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2023-03-31-accounts

THE MILLS ARCHIVE TRUST

(A charitable incorporated organisation) CIO Number 1155828

UNAUDITED TRUSTEES' REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR 31 MARCH 2023

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THE MILLS ARCHIVE TRUST

CONTENTS

Page
Reference and administrative details of the charity, its trustees, and advisers 3
Trustees' report 4 ‐ 10
Independent examiner's report 11 ‐ 12
Receipts and payments account 13
Statement of assets and liabilities 14
Notes to financial statements 15 ‐ 16

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THE MILLS ARCHIVE TRUST REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS OF THE CHARITY, ITS TRUSTEES AND ADVISERS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

Trustees

Dr RF Cookson MBE, Chairman

Dr AW Vaidya, Vice Chairman

Mrs MM Cookson

Mr MJ Evans

Mr G Hackney

Mr C Pinchbeck DL

Mr MJ Savage JP

Dr M Simons

Director

Ms E Bartram

Charity registered number 1155828

Principal office

Watlington House. 44 Watlington Street, Reading RG1 4RJ

Accountants

Holy Brook Associates Ltd, The Curious Lounge, 20 Tudor Road, Reading, RG1 1NH

Bankers

Charities Aid Foundation 25 Kings Avenue, Kings Hill, West Malling ME19 4JQ Santander Bridle Road, Bootle, Merseyside 30 4GB

Solicitors

Blandy and Blandy LLP One Friar Street, Reading RG1 1DA

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MILLS ARCHIVE TRUST

TRUSTEES' REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

The Trustees present their annual report together with the financial statements of The Mills Archive Trust (the charity) for the year ended 31 March 2023. The Trustees confirm that the Annual Report and financial statements of the charity comply with the current statutory requirements, the requirements of the charity's governing document and the provisions of the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP), applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS102) (effective 1 January 2015).

Structure, governance, and management

The Mills Archive Trust is an educational charity registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales. Registered as a Charitable Trust in April 2002 (registration no 1091534) the charity was incorporated as a Foundation Charitable Incorporated Organisation (registration no 1155828) in February 2014. The Charity is controlled by its constitution dated 18 February 2014 and the management of the Charity is the responsibility of the Trustees, who are elected under the terms of that constitution.

The Trustees confirm that in setting our objectives and planning our activities, they have given careful consideration to the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit.

This year marked our 20[th] anniversary and the reopening of our doors to volunteers and visitors as part of our recovery from Covid. Our strategic plan for the next decade was revised and agreed in August. Our strategy outlines how the Director of the Trust will continue to develop archive services and enhance the fundraising role while building an educational information and engagement service to make the best use of our holdings and our professional reputation. Our continued commitment to developing our staff is evident from our support for the Archivist to complete the ARA’s digital preservation module, enhancing his Archives & Records Management qualification and the funding of the Director’s 3-year Master’s course at Aberystwyth University.

Having recruited a development officer, we can start to plan for growth, building on our wealth of material on the uses of wind‐ and waterpower. With public engagement as a key priority, we aim to ensure sustainability, deliver our mission to protect, preserve and promote milling history for people to learn from and enjoy, and achieve our vision to work to create a world in which the role of milling and all its contributors – from ancient times and up to present day – are understood, valued and recognised as integral to people’s histories and lives today.

A vital step in this process was the successful renewal of our national accreditation in March. As with our previous award, accreditation lasts for six years and results from a detailed examination of our standards, management, and governance. In making the award, The National Archives commented:

  1. The Mills Archive is an effective and ambitious specialist service which is developing its strategy effectively as its operating context changes.

  2. The service fully understands the need to broaden its community and supporters to sustain its work over time. The shifting ways that the team explores the heritage of wind and waterpower show a strategic approach to delivering a relevant and engaging offer.

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  1. The pandemic has been a big challenge in operational and funding terms, but the team has identified its recovery pathway and is demonstrably making progress.

