THE MILLS ARCHIVE TRUST (A charitable incorporated organisation) CIO Number 1155828
UNAUDITED
TRUSTEES' REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR 31 MARCH 2024
THE MILLS ARCHIVE TRUST CONTENTS
| Page | |
|---|---|
| Reference and administrative details of the charity, its trustees, and advisers | 3 |
| Trustees' report | 4 ‐ 9 |
| Independent examiner's report | 10 ‐ 11 |
| Receipts and payments account | 12 |
| Statement of assets and liabilities | 13 |
| Notes to financial statements | 14 ‐ 15 |
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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 2024
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 2024
The Trustees present their annual report together with the financial statements of The Mills Archive Trust (the charity) for the year ended 31 March 2024. 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.
Our strategic plan for the period up to 2027 highlights three thematic priorities:
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Feeding the World The history of milling has many stories of hope in a world where the number of people affected by hunger globally rose to 828 million in 2021. We aim to address the UN concern that the world is moving in reverse, away from the goal of ending hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition by 2030.
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The Contemporary Importance of Renewable Energy The threat of climate change mandates the move from the use of fossil‐based fuels to generate electricity. The history of renewable energy, based on wind‐ or water‐power, is one of our areas of expertise and offers many research and education opportunities.
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The Preservation of Vanishing Skills Traditional wind‐ and water‐mills over the last millennium have relied on the skills of millers and millwrights to operate, maintain, and repair them. In the last century many have disappeared and their survival as heritage assets is dependent on an ever‐decreasing group of craftsmen and women. There is an urgent need to record and make public the technical details of their crafts and the potential impact of the loss of this aspect of cultural heritage.
We plan for growth, building on our wealth of material on the uses of wind‐ and waterpower. With our information services, research and education as key priorities, we aim to ensure sustainability. We need this to 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.
Following the successful renewal of our national accreditation as an archive in March 2023, we will
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invest in information services as a base to establish ourselves as an educational charity with a world‐class archive with a strong record of research and scholarship.
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. 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.
In the financial year 2023‐24 the Archive accessioned 47 new boxes of material and 1.82 GB of digital files. Significant accessions included the archives of the late David Jones one of the UK’s most prominent watermill researchers. He started research in 1953 and was very active until he died 70 years later. His collection will greatly enhance our coverage of mills in Wales, and of water‐power more generally. His extensive collection of Welsh mill photographs covers time and place in great detail.
Another significant accession was the North Leverton Windmill archive. The only windmill in England to have continued working without a break from its construction to the present.
Built in 1813, the mill was founded as a subscription company for local people. The archive includes the original founding deed with the signatures of the original subscribers (or in many cases just a cross for those who could not write).
We have continued to develop our collections relating to renewable energy and our library has been much enriched by the archive of Professor David Elliott. As Professor of Technology Policy at the Open University, he created several courses in Design and Innovation, emphasising how the innovation development process can be directed towards sustainable technologies. His main research interests include the development of sustainable energy technologies, particularly renewable energy systems.
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Cataloguing projects in the last year have continued to focus on two large collections. Alan Stoyel’s collection mainly covers UK watermills, and volunteers have catalogued and indexed his notes and are listing and digitising his prints and slides. We have also continued working through the archives of the Millers’ Mutual Association and UK Flour Millers.
A set of very large minute books in the Millers’ Mutual collection posed a particular challenge due to the decay of the leather bindings, but with training from a professional conservator, the archivist and volunteers were able to consolidate the decaying leather and clean and rehouse the minute books.
In March we made our first foray into delivering online webinars. The topic was “Caring for your Collection”, a repackaged version of courses we used to run in person, pre‐Covid, at our home at Watlington House in Reading. Converting into an online format allows them to be shared more widely and provide greater access to people across the country and even overseas. In addition to members of staff and trustee Mildred Cookson, we invited several volunteers to contribute, giving their perspectives on the issues from their time working at the archive.
“It's really a great place to go if you want to know how to start….”
“It's been helpful because it's the actual nuts and bolts of how you actually catalogue something.”
“It was all extremely good for us, taking over care of an archive partly catalogued. My colleague volunteers have been reenthused…”
Two webinars held over two weeks looked at all aspects of archival care, including archival cataloguing, preservation of the physical items and the world of digital collections. The first workshop addressed the most basic questions – what are records and archives? Why keep them in the first place? Who should be involved, and how should they go about it? The second explored the different risks to the preservation of archival collections, and how these can be managed. We looked at the topic of digitisation, and how this helps to preserve and provide access to information.
Two more Research Publications were published this year, raising the total to 21. “The Northwestern Miller: Dust Storms, Grasshoppers, Race, Gender and War – 1930‐1939” covers the period from the Wall Street Crash until the outbreak of the Second World War, a momentous time in the shaping of America. The journal provides a contemporary and detailed account of the impact on the milling industry of the Crash, the ensuing depression and the cataclysmic drought that followed. It also
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illuminates a challenging and humbling narrative on prevalent social aspects such as racism and prejudice against women.
