Friends of the Cromford Canal (Registered charity, number 1164608) Financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2025
| Page | Contents |
|---|---|
| 2 - 6 | Trustees’ annual report |
| 7 | Independent examiner’s report |
| 8 | Receipts & payments account |
| 9 | Statement of assets & liabilities |
| 10 - 12 | Notes to the accounts |
Friends of the Cromford Canal Trustees’ annual report for the year ended 31 December 2025
Full name Friends of the Cromford Canal
Organisation type Charitable incorporated organisation
Registered charity number 1164608
Principal address 12 Holymoor Road, Holymoorside, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, S42 7DX
Trustees
David Martin, Chair John Barker, Vice Chair & Treasurer Richard Handley, Executive Secretary Jack Brown MBE Ian Hooker LLB Michael Kelley Hugh Potter, Archivist and Portal Editor David Ratner Stephen Parish Judy Berry, from 01/09/2025
Independent examiner
Eva Stevens, employee of Community Accounting Plus, Units 1 & 2 North West, 41 Talbot Street, Nottingham, NG1 5GL
Governance and management
The charity is operated under the rules of its CIO – Association constitution adopted 30 November 2015 and most recently amended 20 April 2018.
We advertise in our quarter journal "Portal" for interested parties: any potential new Trustees are asked to write a short pen-profile and are then interviewed.
Our constitution requires a minimum of three and a maximum of twelve Trustees: we currently operate with ten, three of whom are standing down and opting to seek reappointment / re-election at the 2026 AGM. We are always on the lookout for suitable candidates to be Trustees.
The Trustees operate the charity through core administration functions including Treasury, Membership, IT and two main sub-committees, covering Restoration & Trading operations.
Trustees met eight times during 2025 plus presented the 2024 annual report and accounts at the April 2025 AGM: Trustee meetings were held either in blended video conferencing or in-person format.
Operating the charity
Our charity is operated 100% by volunteers and we have over 100 of them, covering Trading operations, Work Parties and specialist roles such as Engineering support.
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Friends of the Cromford Canal
Objectives and activities
The objects of the CIO are restoration, reconstruction, preservation and maintenance of the Cromford Canal, its associated buildings, towing path, structures and craft and the conservation of its natural character as a navigable inland waterway system for the benefit of the public.
Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit
Strategic and tactical conservation and restoration work undertaken by volunteers, funded by in-house trading and grants & donations.
The public has expanded access to the 14.5 miles of the canal for walking and cycling, and we operate a trip boat on a short stretch of canal which carries around 5,000 passengers annually.
Public benefit statement
The Trustees confirm that they have complied with the duty in section 17 of the Charities Act 2011 to have due regard to the Charity Commission's general guidance on public benefit, 'Charities and Public Benefit'.
Achieving the aims of the charity
Trustees are mindful that the stated objective of the charity is “ the restoration, reconstruction, preservation & maintenance of the Cromford Canal, its associated buildings, towing path, structures & craft & the conservation of its natural character as a navigable inland waterway system for the benefit of the public ”. Accordingly, we constantly direct and measure ourselves against these aims.
Restoration : work has continued at Beggarlee, with groundwork around the newly installed drainage headwalls and footpath clearance, with grass seed being spread around the profiled gully banks: the work being undertaken by FCC volunteer work parties. The Waterway Recovery Group (WRG) contributed to the finishing works of the flood mitigation zone in May 2025. We are now at a standstill as far as any physical work goes at Beggarlee while we resolve our issues with Canal & River Trust over land ownership. In the meantime, we are undertaking more design work of the channel and applying for planning permission to put in an additional winding hole in the canal extension. A detailed geo-technical survey of the Aqueduct Cottage to Gregory Tunnel stretch that was previously completed by external consultants has now been presented to the canal owner (Derbyshire County Council), and discussions continue with DCC on a plan for remedial strengthening work to certain parts of the canal embankment.
Preservation & maintenance : Our weekly work parties have been hard at work as usual litter picking, strimming vegetation, repairing and painting fences, planting hedges, repairing footpaths, digging out silt traps, rebuilding steps etc., at many places along the canal including Pinxton Wharf, High Peak Junction, Cromford, Whatstandwell, Jacksdale, Ambergate and the piece of canal that FCC actually owns at Lower Hartshay. The above is only a short summary of the fantastic contribution the FCC work parties make to our charity’s objective – more detail can be found on our website.
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Friends of the Cromford Canal
Fund raising - Trading update 2025.
