability of the equities market. All funds are now held as cash deposits.

We are grateful for the support we have received, and particular mention should be made of:

National Lottery Heritage Fund Natural Resources Wales and Welsh Government

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Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund

Historic England

The Millichope Foundation Garfield Weston Foundation GML Ltd Bishop’s Castle Town Council

We are also grateful for support from The Lennox Hannay Charitable Trust, The Rowlands Trust, The Environment Agency, Golden Bottle Trust, The Southall Trust, Tesco Plastic Bag Grant and Shropshire Council through their Covid Recovery grant scheme.

Following the Annual General Meeting, I will be relinquishing my positions as Treasurer and Trustee and a plan has been established for succession.

I wish the Charity every success in continuing the valuable work it undertakes.

Joe Manifold

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ANNUAL ACCOUNTS 2020 – 2021

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