  2. The team are committed and well-supported by the trust to deliver their work, with a strong shared sense of purpose.

Statement on risk management

The Trustees have examined the major strategic, business, and operational risks which the charity faces and confirm that systems have been established to mitigate these risks.

Objects and activities for public benefit

The objects of the charity are:

to advance the education of the public in the subject of mills and milling by establishing and preserving and facilitating the public use of the archive to form, establish and support, and to aid in the formation, establishment and support of any other charities and voluntary bodies, established for, or advancing, charitable purposes, the same as, or similar to those of the charity, for the benefit of the public.

We continue to be grateful to our volunteers who have helped us achieve so much this year despite some having to work from home. We acknowledge the continuing backing from our regular supporters and the contributions from a significant number of new donors providing further support for our appeals to cover core costs.

The financial year 2022-23 has seen our largest volume of new accessions since the Archive was founded, with around 440 new boxes of material and 272 GB of digital files. Significant accessions included the millwrighting records of Owlsworth IJP and additional casework files from the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings.

We also received the second half of Alan Stoyel’s collection in May 2022. This included many artefacts such as wooden patterns and a quern, as well as all his digital files.

Director, Elizabeth Bartram, demonstrating one of the unique millwrighting patterns created for foundries to cast precisely engineered components of mill machinery. The display on the right captures part of the extensive collection built by Alan Stoyel over more than 60 years.

Another major accession was the Millers’ Mutual collection, consisting of the records of the Millers’ Mutual Association, the National Association of British and Irish Millers (now UK Flour Millers) and related bodies. This large and important collection from the UK’s milling trade association spans almost 150 years.

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The records contain a wealth of detail on the history of the modern milling industry, including minutes of the various organisations, deeds of purchase for mills, patents, accounts, policies, and cereal stock forms. Annual reports and minutes of AGMs and nabim committee meetings chart the history of the industry over the course of the 20th century with extensive details about the challenges faced during the two world wars, as well as later events such as decimalization, the introduction of VAT and the UK’s entry in the European Economic Community. Some of the early minutes were pasted into enormous minute books like the one held by Archivist, Nathanael Hodge, shown here. They are fascinating to look at, although their bindings may require conservation.

A contrasting acquisition, our first of 2023, was the collection of Peter Musgrove, an engineering professor at Reading University. Peter has been instrumental in encouraging the Trust to develop wind-powered generation of electricity as a key strategic area. An early advocate for offshore wind farms in the 1970s, he designed vertical axis wind turbines. He co-founded the British Wind Energy Association and wrote Wind Power (2010), a book which tells a connected story of how humans have made use of the wind, from historic mills to modern turbines.

Peter’s collection (left) is our first major one devoted to modern wind power. His books, photographs, papers, and collections of press cuttings are an indispensable record of the career of a key individual in the story of the development of this power source, which provides up to half the nation’s energy on a given day.

Volunteer Amanda Knight has recently catalogued many indentures, accumulated over 30 years by Trustee Mildred Cookson. Obtained principally from online auctions of legal papers from now defunct law firms, they provide unique insights into social and historical conventions from our collective pasts.

The 1552 indenture (right) relates to Hockeredge Mill, Kent. Most of the catalogued indentures are from the 19th century, although there are plenty from the 17th and 18th centuries too.

Some of the mills are known to us and still exist today and others await identification and indexing. In terms of geographic spread, most of the mills identified are English with just two mills from Wales and one rather surprising addition from Pennsylvania, USA.

The durable property of the vellum (writing material made from animal skin) on which most of the indentures are written is evident. All handmade, their longevity certainly brings into focus the

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fragile nature of some of our most recent innovations (eg thermally printed facsimile paper).

These indentures are a fraction of Mildred’s collection, the remaining “Foundation” collection that is still in private hands. To ease the transfer of more of her collection to the Trust, we are utilising our new room (left) at Watlington House. As well as providing more cataloguing space, the room also provides additional capacity for exhibitions.

