OpenCharities

This text was generated using OCR and may contain errors. Check the original PDF to see the document submitted to the regulator.

2021-12-31-accounts

[Type here]

2021

Bampton Heritage & Visitor Centre

8[th] Annual Report.

BHVC 8[th] ANNUAL REPORT - 2021 Registered Charity No 1156194.

CHAIRMAN’S INTRODUCTION by Liz Redfern CBE

This is the second consecutive year that the Heritage and Visitor Centre has been affected by Covid 19. But nevertheless, we have continued to look forward with creativity and success as this 2021 report shows.

Let me briefly outline some of our achievements that you will find described in the report. We

Of course, none of this would be possible without an energetic and committed group of Trustees who are brimming with ideas, ably supported by our team of volunteer visitor hosts We also get exceptional help from our volunteer Humphrey Berridge who maintains the website, films and produces the short videos and deals with whatever challenge we throw at him with good humour and pragmatism.

The support of the wider community has been crucial too. A huge thank you to Alan Loftus at Bampton Game for selling our Bampton themed items and walking books throughout the year and The Bridge House for signposting people to us and selling mugs and books.

The Treasurers report shows that we are in a stable financial position, despite a reduction in visitor numbers and therefore donations. This is due in no small part to the popularity of the new shop stock and the Government Covid recovery grant received via MDDC.

We were saddened to hear of the deaths of two of our longest supporters, Russ Davies and Tom McManoman aka TJ Francis. Russ lived in the USA, but was brilliant at family history research, helping us answer enquiries on many occasions. Tom wrote the 4 history books of Bampton as TJ Francis. He had been involved from the outset and was incredibly responsive to any historical questions we might ask.

Of course, we could not carry on without the support of the Rev Kevin Chandra, the two church wardens, Sue Leach and Tony Mount and the PCC. Thank you so much for all that you do.

I have thoroughly enjoyed being Chairman during 2021. My term of office as a Trustee ends at the AGM and after 8 years as a Trustee I have decided to retire.

2

BHVC 8[th] ANNUAL REPORT - 2021 Registered Charity No 1156194.

TREASURER’S REPORT by Rachel Macdonald FINANCIAL YEAR JANUARY TO DECEMBER 2021

I am pleased to draw your attention to the continuing healthy financial position of the Bampton Heritage and Visitor Centre, despite the ongoing challenges of the Covid pandemic. BHVC thanks our Independent Examiner, Geoff Girdlestone, for his time, help and guidance.

The formal accounts are presented in a straightforward format that demonstrates that the Trustees act honestly and responsibly in handling BHVC funds. The accounts are divided into two sources of revenue – Restricted and Unrestricted.

Restricted funds are grants or donations only to be used for the purpose for which they are given. £1,793 was carried forward from 2020. In 2021 BHVC was awarded 4 grants totalling £2,000. Expenditure on projects such as the walking books and events, brochures and COVID controls came to £2,113.

Unrestricted funds are the monies raised by BHVC Volunteers through activities such as shop and stall sales, town trails, events etc. Opportunities to raise money in this way have been scarce this year, with BHVC being closed for several months. This has also affected donations from visitors. We again send our heartfelt thanks to Bampton Game who continue to sell shop stock on our behalf. 2020 saw the launch of a programme of pop-up stalls in Brook Street, running almost weekly prior to Christmas. A new range of stock, including Christmas and greetings cards and hampers, was launched at the Bampton Fair. Unrestricted Income totalled £4,685

BHVC has had to expend money in order to achieve the above-mentioned income and to meet its overhead and running liabilities.

Unrestricted expenditure totalled £1,884

By taking the total unrestricted expenditure away from the total unrestricted income of and adding in our stock holding we see that this year BHVC made a gross surplus of £2,688.

The balances at year end 31 December 2021 show that total holdings of cash in hand or at the bank (restricted and unrestricted) stood at £11,984, whilst stock was valued at £2,218. Assets have depreciated by £795. This stable financial position is due to hard work by Trustees and Volunteers, and the support from local business and members of the community - all of whom have played key roles in keeping the Centre viable in these challenging times.

