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Barnet Museum & Local History Society (BMLHS)

Patron: MHC Russell Esq. DL FCT

Charity reg. no.1169214; Founded 1927

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES

for the 95[th] Year – 2022 (Financial Year 2021/22) 14[th] November 2022

This report is a summary of Society activities over the last twenty months or so (ie from July 2021). Some points were also raised in last year’s report.

Barnet Museum and Local History Society welcomes new members, currently we have approximately 300 members, of whom about 70 are life members.

The Trustees in 2021/22 were: John Hall (Chairman), Terence Atkins (Deputy Chairman), Rebecca Smith (Secretary), Mike Noronha, Dennis Bird, Mike Jordan, Guy Wheatcroft, Helen Downes, Esme Smith and Scott Harrison.

The internal Management Committee is: Mike Noronha (Chairman, Curator and Treasurer), Terence Atkins (Deputy Chairman, Postcards and Calendar), Hilary Harrison (Archivist, Education), Graham Willcocks (IT, Photo Archivist), Dennis Bird (Maps, Physic Well, Lectures), Margaret Luck (Deputy Curator, Archaeology), Irene Nichols (Shop), Claire El Arifi (Social Media, Marketing), Mary Hayward (Library), Mike Jordan (Physic Well). The full Management Committee has only met twice in the period of this report due to Covid and other absences.

We note with much sadness the recent death of two of our longstanding activists and supporters: Peter Willcocks and Mike Gear. Peter (a former Chairman and Vice President) was head of a family that has a long association with Museum and History Society. Mike was the widower of Gillian Gear who, for many years, ran the Museum.

Museum

The Museum closed its doors to the public in the face of the Covid pandemic on 9[th] March 2020 and reopened on17[th] August 2021.

In the lockdown period the Museum moved its focus to:

maintaining our online presence (www.barnetmuseum.co.uk)
maintaining our social media presence www.facebook.com/barnetmuseum; and Twitter: @Museumbarnet and Instagram
- online dissemination of local history articles and data including photographs;
responding to requests for information and enquiries.

When the Museum reopened fully, we continued our online presence and restarted our engagement with local schools and care homes and other societies. Visitor numbers have been low to average during the week but we have had higher numbers during school holidays and on weekends and special events (such as Barnet Christmas Fayre). As in the past, visitor numbers have been difficult to estimate or predict.

We have introduced “The Toybox” a loan/resource box of older toys (part of Key Stage 1/2 curriculum). This is for lending to schools and for visits to the Museum. This is in addition to the Reminiscence Box (of artifacts to remind people of the past) and the Battle of Barnet Loanbox for schools.

We worked with the following schools (either visits to or from or both): Underhill; Our Lady of Lourdes; Summerside; Foulds; Christchurch; St Andrews; St Johns; Wren Academy; St Catherines: Southgate; Trent; Monken Hadley; East Barnet. Many school visits have been synchronised with Barnet Church. We have instituted a “Then and Now” presentation for school visits featuring sights on the pupils’ journey to the Museum.

We have also worked with St Johns URC; U3A; Scout Troops; Meadowside Care Home; Livingstone Court; Cuffley Manor Care Home; Edgware Synagogue; New Barnet Synagogue; Stanmore Care Home; Age UK Dementia Cafe. The Museum set up a display to commemorate the life and service of HM The Queen on her death. We have held discussions with Museum of London about diversity in museums as part of our Trustees’ agenda.

Publications

In this period, BMLHS published two Annual Local History Journals and a book commemorating the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II (“Royalty in Barnet”). All three were sent to members of the BMLHS.

Battle of Barnet

2021 saw the 550[th] Anniversary of the Battle of Barnet and a lot of Museum work centred around the commemoration. Events were affected by the lockdown, particularly the Medieval Festival which had to be postponed from June 2021 to September 2021. However, the Museum was able to contribute to proceedings: the Battle of Barnet banners which were painted by the Museum were hung on the High Street lampposts from April 2021 to October 2021 to fit with the actual anniversary (April) and the Medieval Festival (September), instead of June to August as originally planned.
The Museum paid for a stall to sell books during the Medieval Festival in June 2022, where we assisted the Richard III Society.
Banners were repaired and restored by the volunteers and hung again from May to October 2022. Our thanks once again to Bouygues the lamppost contractors for their free work in hanging and removing and monitoring the banners.
The Museum was invited to represent Barnet at the Tewkesbury Medieval Festival;
The Museum received six arrowheads and the seal of the Earl of Warwick on long term loan from the British Museum; after a three-year negotiation (somewhat delayed by the lockdown) these important artefacts are now on display in Barnet Museum.

Other Activities

In early November 2021, we were honoured to host a visit from Agnes Slocombe, who in 1997 became the first black Mayor of Barnet. She featured in our 2021 Barnet History Journal and is a life member of BMLHS.

We accommodated a number of students as volunteers at the Museum. Some were doing Duke of Edinburgh Awards (with mixed success/commitment), two did work experience (a reasonably successful exercise), one has become a Museum volunteer.

Old photographs of Hadley, Hadley Wood and High Barnet have been exhibited in The Spires Shopping Centre by Barnet Museum. It is an "old" new exhibition – the photographs were displayed in Hadley Highstone Memorial Hall in the 1990s. The photographs have been expertly reproduced and mounted and captioned by Rob Brimson, Lyn Brimson and Jane Downey. They are on 27 display boards donated to the Museum by Lyn Brimson.