PhD student placement Starlina Rose has digitised all 541 issues of the American “Northwestern Miller” covering the 1930s, making their content (almost 40,000 pages) freely available online. As part of the project, funded by a White Rose College of Arts and Humanities grant, she has authored a 35,000-word publication entitled “The Northwestern Miller: Dust Storms, Grasshoppers, Race, Gender, and War - 1930-1939”. This is now being prepared for publication as a Mills Archive Research publication.

Our Research Publication “Corn and Flour Milling in Newry”, published in February 2022 was recently described as a

“Comprehensively, even lovingly, researched and amply illustrated work, evidenced by nearly 1,000 footnotes.

The Mills Archive Trust and the author deserve acknowledgement in creating what could well be a template for other local historians to adopt for their own sectors.” T Parkhill, Keeper of History at National Museums Northern Ireland.

We have since published “The Restoration of Wicken Mill: Millwrighting, Milling, and History”, a valuable historical record of how a group of volunteer millwrights and fellow enthusiasts took over a derelict mill in 1987 and restored it to full working order. In addition, the book discusses in detail the crafts of millwrighting and the milling of stone-ground flour.

Altogether we have now published 19 Research volumes, five on millwrighting, five historical studies, five gazetteers and four studies of millers associated with specific mills or families.

2017 Saundersons: Millwrights and engineers of Louth, Lincolnshire

2018 The London Millwrights: Masters and journeymen in the late 18th and early 19th centuries

2018 Sneath's Mill, Lutton Gowts, Long Sutton, Lincolnshire: History, construction and technology 2021 High Salvington: saving Worthing’s last windmill

2022 The Restoration of Wicken Mill: Millwrighting, milling, and history

The Mills Archive Research Publications on Millwrighting

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The vanishing craft of millwrighting was the feature of our second web-based exhibition (right) launched in Summer 2022. The work was carried out in 2021-2022 by intern Hayden Francis-Legg who had been supported by the Swire Charitable Trust.

The Foyle Foundation generously gave us a grant of £15,000 towards physical and digital storage of archival material, an increasingly important aspect of our “core” costs. Regular support for such costs, not tied to a specific project, is an important income stream for us. Alongside generous donations from individuals, boosted by our “It’s all about Trust” appeal, we are grateful for regular support from Perendale Publishers Ltd, The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings and, more recently, The George Family Foundation.

The Millers’ Mutual Association has provided a grant of £46,822 to cover the costs of our three-year project “Millers, Memories and Megabytes”. This will help to drive our digital programme to access and share information, connect with places and people, discovering things about ourselves and wider society.

Like today’s milling industry, the Trust is dependent on its digital infrastructure and rapidly changing technology, vital for gathering, preservation, organisation, and dissemination of archival and educational information. Our website traffic continues to increase. Virtual visitors during the year reached 115,000, an increase of 70%. This increase in our domestic and global reach has been consistent since covid; monthly visitors during March were 4,000 in 2021, 8,000 in 2022 and 13,000 in 2023.

In January 2023 the Trust was awarded a £198,751 grant by The National Lottery Heritage Fund to transform local learning about the history of wind and waterpower and their potential to address present and future needs. This innovative heritage project, “Reading emPOWERed”, will start in April when funding will be available.

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The project will focus on preserving and sharing the history of wind and water as renewable energy sources. Local people from a range of groups will draw on the Archive’s existing records of milling heritage and help to create new archival and educational material. Together we will explore the significance of wind and waterpower and the roles of local people in developing the potential of renewables to address the needs of existing and future generations.

Opportunities to involve the local community, schools and colleges have been sketched out with Design Nature CIC, the arts education charity Jelly, the Ukrainian Community Centre, and Reading University’s Renewable Energy Masters course. Such discussions have also opened further avenues for us to offer additional voluntary placements as part of their courses and work experience programmes.

Financial Position

Total income rose by 4% compared to last year, an increase in donations compensating for the lack of significant legacy income in 2022-2023. Expenditure increased by 5% reflecting an increase in rent and storage costs together with additional IT development work. Restricted reserves completed their expected reduction to £3,500 as projects were completed.