In recognition of the stable financial position, the Trustees will review and agree the 2022 Reserves Policy . This policy lays out what BHVC will do with money it has. To be prudent we need to continue to keep reserves in the bank to insure us against hard times, but we do not wish to build up large reserves of cash when there is so much we can do to keep BHVC vibrant and alive. With this in mind, a draft budget will be set for 2022 and will be updated throughout the year in line with the reserves policy . Both these documents, along with the draft examined accounts shown on the next page, will be received for approval at the AGM.

3

BHVC 8[th] ANNUAL REPORT - 2021 Registered Charity No 1156194.

BAMPTON HERITAGE & VISITOR CENTRE

Accounts for year ending 31st December 2021

INCOME
2020
3,150
Grants
191
Donations
2,078
Sales
28
Town Trails
0
Fundraising
233
Other income
169
Gift Aid Refund
5,849
EXPENDITURE
Routine
2,018
Shop stock
0
Repairs & Maintenance
445
Overheads
42
Admin
153
Subscriptions
114
Volunteer support & training
112
Marketing
93
Equipment/Materials
0
Events
102
Museum Collection
0
Other
Restricted
522
Building Project
485
Covid
350
Walking book
0
Walking festival
4,436
1,413
Net Income
9,138
Balances - Bank
61
Balance with Paypal
31
Petty Cash at Centre
30
Cash in hand
0
Unpresented cheques
3,976
Assets minus depreciation (20%)
2,559
Stock
15,795
Total Assets		 Restricted
£
2,000
0
0
0
0
0
0		 Unrestricted Total

£
£

0 2,000

841
841

3,694 3,694

135
135

0
0

0
0

15
15

4,685 6,685
2,000
1,000
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1,113
454 1,454

0
0

621
621

131
131

110
110

155
155

49
49

143
143

41
41

132
132

48
48

0
0

0
0

0
0

0
0

0
1,113

1,884 3,997

2,113
-113
2,801
2,688
11,811
77
30
30
0
3,181
2,218
17,347

4

BHVC 8" ANNUAL REPORT- 2021 Registered Charity No 1156194. CHARITY COMMISSION | Ind•p•fid•nt •x•mln•e• FOR ENGLAND AND WALIS, r•port on th• accounts T￿¢￿￿￿rr¢ Fl* ris6/9 dwty 1w)fwthB 3011 iY• 145ollh• 20fi t•ryty I IY••". G4

BHVC 8[th] ANNUAL REPORT - 2021 Registered Charity No 1156194.

CENTRE ACTIVITY

Our volunteers have overseen a reduced amount of visitor activity because of the two periods of Covid 19 lockdown closure requirements, as can be seen in the table below.

We were closed Jan – May 21[st] and from December 23[rd] – 31[st] . This has led to a decline in donations, as you can see in the accounts.

VISITOR VISITOR NUMBERS NUMBERS TOWN TRAIL NUMBERS TOWN TRAIL NUMBERS TOWN TRAIL NUMBERS TOWN TRAIL NUMBERS
2018 2019 2020 2021 2018 2019 2020 2021
JANUARY 37 52 62 closed 5
FEBRUARY 59 104 76 closed 6
MARCH 65 105 42 closed 5 7
APRIL 177 93 closed closed 11
MAY 180 231 closed 23 27
JUNE 186 119 closed 57 8 10
JULY 183 180 closed 112 5
AUGUST 226 235 32 231* 2
SEPTEMBER 163 146 8 196* 14 4 8 12
OCTOBER 99 248 13 79 9 3
NOVEMBER 141 60 closed 44 5 0
DECEMBER 72 32 closed 22 4 6 4
TOTAL 1551 1605 233 764 40 84 15 16

August – numbers boosted by the August Bank Holiday community day and guided walk September – the numbers boosted by the Open Heritage Week

6

BHVC 8[th] ANNUAL REPORT - 2021 Registered Charity No 1156194.

THE VOLUNTEERS by Alison Brooker, Volunteer Coordinator

As a volunteer run organisation, the volunteers are vital to our success and with their support we have kept the centre open two days a week over the past year, when Covid 19 restrictions allowed. We have been delighted to welcome back some volunteers who felt safe to return after the risk of Covid reduced, but we have lost others for a variety of reasons. We have now sadly reached a stage where our volunteer numbers are at their lowest since we opened in 2013. Trustees have covered many of the sessions to keep the centre open, but that is not a situation we can maintain long term.

