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Trustees’ Annual Report
2022/2023
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Constitutional matters
Trustees:
1 During 2022/23 the Trustees of Hands on Heritage CIO were Andrew Crisp (Chairman), Duncan Allan (Treasurer), Stephen Worrall (Secretary), and Kelly Hayward.
In accordance with the Constitution one third of the Trustees should stand down each year and are able to stand for re-election. Stephen
Worrall and Duncan Allan will stand down at the 2023 AGM and seek reelection.
We always welcome expressions of interest from any volunteer with experience or skills that as a Trustee, would help HoH deliver its aims and objectives.
2 Trustees’ Meetings were held on 17[th] January and 7[th] June 2023. Electronic copies of the minutes of these meetings can be requested from the Secretary, Stephen Worrall. Between meetings Trustees remained in touch via email and face to face discussions to attend to any urgent business.
3 At the meetings Trustees received a report on HoH’s financial position and reviewed matters of Governance. We were pleased to be able to offer a full programme of school visits and site maintenance operations.
4 The Trustees reviewed potential Conflicts of Interest at each meeting, and formally confirm in this report that they have complied with their duty to have due regard to the guidance on public benefit published by the Charity Commission in exercising their powers or duties.
5 Discussions have continued through the season with Forestry England negotiating a formal Lease covering the use of the site which sits on Forestry Commission land. To date we have been operating on an annual permit system.
The Trustees are pleased to announce that HoH on the 26[th] September 2023 secured a 10 year Lease for the use of the forestry site and the ongoing delivery of our schools programme. Forestry England have worked closely with the Trustees to agree this lease, and the local forestry team have been very helpful in finalising the details. This is excellent news, and reflects the importance of our schools initiative. We will now be operating within the agreed terms and conditions of the lease, which supports the high standards we pursue and also allows us some additional freedoms to manage the site effectively.
Operational matters
Schools:
6 Our Schools Lead is Judy Powell supported throughout the year by Di Gooding who has organised volunteers for visits.
We started the year with two workshops for volunteers. The first workshop was run by Diana and Beryl and focussed on weaving. Participants learnt about the history of weaving and how the workshop for the children runs. Everyone had the chance to be 'hands on' producing a woven bracelet in the same way as visiting school children.
The second workshop was linked to the Rendlesham Revealed Project, which is studying how unique local Saxon pottery was made. Participants prepared clay and formed Saxon style pots which were to be fired on site later in the year.
March saw workshops preparing the site for the coming school season, and volunteers enjoyed a fantastic lunch together, prepared by Jane, one of our much valued project supporters.
The first school visit was Cold Fair Green on 28[th] March to study Romans, and particularly focused on our reconstruction of a Roman villa excavation, where the children gain an insight into how archeological digs are run.
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Carlton Colville returned for two visits in April for Stone and Iron Age study days. Workshops incorporated Saxon and Stone Age practices, as well as a mix of heritage skills. These encompassed activities such as hand grinding flour and baking flatbreads in wood fired ovens, fire lighting 'without matches', the safe use of knives to whittle wooden utensils, weaving fabrics, and casting pewter pendants, all as complimentary hands on workshops.
Kessingland School joined us for two consecutive days in May. This year they did not camp overnight but spent longer days on practical activities. The programme included two meals prepared and cooked on site; a great time was had by all.
The early summer heat wave meant we couldn’t have fires on site for a few weeks as Forestry England considered the forest fire risk was too great. This limited the range of workshop activities we could offer, such as pewter casting and fire lighting! Therefore two of our volunteers, Duncan and Beryl introduced new activities making Celtic style clay faces to add to future on site kiln firing workshops.
June was busy with 5 bookings from Rushmere Primary and St. Matthews schools. Kingsfleet School enjoyed their regular spot in the first week of July, and St. Albans brought their 12-14 year olds on what is now a regular booking.
As a special request we hosted a private group in the summer school holiday, arranged by a Teaching Assistant who had attended previous school visits and wanted family and friends to share the HOH experience.
We ran the usual HoH activity days for Suffolk Young Carers. One group aged 16-20 spent two days in on site in August, camping overnight. And a younger group spent a day in October half term trying their hands at a selection of our usual workshops.
Two schools visited the site in Autumn, Dennington who hadn’t been before and the Martlesham Academy. Both kindly wrote to thank us after their visits, one describing their day as the ‘best and favourite school visit ever!’
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In all we helped 455 young people enjoy a day of hands on workshops, supported 14 teaching days (7 of Romans and 7 of Stone and Iron Age), for 10 different schools, one private group, and two groups of Young Carers.
Thank you, volunteers!
Maintenance:
7 Donald Burton is our Maintenance Lead and he has led the work of our maintenance teams throughout the year. Maintenance priorities have been driven by two ongoing projects - completing the Weaving House and thatching and daubing the replacement Roundhouse, along
with other jobs identified by routine inspections, to keep the site safe and in sound condition.
Some of the other tasks Completed during 2023 included:
Rebuilding the cooking hearth and replacement and extension of the roof over the forge with new posts to better cover the workshop area.
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Volunteers have given many hours of their valuable time on Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout the year and in all weathers.