Our Trip Boat “Birdswood” started up again in April and completed the cruising season in October: cruising was largely trouble free with adequate water supply from the Cromford Mills hydro-scheme. Additionally, we funded a small amount of spot dredging and weed removal during September in conjunction with DCC along the cruising section at the Cromford end of the canal: that joint funding project also then facilitated DCC being able to fund weed clearance from the Wigwell aqueduct right through to Ambergate.
Trading Operations (boat and merchandise sales) have generated another record surplus for the charity’s cash reserves: 75% of bookings for the boat were through online methods, and a total of 80% of the revenue was delivered by cashless means. The major cost of running our Trading Operations is our trip boat and the need to maintain our certifications with the Maritime & Coastguard Agency: in late 2025 we had two successful MCA inspections (Out of Water structural integrity and In-Water Domestic Safety Management) and as a result of the hard work of the maintenance team (including the installation of additional technical changes to the boat due to new safety legislation) a new Passenger Certificate has been issued to us by the MCA.
The specific fund-raising appeal launched late in 2024 for replacement windows for Birdswood ended up generating over £2,500 of donations towards the cost of the windows – the balance being funded from FCC’s cash reserves. The new windows were installed in March 2025 and have proven to be a great asset – as has the new “cratch-cover” for the rear deck.
Merchandise sales accounted for over 25% of our Trading Operations revenue, which is thanks to dedicated volunteers who manage the Weighbridge shop at Cromford, deliver wholesale sales, and fulfil online orders from our website.
We have an active sub-committee of the charity that looks after the operation of the boat and shop and that is now actively planning for the upcoming 2026 cruising season including developing relationships with other elements of the local visitor economy.
Fund raising – Memberships
Revenues raised from membership fees are the second largest source of our regular funding, and where members have consented, we also claim Gift Aid from the HMRC: in 2025 we were successful in reclaiming nearly £4,000 from current and previous years. Our membership records are in very good shape and are filed securely in a central “cloud storage” area: we have a largely stable but slightly shrinking base of 520 individuals (including joint and lifetime members) that we would like to grow.
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Friends of the Cromford Canal
Fund raising – Strategic
The charity’s three main means of generating funding have traditionally been through trading, membership fees and ad hoc donations and legacies. Trustees are grateful for a local volunteer who has taken on the task of low-value fund raising through various bids, and in 2025 we were successful in securing four small grants from The Weeping Cross Fund, Doyly Carte Trust, William Dean Trust and Morrisons Foundation totalling £6,169. These grants were spent on purchase of coir rolls, chainsaw training and bridge repairs. In addition to grants we continue to receive small individual donations made through our online portal.
Our aspirations for 2026 include work on more elements of the Beggarlee project, to include the new lift bridge, land purchases, construction of a winding hole and putting the second 30 meters “in water”: these costs will be funded from a mixture of cash reserves and significant additional fund raising.
Strategic relationships
Trustees continue to cement key relationships with Partners: examples of these include:
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Regular meetings with the CEO Arkwright Society.
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Regular formal (and informal) meetings with Derbyshire County Councils countryside services team.
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Ongoing working relationships with the Erewash Canal Development & Preservation Association.
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Ongoing contact with local Canal & River Trust staff.
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Involvement with the Northern Canals Association.
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Significant input was provided to the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site management plan.
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Liaison with the Cromford Canal & Codnor Park Reservoir Group.
Communications and publicity
Keeping the charity in the public eye is key for us and this is done through a variety of means: we published four editions of our quarterly journal “Portal” in 2025. We regularly send updates to our database of 1500 email contacts and use social media – mainly Facebook: our FCC Facebook group has grown 700% over the last five years to 5600 members (an increase of 1400 in one year). We constantly update and refresh content on our new website and we regularly supply content and articles to a range of partners including DVMWHS, Chesterfield Canal, IWA, Peak advertiser, ECP&DA, Derbyshire Times, Derbyshire Now, Waterways World, and Towpath Talk. In September, we received a very prestigious award from Trip Advisor for our trip boat Birdswood – which is apparently one of the top ten percent of things to do in the world: we intend to exploit this fantastic epithet!
