Knoll Gardens Foundation
Trustees’ Annual Report & Financial Statement for year ending 31st December 2024
Charity Information
Charity Registration No. 1159390 Registered Office Knoll Gardens, Stapehill Rd, Hampreston, Wimborne, Dorset BH21 7ND Trustees Rebecca Bourdon Andrea de Souza Nicola Haswell Ross Humphrey Rowena Jecock (Chair) Neil Lucas Helen McIllmurray
This report covers the financial period 1 January - 31 December 2024.
The objects for which the Foundation was incorporated as a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO) in 2014 are:
- to promote, for the benefit of the public, environmentally responsible horticultural practices which conserve, protect and improve the physical and natural environments especially by, but not limited to, the undertaking of research, the provision of educational courses and by encouraging the development of Knoll Gardens as a showcase for environmentally responsible practices which benefit biodiversity.
The Foundation is managed by a committee of Trustees, each of whom is elected for a period of up to three years. The trustees operate with regard to the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit.
Activities
The valuable work of Foundation garden volunteers continued, supporting Knoll’s fulltime gardener. As in previous years, work continued to develop new areas of planting in the Gardens, using species and varieties tolerant of a wide range of climatic conditions, as well as demonstrating how gardens can be adapted to accommodate unplanned changes. An example of this was an unexpected tree fall in the Garden in February.
Instead of removing the 5m vine-clothed trunk of the old Monterey Pine, the gravel garden was extended around it, incorporating it as an attractive garden feature. The trunk continues to provide a habitat for insects and other wildlife and shows the public how biodiversity can be increased in a garden environment.
Native plant seed mixes were sown in areas of the gravelled drive and car park to show how utilitarian areas such as these could be made more attractive and wildlife-friendly. There were some additions to a new series of garden message boards, to assist visitors in understanding Knoll’s naturalistic style of planting, how plants are chosen, and their interaction with local wildlife, including a welcome board to explain the “greening” of the car parking area. As with all the message boards, a QR code was added, linking to planting plans and plant galleries on the Knoll website.
Thanks must go to our entire volunteer cohort: the gardening team already mentioned; the nursery team who assist with the care and maintenance of the large number of plants propagated and grown at Knoll; those who undertake wildlife surveys, and those who undertake other valuable tasks such as ongoing work to provide regular visitor displays about the work of the Foundation, and continuation of work to capture all Knoll’s extant planting on a database, and unobtrusively label the plants for the benefit of visitors.
The Foundation is also fortunate to have the assistance of other surveyors who undertake regular or ad-hoc monitoring of the garden’s wildlife.
The trustees express their thanks to Dorset Wildlife Trust, The Bournemouth Natural Science Society, and the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust (ARC), who continue to provide advice and assistance with aspects of our wildlife surveys.
More information about our surveys can be found on the Foundation website, http://www.knollgardensfoundation.org
Educational and community events and activities
The Foundation currently has three areas of focus for public engagement:
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Foundation Fridays – local clubs such as painting and photography groups use the garden free of charge, to enable them to enjoy and learn about the garden and its ethos.
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Special Access days – Monday and Tuesday when the gardens are closed to the public. Groups who will benefit from the garden for their wellbeing are amongst groups given access.
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Community presentation – Foundation Trustee and Knoll Gardens Ltd coDirector, Neil Lucas, offers an annual free-of-charge presentation to a community group in Dorset or its neighbouring counties.
In addition, the Foundation facilitated some guided walks for small groups of the public to see and learn about some of the insect life to be found in the Garden – notably butterflies and bumblebees. In addition, displays were provided of some of the numerous species of moths, following monthly night-time moth-trapping surveys organised by Mitch Perkins, our Wildlife Survey Co-ordinator.
We ran an Open Day on 13[th] September to raise funds, with all garden entrance fees being kindly donated to the Foundation by Knoll Gardens Ltd. Volunteers were on hand to assist visitors and explain how the garden is managed for the benefit of wildlife. Also, art and creative writing from community groups that had visited the garden were put on display. Thanks to Rachel Limb and Julia Pullman from White Sheep Projects for donating their time and materials for the display, which was well-received by visitors.
With regard to other outreach activities, the Foundation facilitated the donation of plants to Wimborne Community Garden, created to provide therapeutic and productive gardening for people in Wimborne, and to students at Kingston Maurward College, Dorchester, for their winter garden project. The Foundation trustees were pleased to be invited to visit both projects once planting was complete.
