Chair’s report to the 2026 AGM of the Woodborough Community Association re 2025 Meeting held on March 4[th] 2026 at The Nags head Public House NG14 6DD.
The bedrock of any Charitable Trust are its trustees and the start of 2025 saw some significant changes to our membership. After many years of loyal and dedicated service as trustees both Linda and Bob Taylor stepped down after the AGM. Linda had held the position of both vice chair and chair throughout most of my involvement with the WCA and I therefore had big shoes to fill. With Linda taking a more active role in the Parish Council, they felt 2025 was the right time to step back and I am deeply indebted to both Linda and Bob for their many years of service and particularly for Linda in helping me achieve a smooth transition into this role.
However, at the same time as losing Linda and Bob, I was absolutely delighted that both Kath Linacre and Francesca Atterbury formally joined us as Trustees. Both had already proven what great assets they were to our team as volunteers and it’s been a pleasure working with them formally, alongside my longer serving trustees and all our fantastic volunteers throughout 2025. It is such a pleasure to sit down and take time to reflect and review what this small but brilliant team achieved throughout 2025. Thank you!
Our first event for the year as ever was the delightful pancake races on Roe Hill which took place in glorious sunshine on 4[th] March. It was good to be able to undertake the races on Shrove Tuesday as, often, we have to move the date due to Shrove Tuesday falling during school half term. The Shrovetide bell was rung as usual by Stephen Smith. The proceedings went very smoothly and were well supported by the school and parents.
Many thanks to Kate Newton and all her team of helpers for a fabulous event and a real favourite of mine.
Linda’s last event to be involved in as a volunteer and Francesca’s first as a trustee was the commemoration of the 80[th] Anniversary of VE Day on the 8[th] May. The day that marked the of the end of WW2.
The amazing “Just Sing” put together a specially commissioned set of wartime classics just for the occasion, the beacon was lit and the event was very well attended. The highlight of the event was the sharing of stories from members
of the audience who had been in London on VE Day. It really brought the significance of the event home and was a really special part of the evening. It was also great that the local Guides helped the proceedings with their readings and poems.
As this was Linda and Bob Taylors last event with the WCA we took the opportunity to present them with thank you gifts for their long and dedicated service .This seemed an appropriate occasion as there would be a large audience and also, as VE Day is a subject that they were particularly passionate about.
Two days later we hosted our annual Over 65’s Afternoon Tea Party in the Village Hall on 10[th] May. 90 people attended. Once again, we borrowed beautiful crockery and dressed the hall in red, white and blue, to continue the VE day theme.
We received very positive feedback including several lovely thank you cards and letters. We used Bumbles catering in Epperstone to provide the sandwiches and cakes. Many thanks go to all the helpers that supported the event on the day and to The Samuel Eden Trust for funding the event.
A very busy May concluded with our annual coach trip which this year visited Cambridge on the 21[st] , including a coffee stop at Belton House on route. The coach was full, and the trip was once again subsidised to maintain the ticket price at £15, despite the increased cost to hire the coach. We were blessed with wonderful weather, yet again, so everyone had a great time exploring the beautiful city including taking a punt on the river and exploring all the independent shops.
Special thanks to Ros and Ivan, as always, for organising the coach trips this and every year. We are very grateful for Ros’s longstanding support and have very much missed having her skills as minute taker for our meetings. This role is currently being covered by Stewart.
Despite 2025 being one of the warmest summers on record, we were extremely disappointed to have to cancel the Summer Fair at the last minute due to a severe weather warning. This was particularly devastating, given the
enormous success of the event in 2024 and the amazing things we had lined up for 2025.
We were very grateful that many of the stallholders who had been booked to attend the event rolled over their applications to 2026, which helped to minimise our financial losses.
The Summer Fair is our main fundraiser of the year with most of the income generated from selling tickets for our Grand Prize Draw. The cancellation of the event at short notice meant that we were still left with all the prizes.
We needed to arrange an additional event in order to be able to draw the raffle in public. Thus the “Live and Local” event was born. Entertainment was provided by some of the entertainers who had planned to attend the Summer Fair - Andy Whittle, Craig Linacre, Erika Wood and Stewart Nicholas, who all gave their time free to support the WCA. We are extremely grateful to all the performers and all the brilliant local businesses that donated so generously to our Grand Prize Draw. With Woodborough Celtic FC providing the bar and tickets competitively priced, just to cover the cost of the hall hire, the evening proved to be a great success.
We are looking forward to the Summer Fair 2026 and are optimistic that we will be able to deliver the special performances that we had planned for 2025. I’m sure the event will be as well supported this year, as it always is, by Woodborough villagers.
We were concerned that we would be unable to go ahead with the annual firework display due to the limited number of trustees/volunteers in 2025. However, we were extremely grateful to Craig Linacre, along with his son Charlie, and Charlie’s partner Leah, who agreed to step in and lead this event. Once again, the weather was against us. Nevertheless, it was truly a magnificent show, despite the appalling rain. Woodborough Villagers still braved the elements to come out and support the event. Unfortunately, our caterer needed the assistance of a local farmer to extract their van from the muddy field at the end of the night.
As in 2024 this was a ticketed event for adults, with all children under 16 being given free access with a paying adult. The ticket sales covered the cost of the
fireworks and helped us to minimise the impact of reduced footfall due to the bad weather.
Our year closed, as always, with the Christmas Lights Switch on and Carols around the Beacon on 30[th] Nov, in conjunction with the Parish Council. We are grateful to Just Sing who again provided the musical lead. New for 2025 was the introduction of a lantern procession for the children, led by Santa, along main street. We were unsure how well the idea of a lantern procession would be received but were absolutely blown away by the number of children and their families who attended. The event was a great success and will undoubtedly be repeated in future years. A huge thank you to the Nags Head for giving us the run of their premises, organising the children’s party, and providing gifts for all the children taking part.