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Friends of the Cromford Canal Public and member 8ngagwnt Trustees are acutely aware that we need to constsnty engage with not only FCC members, but the viider interested public and VR are constantly tying to expand this area of our operation. In 2025 we held a total of eleven so¢ial ev5 on a vanety of subj'ects at the chlrch hall at Irville, with arourKI 31>40 attervjees at each (albeit mainly FCC members) arKI as planned also held two other very successfijl events at Cromford's Gothic Warehouse." revenue from these event5 was over £2.5CQ. In September delegates from The Inland Waterway Association's AGM attended the Beggarlee exiension to vie*V our w<xk arKI nin8te8n delegates tumed up from Canal soaeties from all over the county. FCC also hosted over delegates for a meeting of the Northem Canals AsSatIOn in March, after vkich delegates Yre invited to visit the Wofk on the Beggarlee extensi(m. Volunteers We have a stable cOrt of dedicated vdunteers across the charity who are all well- briefed on all activttEs of the charity, and all commttted to working towards the tharity's strategic aims: viithoLrt them we WlId really be unable to function. A total of around 10500 hours of vc4unteer hours were delivered to FCC activibes in 2025. In July 2025 a Yhank you- event was also prlIded at the Fishpond pub at Matlock Bath for all the charty's volunteers and partners - arouTrJ 50 of attend$. Summary In summary, the FCC charity has had a very successful 2025: we've generated a significant surplus from our trading actNib'es, have secured some smal grants for our ongoing tixtical and Strategic restorats.cn wcxk. Our w4b1 visikn'lity continues to gm, and V¥E continue to be supported by our )nderful cotK)rt of volunteers. Work has conts'nued on the BegJarlee extension. and ¢)ur regular work parties ensure that the car1 is conserved for ftrture generations. Deste making some significant purchases and expenditure. we have dosed the year with higher cash reserves (from £227,669 to f2TI.016) due largely to a Si[ficant contrilxrtion from Tradit¥J Operations. The charity's policy on reserves In order to mplY th their legal duties, the Charity Commission expects trustees to decide upon. publish and monitor their charity's reserves Folicy as part of their end of year accounts. The level of reserves set by the TTUStees refiects the FCC'S partilar circumstances and is monitored throughoLrt the year as part of the norn1 monitoring and budgetary processes. The Trustees propose to maintain reserves at a level Ythith is at least equivalenl to threelsix months. operational expenditure. Signed on behalf of the charity's tntstees: Signed Richard Handley, Trust Date 16
Independent examiner’s report to the trustees of Friends of the Cromford Canal for the year ended 31 December 2025
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of Friends of the Cromford Canal (the charity) for the year ended 31 December 2025.
Responsibilities and basis of report
As the trustees of the charity you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (‘the Act’). I report in respect of my examination of the charity’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
Independent examiner’s statement
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:
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accounting records were not kept in respect of the charity as required by section 130 of the Act; or
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the accounts do not accord with those records.
I have no concerns and 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.
Signed ____ Date _______ Eva Stevens BSc, CPFA Employee of Community Accounting Plus
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Friends of the Cromford Canal Receipts & payments account for the year ended 31 December 2025
| 2024 (as restated) Total Funds £ Note Receipts 4987 Bank interest 125 Fundraising 88126 Grants & donations 2 5373 Memberships 65043 Trip boat income (Trading Operations) 163654 Total receipts Payments 832 Admin & accountancy 165 Bank charges 5405 Consultancy & planning 590 Canal structure/maintenance 14753 Beggarlee canal restoration 566 Events & room hire 2466 General insurance 2114 Gen. advertising, printing & FCC website 313 Memberships & subscriptions 2257 Miscellaneous expenditure 3483 Printing & stationery 463 Speakers 98 Telephone & postage - Training 25995 Trip boat expenditure (Trading Operations)9 1270 Working party/WRG 32249 Tools & equipment 93019 Total payments 70635 Net receipts/(payments) 157034 Cash funds at start of this period - Transfers between funds 227669 Cash funds at end of this period |
Unrestricted Funds £ 4410 664 22650 5931 73010 106665 902 510 - 714 - 1571 2207 959 496 474 3287 422 175 200 31540 805 2851 47113 59552 223877 (8317) 275112 |
Restricted Funds £ - - 6169 - - 6169 - - - 5533 9783 - - - - - - - - 1004 - - 54 16374 (10205) 3792 8317 1904 |
2025 Total Funds £ 4410 664 28819 5931 73010 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 112834 | |||
| 902 510 - 6247 9783 1571 2207 959 496 474 3287 422 175 1204 31540 805 2905 |
|||
| 63487 | |||
| 49347 227669 - |
|||
| 277016 |
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Friends of the Cromford Canal Statement of assets and liabilities at 31 December 2025 2024 2025 Cash assets Bar* accoLYts Cash in 227619 50 227669 276966 50 277016 Other monetary assets Stock Debtor5 PrepayTnent. bELTare 2798 3351 5970 62 9383 2798 Assets retained for the charity's own use Trip boat'Birdswood' & its fixtres & fith'r¥Js, pLrctrHsed in JLty 2013, cost £61,683. Dlper Tnk. pwthsed 1mber 2016, cost £3.900. LarKI at Cromford caTr Lar¥Jley Mill, pse completed December2019, cost £9.697. La1 at Ct7)mford CaTBI at Hartslpy, 500 yards, donated. Welfare 1( pwctssed Febnwry 2023, cost £10,104. Volbt) Digger. purchased September 2024. cost £28.800. Ger£ral equipmenL Liabililies Creditors 44 1744) 3168 (3168) These finana ment are accep on behalf of the chanty by: Signed John Barker. Date 13 rustee
Friends of the Cromford Canal Notes to the accounts for the year ended 31 December 2025
1. Receipts & payments accounts
Receipts and payments accounts contain a summary of money received and money spent during the period and a list of assets and liabilities at the end of the period. Usually, cash received and cash spent will include transactions through bank accounts and cash in hand.