Improving the volunteer experience; recruitment and retention is a strategic workstream and this has led us to re-think how we keep in touch with volunteers.

As soon as we were able to meet again as a group, we started running small social gettogethers within the church giving volunteers an opportunity to meet up and hear about our plans for the centre and contribute their ideas. These have been successful and a valuable opportunity to strengthen the volunteer social network. We plan to continue these sessions during 2022, opening them up to the wider Bampton community, with guest speakers and displays of exhibits from our archive. This will give us the chance to bring the Heritage Centre to the community and, hopefully, attract new volunteers.

Thank you to those volunteers who have worked alongside the volunteer Trustees in 2021

Andy Macdonald Penny Purcell David Whiteway Annette Penwill Derek Webster Jane Wilson Lavender Borden Marian Girling Mary Tucker Colin Wellard Paul Edwards Peter Freeman Simon Bartlett Chris Holdom Tricia Summers Jenny Mew Wendy Mills Tony Trigg Rosie Thornton Humphrey Berridge

----- Start of picture text -----
Volunteers Marian and Penny on
our stall at Bampton Fair
----- End of picture text -----

Volunteers attending a session about the new website

7

BHVC 8[th] ANNUAL REPORT - 2021 Registered Charity No 1156194.

CURATOR’S REPORT by Dr Ken Mills, Curator Trustee

The main task of the year has been the incorporation of all the items donated by Jonathan Hill into the collection. You will recall that late last year we were donated these items from what was once the Bampton Museum. The collection has been organised into several divisions:

Items that are relevant to Bampton Players and the Bampton Society have been deposited within their own separate archives.

Of course, many items sit under more than one of these classifications – a programme is under way to identify the best way of digitising the collection and creating an on-line catalogue accessible to all, that can be cross-referenced. This is part of our strategic plan.

A new exhibit was made relating to Beryl Fothergill who was the village midwife in the 1950’s. This will be replaced, perhaps by a small exhibit of Bampton’s dairies. The leather industry exhibit has been taken down and will eventually be replaced by an exhibit relating to local churches.

The death of our local historian, Tom McManamon (also known as the author of booklets under the T.J. Francis name) has resulted in yet another gift of a large quantity of papers, colour slides, maps, a small box of archaeological items and his computer, which holds a very large number of files. This has been very roughly sorted into six boxes, which will take many months, if not years, to catalogue! We have also received several other individual donations throughout the year.

Due to the death of the owner, we were forced to close a storage space, but, thanks to the generosity of another local farm owner a new store has been found for some items. Thanks also to a local business we have found a space to store some of the more fragile items, but it is already full!

We really do need to find a permanent place to store our collection.

Throughout the year I represented BHVC on the Devon Museums network, which is useful source of information and support.

8

BHVC 8[th] ANNUAL REPORT - 2021 Registered Charity No 1156194.

‘Looking forward’ Our 5-year strategy 2021-26 by Liz Redfern

Bampton Heritage and Visitor has always been forward looking with a plan to develop and grow. Our first 5-year strategy ran from 2018 - 2023, but as we had achieved its objectives early, it was important to refresh it for the next 5 years.

We ran several events with volunteers and other interested stakeholders, such as the Church and Bampton Town Council in early 2021 to share thinking and generate ideas for the future.

The national and local context we are working in has changed rapidly since we opened in 2013 and our discussions took account of the following issues

The group discussions, research into what other visitor centres and museums were doing and our creativity led us to identify 8 strategic themes to take forward over the next 5 years

  1. Volunteer recruitment and retention

  2. Website improvements

  3. External signage/info/profile

  4. Centre experience for visitors and volunteers

  5. BHVC out and about in the town

  6. Publicity and wider profile

  7. Digitising the collection

  8. Finance

Each of these are a stream of work, led by a Trustee with detailed plans behind them. We have already made progress in delivering several actions from the plan, for example

9

BHVC 8[th] ANNUAL REPORT - 2021 Registered Charity No 1156194.

An illustrated sample of our activities during 2021

Regular street stalls in Brook St

One of our strategic actions is to take the Centre out into the town. The main aims of these displays and stalls are to:

All three of these aims have been met and not only has the programme been successful in attracting interest, but there have also been substantial sales of historical and walking books as well as our Bampton themed souvenir items.