In June 2022 we opened a further display in the Spires unit in honour of the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. This display was opened by The Mayor of Barnet Cllr Alison Moore and attended by former Mayors Cllr Caroline Stock and Agnes Slocombe and Chipping Barnet’s MP, The Rt Hon Theresa Villiers.

Our thanks for the generosity of the management and staff of the Spires Shopping Centre for letting the Museum use a unit in the Spires to exhibit and promote our activities.

The Physic Well has been reopened. It was opened on the third Saturday of September 2021 and has been opened on the third Saturday of the month since then (except for December and January). We have also had special openings for Proud Places, a group of young people run by Heritage of London Trust.

In March 2022 exactly two years after the pandemic stopped our lectures, we relaunched our series of monthly lectures at Barnet Church with quite a successful response, affected slightly by the continuing concerns about Covid. Lectures were given by Ian Johnston (Blue Funnel Line); Martin Russell (Platinum Jubilee); John Hall (General Booth); John Lynch (London Docks); Paul Baker (East Barnet); Dennis Bird (How High Barnet got its Railways).

The Society Garden Party was held at Ian and Lucy Johnston’s home in Wood Street in early September 2022; the event was held in good weather. A combination of sandwiches, delicious cake, tea and Pimms and a quiz was again in evidence. The event was largely organised by Margaret Luck. The Trustees thank her and all the members who made cakes and helped with serving.

Treasurer’s Report

Turnover picked up in the Financial Year 2021/22 in line with a return to near normal business. Receipts were up from £16.1K last year to £26K. Payments increased from £20K to £25.7K.
Costs continued to increase in line with inflation in telecoms/internet, security, insurance, and utilities. We negotiated a three-year electricity supply agreement through the Museums Energy Basket Facility just before the sudden huge rise in wholesale prices in late Summer. As we received a small grant from the Council we were eligible for a 100% rate rebate from the Council.
The Hadley Trust donated an annual grant of £10K to BMLHS. We are, as ever, most grateful.
Waterstones now owes BMLHS £2.8K for the 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 calendars; we continue to chase-up.
Our Sales receipts rose in 2021/22. Our Cost of Sales were still high as we printed and published three books.
The Museum has a debit card reader in response to the decreased use of cash during and after the Lockdown; it seems to have helped to increase sales.
The Treasurer should like to thank Barbara Farnley who has managed the cash and banking activities and Irene Nichols who has managed the shop and retail activity.

John Hall

Chairman, BMLHS

Barnet Museum & Local History Society 1169214 Receipts and payments accounts CC16a For the period Period start date Period end date To from 01-Jul-21 30-Jun-22

Section A Receipts and payments

A1 Receipts	Unrestricted funds to the nearest £	Restricted funds to the nearest £	Endowment funds to the nearest £	Total funds to the nearest £	Last year to the nearest £
BMLHS Subs	2,237	-	-	2,237	2,034
DONATIONS	2,650	-	-	2,650	735
SALES	3,887	-	-	3,887	2,334
RECEIPTS	2,250	-	-	2,250	1,000
GRANTS	10,000	3,448	-	13,448	10,000
SUMUP	1,556		-	1,556	-
	-	-	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-	-
*Sub total*(Gross income for AR)	22,580	3,448	-	26,028	16,103

A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table).
	-
	-				-
*Sub total*	-				-
*Total receipts* A3 Payments
					16,103

UTIL	3,640	-	-	3,640	4,860
PHYS WELL	246	-	-	246	181
COMMS	1,720	-	-	1,720	2,186
SECURITY	2,569	-	-	2,569	1,513
INSURANCE	1,795	-	-	1,795	1,669
ADMIN,MAINT,STORAGE	2,383	2,000	-	4,383	1,037
COLLECTION	589	-	-	589	-
COST OF SALES	3,672	-	-	3,672	6,007
MARKETING	39			39	-
BMLHS	5,166			5,166	1,112
BATTLE PROJECT SPEND	1,902		-	1,902	998
**Sub total **	23,721	2,000	-	25,721	19,563

A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table)
	-
	-
**Sub total **	-				-
*Total payments* *Net of receipts/(payments)* A5 Transfers between funds A6 Cash funds last year end *Cash funds this year end*
					19,563

	- 1,141	1,448	-	307	- 3,460
	-	-	-	-	-
	50,709	-	-	50,709	-
	49,568	1,448	-	51,016	- 3,460

CCXX R1 accounts (SS)

14/11/2022

Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period	Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period	Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period	Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
Categories Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees B1 Cash funds B2 Assets retained for the charity’s own use	Details Deposit Accounts Cash at Bank Cash in Hand Details *Total cash funds* (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s))	Unrestricted funds to nearest £	Restricted funds to nearest £	Endowment funds to nearest £
		115	-	-
		4,780	1,448	-
		44,673	-	-
		49,568	1,448	-
				OK
				Endowment funds to nearest £
		-	-	-
		-	-	-
		-	-	-
		-	-	-
		-	-	-
		-	-	-
	Signature M A Noronha Details 31 Wood Street EN5 4BE The Physic Well EN5 The Collection and Archive Office Equipment	Fund to which asset belongs Cost (optional) Long Lease - Long Lease - Restricted - Museum - Print Name M A NORONHA		Current value (optional)
				-
				-
				-
				-
				Date



	Signature
	M A Noronha	M A NORONHA		01-Nov-22

CCXX R2 accounts (SS)