2. Grants & donations
| Grants & donations | ||
|---|---|---|
| Unrestricted Restricted Total £ £ £ Ardent 500 - 500 HMRC Gift aid 3884 - 3884 Morrisons Foundation - 2929 2929 Sundry grants & donations 5696 - 5696 Boat windows donation 2500 - 2500 Mr J Drinkwater 10070 - 10070 The D'Oyly Carte Charitable Trust - 1240 1240 The William Dean Trust - 1000 1000 Weeping Cross Fund - 1000 1000 22650 6169 28819 Funds analysis Opening Receipts(Payments) Transfers balance £ £ £ £ Unrestricted funds General 174042 106665 (47113) (8317) Designated funds Restoration 40000 - - - Land purchase donations 9835 - - - 223877 106665 (47113) (8317) Restricted funds Lower Hartshay 2530 - (1626) - Beggarlee canal restoration 1262 - (9783) 8521 Coir rolls (Morrisons) - 2929 (2721) (208) Coir rolls (William Dean) - 1000 - - Chainsaw course (Weeping Cross) - 1000 (1004) 4 Bridge repair (D'Oyly Carte) - 1240 (1240) - 3792 6169 (16374) 8317 |
Total £ 500 3884 2929 5696 2500 10070 1240 1000 1000 |
Closing balance £ 225277 40000 9835 |
| 28819 | ||
| 275112 | ||
| 904 - - 1000 - - |
||
| 1904 |
3. Funds analysis
The transfer from the Coir rolls (Morrisons) fund to the General fund reflects the release of any restrictions on the use of these funds.
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Friends of the Cromford Canal
The transfer from the General fund to the Beggarlee canal restoration and Chainsaw Course (Weeping Cross) fund is to cover the deficit on these activities.
Unrestricted income funds are general funds that are available for use at the trustees' discretion in furtherance of the objectives of the charity. Designated funds are unrestricted funds and resources set aside for specific purposes at the discretion of the trustees.
Restricted income funds are those donated for use in a particular area or for specific purposes, the use of which is restricted to that area or purpose.
The specific purposes for which the restricted funds are to be applied are as follows: Lower Hartshay – repairs & maintenance of Lower Hartshay land. Beggarlee canal restoration - for the Beggarlee Restoration project. Coir rolls (Morrisons & William Dean) – towards purchase of coir rolls. Chainsaw course (Weeping Cross) – towards the course and protective clothing. Bridge repair (D’Oyly Carte) – for the bridge repair at Lockwoods.
4. Debtors
| Bank interest due for 2025 Beggarlee security deposit return ditors Admin & accountancy (IE fee) Printing & stationery Trip boat office & shop Trip boat purchases for resale |
£ 3440 2530 |
|---|---|
| 5970 | |
| £ 774 444 1569 381 |
|
| 3168 |
5. Creditors
6. Trustees’ remuneration
Trustees received no expenses, remuneration or benefits in this period.
7. Related party transactions
There were no related party transactions in this period.
8. Glossary of terms
Creditors: These are amounts owed by the charity, but not paid during the accounting period. Debtors: These are amounts owed to the charity, but not received in the accounting period. Prepayments: These are services that the charity has paid for in advance, but not used during the accounting period.
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Friends of the Cromford Canal
Restricted funds: These are funds given to the charity, subject to specific restrictions set by the donor, but still within the general objects of the charity.
9. Analysis of the costs of the trip boat ‘Birdswood’ (Trading Operations)
| Advertising & website Bank, Stripe & PayPal charges Boat insurance Boat repairs & maintenance Boat windows Crew costs Maritime & Coastguard Agency Miscellaneous boat costs Purchases for resale Refund to customers Tripboat admin, office & shop Working party/WRG |
£ 1778 842 663 4327 5000 643 2352 4138 8707 280 2584 226 |
|---|---|
| 31540 |
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