The Weaving House
The year's work has been based upon trying to make the building waterproof. The gable ends of the weaving house have been boarded out, and work has been rapidly progressed to render the weaving house external walls with a lime mortar scratch coat. Also to provide more safe internal storage space a timber balustrade and ladder has been fixed to
the mezzanine floor. The rails for the balustrade were whittled by one of the Young Carer groups during their stay on site.
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The next phase of the work will be to install the doors and window shutters.
The Roundhouse
Steady progress has been made thatching the roof. Work was suspended during the summer whilst there were school visits when it is used for workshops as there is seating all around the walls offering an ideal auditorium! Thatching has reached the topping out stage where the method and materials for finishing off the roof have to be selected. This work will continue through the winter.
The walls have been daubed after experimenting with various mixes using local sand, clay, horse hair and other traditional materials before finding the perfect combination.
Financial matters
Treasurer:
8 Income and spending – 30/09/23 – 1/10/23
Start Balance 30/09/22 - £13396.87
Income £ 5514.63
Spending £ 4560.58
End Balance £14350.92
Our income from school visits for the year has been healthy, despite the increasing financial pressures on schools. It is very pleasing to see that our visiting schools value their experience on site and are prepared to continue finding the resources necessary to allow their pupils the opportunity to visit the site. We have agreed to keep our costs to schools at the same level as 2013 despite rising costs. For example, costs for gas have more than doubled and supplies for workshops are up to three times what they were pre-covid.
The Roman villa excavation area continues to grow in popularity with the number of visits increasing steadily, year on year.
We have also grateful for our involvement in the ‘Rendlesham Revealed’ HLF project. This has provided us with an interesting involvement in experimental archaeology, building and firing an Anglo Saxon ‘Ipswich Ware’ kiln with Suffolk County Council Archaeology Service and The East Anglian Potters as well as supporting our work with Young Carers who have had the opportunity to spend 3 days with us, including an overnight stay.
The kiln will remain a permanent structure on site and is now covered to allow for future firings and continuing experimental work.
Our site development has made good progress, including the ongoing building of the weaving house and the re-build of the roundhouse destroyed in a fire at the start of Covid.
All that we achieve is, of course, a tribute to you as volunteers and with particular thanks to Judy and Donald and their teams for their dedication in making this all happen.
We remain grateful to our existing sponsors, and we are as usual in the debt of Jane Dale, whose firm M.E.A.T. has been our major sponsor over the years.
9 Ipswich Ware Kiln Firing
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We reported last year that we would be firing a pottery kiln built on site as part of a joint project with Suffolk County Council Archeological Services to build and fire a Saxon kiln on the HoH site. Due to last year's forestry fire restrictions the firing had to be postponed until summer 2023, and the hoped for public firing in an Ipswich park had to be cancelled. However the kiln was fired on two occasions during the summer completing the experiment to trial theories on how distinctive Ipswich ware pottery was produced. The first firing on the 13/14[th] April was not a total success, the kiln failing to reach the temperatures hoped for. This is the nature of experimental archeological work, so a second successful firing was made on the 16/17[th] August after modifications to the kiln and how it was loaded.
On both occasions HoH volunteers assisted the East Anglian Potters with the operation also providing camping and catering facilities over night.
10 Volunteers and members
As ever the whole HoH project relies totally on the active and enthusiastic support of our volunteers. Whilst total numbers have reduced over the last couple of years we have a core membership who have delivered a tremendous service to our local schools and who have kept the site in excellent working order. The Trustees' thanks go out to all who have helped in the continued success of the Hands on Heritage vision!
Last year Trustees planned to seek out new volunteers to join HoH. Introducing new faces to the team is vital to help secure the project's long term future and help existing volunteers continue to deliver the high quality workshops we are known for. To this end articles were sent to all the local community publications in the local catchment area explaining what we do and asking them to feature our project encouraging new volunteers to come forward.
Over the course of the year we have welcomed nine new volunteers bringing their own unique skills to complement our work.
More schools are keen to visit the site, even though their budgets are under pressure, such is the educational and wellbeing value offered through our programme of workshops.
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Andrew Crisp
Chair of Trustees
Hands on Heritage Registered Charity 1157215
Annual Accounts - 1st October 2022 – 30[th] September 2023
Balance at 01/10/2022 £13396.87 Balance at 30/09/2023 £14350.92
| Assets | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Cash in Bank | 14350.92 | ||
| Fixed Assets | 0.00 | ||
| Debtors | 0.00 | ||
| Liabilities | |||
| Creditors | 0.00 | ||
| Accruals | 0.00 | ||
| Total Liabilities | 0.00 | ||
| Net Assets | 14350.92 | ||
| Income and Expenditure |
|||
| Income | |||
| Visits to site | 5514.63 | School visits, Young Carers, Rendlesham Revealed HLF. |
|
| Total Income | 5514.63 | ||
| Expenditure | |||
| Site Maintenance | 1600.27 | Weaving House, Site Maintenance & Repairs,Site improvement |
|
| Roundhouse | 381.50 | ||
| Volunteer Travel | |||
| School visit supplies | 1426.31 | Re-stocking equipment for schools, cateringsupplies. |
|
| Admin | 144.00 | D&B Checks | |
| IndemnityInsurance | 898.50 | ||
| Total Exp | 4450.58 | ||
| Summary– Start Balance 13396.87 + Income 5514.63 – Expenditure 4560.58 =14350.92 |