We are grateful to the AHRC/White Rose College grant scheme for providing three months’ support for PhD student, Starlina Rose to digitize 541 Northwestern Miller issues, analyse the information, and write such a compelling account.
We also acknowledge the work of volunteer Guy Blythman who added our second volume of the year “Nottinghamshire windmills”. This is the fifth and largest county gazetteer we have published together.
Last year’s generous grant from the Millers’ Mutual Association. supported this year by an equally helpful 2‐year grant from the Garfield Weston Foundation. has enabled us to continue developing our digital presence. Our website traffic continues to increase. Virtual visitors during the year increased by 8% to 124,000.
Our innovative heritage project, “Reading emPOWERed”, started in April with funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund and a grant from two local trustees. With a focus on preserving and sharing the history of renewable energy sources, a range of local people are drawing on the Archive’s existing records to create new archival and educational material. So far, we have engaged various young individuals, all aged from 14 ‐23: three university placement students, one work experience school student, and a postgraduate intern whose term we extended from 3 to 6 months.
Katie Dawson and Megan Phillips had a very successful university placement with us, creating an education pack that is now on our website. This pack focuses on the arguments for renewable energy in the 70s and 80s and includes a mock debate on the pros and cons of wind- and water-power. They interviewed Peter Musgrove, who donated his collection to us last year.
“Interviewing wind-energy expert Peter Musgrove was incredible. Discovering the changing attitudes towards wind power since the 1970s was crucial in helping us piece together what we have researched. It was very interesting to see how the UK has progressed towards using renewable energy over the last fifty years.”
Their work was made into an exhibition in the University of Reading’s history department.
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As well as developing educational packs for teens and compiling reading lists for our website, we are planning to launch an online digital exhibition on the history of renewable energy designed by intern Polly Bodgener.
We have developed opportunities to involve the local community, schools, and colleges in joint projects with Design Nature CIC, the arts education charity Jelly, the Ukrainian Community Centre, and Reading University’s Renewable Energy Masters course.
The September Heritage Open Days gave us the opportunity for a community workshop in partnership with the Arts charity, Jelly. Designed for all ages, this was the first of a series of seven collaborative workshops for schools during the project, each planned to be conducted by an “artist in residence”.
As our relationship with local schools develops, we will offer more short‐term work experience places to secondary school children. Not only do we provide a safe and supportive environment, we find participants are very motivated by our interest in global issues such as climate change of feeding a world where an increasing number are suffering from hunger and malnutrition.
Work experience students Tzipi and Jaahnavi (below) were actively involved in our information handling. When assessing our website, Tzipi commented “In the Volunteers and Work Experience section maybe link to use for humanities students who can’t often find work experience – Archiving gives skills that are transferrable and can be used in other humanities fields. Most interesting parts of website: Sugar and Slavery; Mills and People (interesting stories); Features and articles; Gems of the Archive.”
Jaahnavi reflected on her experience “In my time here my awareness about climate change anxiety increased. I never realized I felt this anxious about climate change until I read Hannah Ritchie’s “Not the end of the world” and I was extremely happy that I was given a project to design a booklet based on her book. I learnt how to be optimistic about climate change rather than pessimistic. In my time here I was given projects to write about different topics which I found very interesting to research. I gained more knowledge in how the history of mills was related to our renewable sources of energy.”
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Financial Position
Total income was boosted substantially over last year by an increase in voluntary contributions, and the first tranche of the grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Grant‐related activity increased expenditure, but control of other costs in the face of marked inflation provided a small surplus. Unrestricted expenditure was reduced from the previous year as some overheads were covered by the Lottery grant. With that support, our unrestricted reserve (cash plus Gift Aid due) at year end of £60,860 provided cover for 5.2 months of unrestricted costs, 10% up on the previous year but slightly below our target of 6 months. If the remaining Lottery‐funded “full cost recovery” of £27,000 is considered, the cover increases to 7.5 months. As this support will be payable in quarterly instalments to July 2025, we are budgeting to increase our unrestricted reserves to cushion the impact of that support dwindling in 2025‐2026.
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 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 7 May 2024 and signed on their behalf by:
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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 31[st] March 2024 Charity no 1155828 ended
Set out on pages 12-15
Respective The charity's trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. responsibilities of The charity’s trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year trustees and examiner under section 144 of the Charities Act 2011 (the Charities Act) and that an independent examination is needed.
It is my responsibility to:
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examine the accounts under section 145 of the Charities Act,
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to follow the procedures laid down in the general Directions given by the Charity Commission (under section 145(5)(b) of the Charities Act, and
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to state whether particular matters have come to my attention.
Basis of independent examiner’s statement
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.
In connection with my examination, no material matters have come to my attention which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect,:
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the accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act; or
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the accounts did not accord with the accounting records; or
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• the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a ‘true and fair’ view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination.