Many thanks to Alison Brooker for making the very striking table cover you can see in the photograph and to Wendy Boothroyd and Ken Mills for hosting the stalls.

Out of Bounds – the publication of this sister book to Bampton Bounds has been a great success.

Special thanks to Wendy Boothroyd and Rachel Macdonald who masterminded the whole thing and to the host of people who helped test out the walks.

10

BHVC 8[th] ANNUAL REPORT - 2021 Registered Charity No 1156194.

Community walking Event on August Bank Holiday

We were disappointed to have to postpone plans for our first walking festival two-day event, because of the pandemic. However, we took advantage of a community event to host two guided walks on August bank holiday and welcomed 16 participants.

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and its success has inspired us to plan more one day events during 2022.

Thanks to the walk leaders, Wendy Boothroyd, Andy and Rachel Macdonald and Ken and Wendy Mills. Also, thanks to Marian Girling for providing administrative support for the event.

Heritage Open Week

This is the first year we have participated in this national scheme, and it was a great success. We used the opportunity to display the results of the ‘Our Buildings’ project.

The ‘Our Buildings’ project researched the architectural and social history of several buildings in Bampton.

Over 100 people visited the exhibition. We plan to participate in the Heritage Open Week next year and display the railway model of Bampton station along other Bampton railway artefacts and memorabilia.

Bampton in Deep Time

A new video 'Bampton in Deep Time' was launched in January 2021.

A history of Bampton in Devon like no other – this one starts 500 million years ago! The video follows local geological guru Hugh Saxby on a walk around the town, looking at rocks and stones in the buildings, and telling their story through millions of years. A huge thanks to Hugh for his enthusiasm and expertise in writing this film and to Humphrey Berridge for the filming, editing and production

11

BHVC 8[th] ANNUAL REPORT - 2021 Registered Charity No 1156194.

New Stock Shop

Two Trustees, Alison and Rachel, worked extensively to source new shop stock from local producers to refresh our shop offer to visitors.

All in place for Bampton Fair and Christmas the hampers and local greetings cards proved very popular and brought in some much-needed income.

Thanks to Jon Walker - Morecroft for permission to use his photographs for the cards.

Bampton Station comes to life in miniature

The Liverpool Railwaymodellers Club are making a working model of Bampton Station!

They got in touch via Facebook and have been keeping us updated with photos of their progress. It had its world premiere at the Barrow in Furness Railway Model exhibition in October.

Chris Hewitt visited Bampton and met with Liz and Judi, to see the Centre and the real-life buildings featured in the model. He brought some of the model buildings with him and we were astounded at the level of and attention to detail. The model will be exhibited in Bampton during 2022.

Chris Hewitt with Liz Redfern and Judi Thomas

12

BHVC 8[th] ANNUAL REPORT - 2021 Registered Charity No 1156194.

GOVERNANCE of the Charity by Liz Redfern

The Charity is governed by Trustees who set the strategy for the Centre, run it on a day-today basis, coordinate volunteer recruitment and training and ensure the effective use of resources. They operate using a standard Charity Commission constitution and submit accounts and reports to them annually.

The Trustees meet on a regular basis, with agendas and minutes. During 2021 this has been monthly and a mix of face to face and zoom meetings. In between meetings much of the on - going business is conducted through email correspondence and decision making on minor issues. This leaves the face-to-face meetings for substantial items that need further discussion and decisions.

Volunteers are invited to join the meeting by request and agendas are circulated beforehand. Following each meeting a Newsletter is sent to all volunteers to update them on decisions from the meeting and other relevant information, to keep them informed.

Since 2016 Trustees have been elected from the members of the volunteer group. Our election process established in 2015/16 introduced the principle of 3 Trustees standing down in each of the first two years to provide continuity at the same time as the opportunity to introduce new Trustees. The normal term of office for the elected trustees will be 3 years and they will then be eligible to stand again.

The AGM took place on the 2[nd] March 2021 and confirmed the following 7 Trustees. The Trustees then confirmed the officer posts at their first meeting following the AGM:

The Trustees eligible for re-election in 2022 are Judi Thomas, Rachel Macdonald and Liz Redfern.

13