Many thanks to “Just Sing “for giving up their time to lead the carol singing and to the PC for donating the mince pies and, as always, to all the helpers who put up and took down gazebos and to those who delivered and served the refreshments.
Despite mother nature throwing its worst in our general direction I am very pleased with the turn out we had at all our events in 2025 hopefully showing that we continue to offer events that the residents of Woodborough appreciate. As many of our events are now 50, and some approaching 60, years old, it is perhaps the WCA’s greatest achievement that we are able to preserve long standing traditions within our village but keep them up to date and relevant in today’s society.
In addition to the events we host we continue to support other groups and individuals in our parish. In 2025 Marie continued to represent us at the Feast Sports Day and Stewart and I helped them to set up and strip down on the day as well as lending them our PA equipment. We were also delighted to be able to help 2 local girl guides who were chosen to go to the jamboree in Iceland. They were funding their own trip and we gave them a donation of £100 towards their fundraising efforts, for which they were very grateful.
As I said before the bedrock of any Charitable Trust are its trustees and we couldn’t do any of these events without all our amazing Volunteers who give
up their time to support our events and for this we continue to be extremely grateful. I am very optimistic that we will continue to develop and grow and that 2026 will prove to be another landmark year that we can look back on fondly when the time comes to look back and review the events for the 2027 AGM.
Liz Nicholas Chair of the WCA 2025
Approved on behalf of the trustees:
MRS LIZ NICHOLAS
MRS CATHERINE NEWTON
Dated: 4[th] March 2026
Woodborough Community Association - 1170001
Unrestricted Fund Income and Expenditure Account for the year ended 31 December 2025
| 2025 | 2024 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Events | Profit / | ||||
| Income | Expenditure | Loss | |||
| Christmas Lights Switch On 2023 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | (94.59) | |
| Over 65's Afternoon Tea 2025 | 359.50 | 965.34 | (605.84) | (820.36) | |
| Pancake Races | 0.00 | 59.00 | (59.00) | (72.60) | |
| VE Day | 0.00 | 16.78 | (16.78) | 0.00 | |
| Fireworks | 1,915.00 | 1,981.29 | (66.29) | 781.18 | |
| Coach Trip | 735.00 | 895.00 | (160.00) | 0.00 | |
| Moreton in Marsh Coach Trip | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | (125.00) | |
| Christmas Lights Switch On | 0.00 | 293.18 | (293.18) | (75.00) | |
| Live & Local | 2,902.00 | 246.59 | 2,655.41 | 0.00 | |
| Summer Fair 2025 | 730.00 | 306.61 | 423.39 | 0.00 | |
| Summer Fair 2024 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 2,666.95 | |
| 6,641.50 | 4,763.79 | 1,877.71 | 2,260.58 | ||
| Add: Other Income | |||||
| Donations Received: | |||||
| Samuel Eden | 792.84 | 1,027.84 | |||
| Sundry Income | 10.00 | 20.00 | |||
| 802.84 | 1,047.84 | ||||
| 2,680.55 | 3,308.42 | ||||
| Less: Other Expenditure | |||||
| Woodborough in Bloom Donation | 0.00 | 250.00 | |||
| Guides Donation | 100.00 | 0.00 | |||
| Website Domain Renewal | 15.59 | 14.39 | |||
| Beacon Gas & Repairs | 0.00 | 68.74 | |||
| Printing, Postage, Phone & Stationery | 0.00 | 0.00 | |||
| Insurance | 326.54 | 96.48 | |||
| Repairs & renewals | 430.70 | 2,934.00 | |||
| Gifts, Cards & Flowers | 19.50 | 26.00 | |||
| WCA Notice board | 364.88 | 0.00 | |||
| AGM Refreshments | 0.00 | 0.00 | |||
| Christmas WCA Party | 226.35 | 232.00 | |||
| Lottery Licence | 20.00 | 20.00 | |||
| Loss on disposal of equipment | 0.00 | 0.00 | |||
| Depreciation : Equipment | 170.69 | 200.82 | |||
| Depreciation : Property fixtures | 1,004.60 | 1,004.60 | |||
| Total Other Expenditure | 2,678.85 | 4,847.03 | |||
| Total Expenditure over Income | 1.70 | (1,538.61) | |||
| Revaluation of Telephone Exchange | 0.00 | 0.00 | |||
| 1.70 | (1,538.61) | ||||
| Value of Fund Brought forward | 56,596.35 | 58,134.96 | |||
| Value of Fund Carried forward | 56,598.05 | 56,596.35 |
Woodborough Community Association - 1170001
| Fixed Assets Current Assets Cash at bank Cash in Hand Stock of Drinks Rolling Bond Rolling Bond - Cinema Current Liabilities Creditors: Total Net Assets Represented by Unrestricted Funds Restricted Funds |
Balance Sheet a | 44,322.02 12,242.99 8.04 0.00 25.00 0.00 12,276.03 0.00 56,598.05 56,598.05 0.00 56,598.05 s at 31 December 2025 2025 |
45,497.31 10,840.73 83.31 0.00 25.00 150.00 11,099.04 0.00 56,596.35 56,596.35 0.00 56,596.35 2024 |
45,497.31 10,840.73 83.31 0.00 25.00 150.00 11,099.04 0.00 56,596.35 56,596.35 0.00 56,596.35 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 56,596.35 | ||||
| 56,596.35 0.00 |
||||
| 56,596.35 |
Approved on behalf of the trustees
ELIZABETH NICHOLAS
CATHERINE NEWTON
Dated: 4 MARCH 2026