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: 12[th] August 2024
Signed:
Name: Rachel Eden ~~Cs~~
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Relevant professional FCMA (Fellow of the 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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RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS ACCOUNT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024
| 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 2023 Cash balance at 31 March 2024 |
Restricted funds 2024 £ Unrestricted funds 2024 £ Total funds 2024 £ Total funds 2023 £ 10,000 100,772 110,772 85,530 0 9,912 9,912 14,923 0 1,242 1,242 665 78,404 25,000 103,404 61,882 |
|---|---|
| 88,404 136,926 225,330 163,000 |
|
| Restricted funds 2024 £ Unrestricted funds 2024 £ Total funds 2024 £ Total funds 2023 £ 1,027 25,650 26,677 27,262 79,828 115,684 195,512 166,399 |
|
| 80,855 141,334 222,189 193,661 |
|
| 7,549 (4,408) 3,141 (30,660) 3,505 51,967 54,572 54,572 11,054 46,659 57,713 |
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STATEMENT OF ASSETS AND LIABILITIES AS AT 31 MARCH 2024
| 2024 | 2023 | |
|---|---|---|
| £ | £ | |
| CASH FUNDS | ||
| Current accounts | 10,124 | 13,322 |
| Deposit account | 45,825 | 37,873 |
| Other accounts | 1,764 | 3,377 |
| Total: | 57,713 | 54,572 |
| OTHER MONETARY ASSETS | ||
| Gift Aid | 14,200 | 12,950 |
| Total: | 14,200 | 12,950 |
| ASSETS FOR CHARITY'S OWN USE | ||
| Library furniture | 19,376 | 19,376 |
| Total: | 19,376 | 19,376 |
| STATEMENT OF FUNDS | ||
| General funds | 35,409 | 34,239 |
| Collections fund | 5,181 | 5,181 |
| Education and outreach fund | 2,480 | 2,480 |
| Research fund | 3,589 | 6,688 |
| Restricted funds | 11,054 | 5,985 |
| Total: | 57,713 | 54,572 |
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NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
| VOLUNTARY INCOME George Family Foundation Legacies Donations Total: OTHER TRADING ACTIVITIES Research, workshop and lecture fees Fees for services Sales Total: MISCELLANEOUS INCOME Interest Other income Total: GRANTS Foyle Foundation Millers' Mutual Grant Garfeld Weston Grant NLHF Grant Minor Grants Total: RAISING FUNDS Staf costs Development supplies Total: CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES Accountancy fees Archive supplies Bank fees Compliance fees Direct project costs allocated Furniture and equipment Insurance IT development Library supplies Miscellaneous and ofce expenses |
Restricted Unrestricted Total funds Total funds funds 2024 £ funds 2024 £ 2024 £ 2023 £ 0 10,000 10,000 10,000 0 0 0 39 10,000 90,772 100,772 75,490 |
|---|---|
| 10,000 100,772 110,772 85,530 |
|
| 0 628 628 100 0 730 730 1,234 0 8,554 8,554 13,589 |
|
| 0 9,912 9,912 14,923 |
|
| 0 1,013 1,013 358 0 229 229 308 |
|
| 0 1,242 1,242 665 |
|
| 0 0 0 15,000 0 0 0 46,882 0 25,000 25,000 0 76,946 0 76,946 0 1,459 0 1,459 0 |
|
| 78,404 25,000 103,404 61,882 |
|
| 0 25,000 25,000 25,000 1,027 650 1,677 2,262 |
|
| 1,027 25,650 26,677 27,262 |
|
| 0 1,752 1,752 2,014 37 655 692 706 0 825 825 925 0 244 244 243 55,465 0 55,465 17,484 0 750 750 378 954 0 954 1,403 1,870 1,275 3,145 13,390 0 0 0 1,519 72 56 128 547 |
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||15| P age
509
2,181
2,690
2,951
0
0
0
1,143
0
26,851
26,851
24,701
20,371
55,688
76,060
73,532
0
7,469
7,469
5,452
0
4,139
4,139
3,440
0
785
785
883
550
682
1,232
4,111
0
12,332
12,332
11,578
0
0|
|---|---|
|Network and telephone
Recruitment
Rent
Staf costs
Storage
Training and CPD
Transaction costs
Travel and subsistence
Website maintenance
Other fees
Total:||
||79,828
115,684
195,512
166,399|
Notes to the accounts
Direct project costs allocated
Restricted grants funded £55,465 direct project-specific costs: employment (£28,773), website and IT development (£11,321), outreach and supplies (£15,371).
| Funder | Opening balance |
Income | Expenditure | Closing balance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trustees for Reading EmPOWERed |
0 | £10,000 | £4,000 | £6,000 |
| National LotteryHeritage Fund | 0 | £76,945 | £74,147 | £2,798 |
| ReadingUniversity | 0 | £1,459 | £1,459 | 0 |
| Millers’ Mutual Association | £3,505 | 0 | £1,250 | £2,255 |
| Balance remaining | £11,053 |
Trustee Remuneration and expenses
As last year, none of the trustees have been paid any remuneration or received any other benefits from 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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