Unrestricted reserves at £64,000 fell back to 5 months of unrestricted expenditure on a receipts and payments basis. If the agreed “full cost recovery” support for overheads in the Lottery grant (above) is considered, cover increases to 8.75 months. The Lottery grant total of £198, 751 includes £47,533 full cost recovery, payable in quarterly instalments from April 2023 to July 2025.

Reserves Policy

It is the policy of the charity to aim for an unrestricted reserve of six months of unrestricted expenditure.

Trustees’ responsibilities statement

The Trustees are responsible for preparing the Trustees’ report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice). The law applicable to charities in England and Wales requires the Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charity and of incoming resources and application of resources of the charity for that year. In preparing these financial statements the Trustees are required to:

Select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently. Observe methods and principles in the Charities SORP.

Make judgements and accounting estimates that are reasonable and prudent. State whether applicable UK Accounting Standards have been followed, subject to any

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material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements.

Prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue in operation.

The Trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain the charity’s transactions and disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and enable them to ensure that financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011, The Charity (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 and the provisions of the trust deed. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

This report was approved by the Trustees on 22 August 2023 and signed on their behalf by:

RF Cookson Chairman Date 22 August 2023

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Independent examiner's report on the accounts

Section A Independent Examiner’s Report

Report to the trustees/ The Mills Archive Trust members of

On accounts for the year
ended
Set out on pages		 31stMarch 2023 Charity no
(if any)		 1155828
13-16

Respective responsibilities of trustees and examiner

The charity's trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. The charity’s trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year under section 144 of the Charities Act 2011 (the Charities Act) and that an independent examination is needed.

It is my responsibility to:

Basis of independent examiner’s statement

My examination was carried out in accordance with general Directions given by the Charity Commission. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts, and seeking explanations from the trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a ‘true and fair’ view and the report is limited to those matters set out in the statement below.

Independent examiner's In connection with my examination, no material matters have come to my statement attention which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect,:

I have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached .

Date: 8[th] September 2023

Signed: Name: Rachel Eden

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Relevant professional ACMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) qualification(s) or body (if any):

Address: Holy Brook Associates, Curious Lounge, 1st Floor, Pinnacle Building, Tudor Road, Reading, England, RG1 1NH

Section B Disclosure

[NONE ]

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MILLS ARCHIVE TRUST RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS ACCOUNT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

INCOME FROM:
Voluntary income
Other trading activities
Miscellaneous income
Grants
TOTAL INCOME
EXPENDITURE ON:
Raising funds
Charitable activities
TOTAL EXPENDITURE
NET INCOME / (EXPENDITURE)
Cash balance at 1 April 2022
Cash balance at 31 March 2023		 Restricted
funds 2023 £
Unrestricted
funds 2023 £
Total funds
2023 £
Total funds
2022 £
5,000
80,530
85,530
109,416
0
14,923
14,923
9,004
0
665
665
178
15,000
46,882
61,882
38,261
20,000
143,000
163,000
156,859
Restricted
funds 2023 £
Unrestricted
funds 2023 £
Total funds
2023 £
Total funds
2022 £
1,085
26,177
27,262
29,159
33,613
132,786
166,399
155,304
34,698
158,963
193,661
184,463
(14,698)
(15,962)
(30,660)
(27,604)
18,203
67,030
85,233
85,233
3,505
51,067
54,572

All figures are rounded to whole £.

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MILLS ARCHIVE TRUST STATEMENT OF ASSETS AND LIABILITIES

AS AT 31 MARCH 2023

CASH FUNDS
Current accounts
Deposit account
Other accounts
Total:
OTHER MONETARY ASSETS
Gift Aid
Total:
ASSETS FOR CHARITY'S OWN USE
Library furniture
Total:
STATEMENT OF FUNDS
General funds
Collections fund
Education and outreach fund
Research fund
Restricted funds
Total:		 2023
£
2022
£
13,322
12,155
37,873
68,447
3,377
4,630
54,572
85,233
12,950
10,510
12,950
10,510
19,376
19,376
19,376
19,376
36,718
46,533
5,181
5,181
2,480
2,480
6,688
12,836
3,505
18,203
54,572
85,233

The financial statements were approved by the Trustees on 22[nd] August 2023 and signed on their behalf, by:

R F Cookson Chairman

A Vaidya Vice Chairman

The following notes page(s) form part of these financial statements.