We hope to be able to expand similar outreach activities in future years.
In conclusion, I and my fellow trustees thank all our volunteers, together with the staff at Knoll Gardens for their help and support, without which none of the above would have been possible.
Rowena Jecock, Chair October 2025
| KGF | Income & Expenditure 2024(Jan - Dec 2024) | Income & Expenditure 2024(Jan - Dec 2024) | Income & Expenditure 2024(Jan - Dec 2024) | Income & Expenditure 2024(Jan - Dec 2024) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| INCOME | EXPENDITURE | |||||||||
| Date | Item | Amount | Notes | Date | Item | Ref | Amount | Notes | ||
| Balance bf 2023 | 3,280.31 £ |
|||||||||
| 05-Jan | Paypal | 0.01 £ |
11-Jan | NFU (Employers & PI) | DD | £ 46.33 | ||||
| 14-Mar | Enid May | 100.00 £ |
20-Jan | HSBC (Bank Charges) | DD | 5.92 £ |
||||
| 30-Apr | Knoll Gardens | 30.00 £ |
12-Feb | NFU (Employers & PI) | DD | £ 44.04 | ||||
| 01-May | From Petty Cash | 90.00 £ |
08-Feb | LDS (Website Maintenance) | 100042 | £ 238.80 | ||||
| 10-May | Ferndown Town Coulcil | 100.00 £ |
20-Feb | HSBC (Bank Charges) | DD | 5.00 £ |
||||
| 03-Jun | Paypal | 119.41 £ |
11-Mar | NFU (Employers & PI) | DD | £ 43.98 | ||||
| 16-Jul | Knoll Gardens | 30.00 £ |
21-Mar | HSBC (Bank Charges) | DD | 5.40 £ |
||||
| 02-Jul | Donation Box | 70.00 £ |
11-Apr | NFU (Employers & PI) | DD | 43.98 £ |
||||
| 30-Jul | Knoll Gardens | 18.00 £ |
20-Apr | HSBC (Bank Charges) | DD | 5.80 £ |
||||
| 29-Aug | Knoll Gardens | 52.00 £ |
13-May | ICO | DD | 35.00 £ |
||||
| 09-Sep | Wimborne Gardening Club | 50.00 £ |
13-May | NFU (Employers & PI) | DD | £ 43.98 | ||||
| 10-Sep | Coach TripU3A | 135.00 £ |
21-May | HSBC (Bank Charges) | DD | 5.00 £ |
||||
| 18-Sep | Donation Box | 50.00 £ |
12-Jun | NFU (Employers & PI) | DD | 43.98 £ |
||||
| 17-Sep | Coach Trip U3A | 42.00 £ |
20-Jun | HSBC (Bank Charges) | DD | £ 5.76 | ||||
| 24-Sep | Open Day - Knoll Gardens | 248.30 £ |
11-Jul | NFU (Employers & PI) | DD | £ 43.98 | ||||
| 15-Oct | Tour - Frank G Ltd | 51.00 £ |
21-Jul | HSBC (Bank Charges) | DD | 5.00 £ |
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| 11-Aug | NFU (Employers & PI) | DD | 43.98 £ |
|||||||
| 20-Aug | HSBC (Bank Charges) | DD | 5.68 £ |
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| 12-Sep | NFU (Employers & PI) | DD | £ 43.98 | |||||||
| 20-Sep | HSBC (Bank Charges) | DD | 5.00 £ |
|||||||
| 11-Oct | NFU (Employers & PI) | DD | 43.98 £ |
|||||||
| 21-Oct | HSBC (Bank Charges) | DD | 6.00 £ |
|||||||
| 13-Nov | NFU (Employers & PI) | DD | £ 43.98 | |||||||
| 20-Nov | HSBC (Bank Charges) | DD | 5.00 £ |
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| 12-Dec | NFU (Employers & PI) | DD | £ 43.98 | |||||||
| 21-Dec | HSBC (Bank Charges) | DD | 5.00 £ |
|||||||
| 2024 Income | 1,185.72 £ |
|||||||||
| Total | £ 4,466.03 | Total | £ 868.53 | |||||||
| Balance to carry forward | £ 3,597.50 |
| Closing Petty Cash Balance | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Closing Bank Balance as at 31 Dec 2024 | £ 3,597.50 | |||||||||
| Petty Cash | £ - |