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MILLS ARCHIVE TRUST NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

VOLUNTARY INCOME
Legacies
Donations
George Family Foundation
Total:
OTHER TRADING ACTIVITIES
Fees for services
Sales
Total:
MISCELLANEOUS INCOME
Interest
Other income
Total:
GRANTS
Millers' Mutual Grant
NMCT Grant
Swire Charitable Trust
Foyle Foundation
Total:
RAISING FUNDS
Staf costs
Development supplies
Total:
CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES
Archive supplies
Direct project costs allocated
Furniture and equipment
IT development
Legal and fnance
Miscellaneous and ofce expenses
Network and telephone
Recruitment
Rent
Staf costs
Training, travel and subsistence
Website maintenance		 Restricted
Unrestricted
Total funds
Total funds
funds 2023 £
funds 2023 £
2023 £
2022 £
0
39
39
44,030
5,000
70,490
75,490
65,386
0
10,000
10,000
0
5,000
80,530
85,530
109,416
0
1,334
1,334
1,814
0
13,589
13,589
7,190
0
14,923
14,923
9,004
0
358
358
15
0
308
308
162
0
665
665
178
15,000
31,882
46,882
10,000
0
0
0
4,972
0
0
0
23,289
0
15,000
15,000
0
15,000
46,882
61,882
38,261
0
25,000
25,000
27,000
1,085
1,177
2,262
2,159
1,085
26,177
27,262
29,159
0
706
706
3,631
17,484
0
17,484
21,954
0
378
378
265
8,160
5,230
13,390
4,554
0
0
0
3,026
220
327
547
2,131
1,023
1,928
2,951
2,783
0
1,143
1,143
1,329
0
24,701
24,701
26,546
3,802
69,730
73,532
76,727
0
0
0
3,228
720
10,858
11,578
9,131

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||
16| P age
0
2,014
2,014
0
0
925
925
0
0
243
243
0
0
1,403
1,403
0
1,194
326
1,519
0
927
4,525
5,452
0
0
3,440
3,440
0
0
883
883
0
84
4,027
4,111
0
33,613
132,786
166,399
155,304| |---|---| |Accountancy fees
Bank fees
Compliance fees
Insurance
Library supplies
Storage
Training and CPD
Transaction costs
Travel and subsistence
Total:||

Notes to the accounts

Direct project costs allocated

Restricted grants directly funded the employment of interns (£3,446), website and IT development (£6,795), packaging and supplies (£2,450) and equipment purchases (£4,793).

Funder Source Amount Expenditure
Library donation income £5000 £5002
Millers’ Mutual
Association		 balance b/f &
income		 £19913 £16406
Garfield Weston
Foundation		 balance b/f £13290 £13290
Balance remaining balance c/f £3505
Total £38203 £38203

Trustee Remuneration and expenses

As last year, none of the trustees have been paid any remuneration or received any other benefits from an employment with their charity or a related entity. No trustee expenses have been incurred.

Independent Examiner remuneration

The Independent Examiner received remuneration of £360 including VAT. They did not undertake any other work for the firm, but the same firm received remuneration of £649.20 including VAT for other services relating to payroll and pensions administration during the year.

Related parties

There were no related party transactions in the reporting period that require disclosure.

Staff

As last year, the average head count (number of staff employed) during the reporting period was Four. No employees received employee benefits (excluding employer pension costs) of more than £60,000. The charity operated a defined contribution plan. All of the costs associated with this were from unrestricted funds.

Accounting policies

The accounts are produced on a receipts and payments basis. There are no material uncertainties about the charity’s ability to continue.

Public benefit

The charity is a Public Benefit Entity.

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