Mountsorrel Museum and Heritage Trust
Chairman’s Report for the Annual General Meeting 22[nd] June 2023
It is a pleasure to welcome you to our AGM 2023.
AGMs have traditionally been sparsely attended or have been seen as an “add-on” to talks evenings and we wanted to ensure that the membership had time to express views, raise issues of concern and view the current displays. There was also the question of the cost of room hire and availability. So, despite space been a little cramped in the unlikely event of the full membership attending we decided meet here within the Museum.
Like many other small groups, we are still recovering from the challenges of COVID lock downs. Although life is considerably easier, we are still not where we were some three years ago, but we continue to meet the core aims of our Constitution in establishing and maintaining a museum facility for items of historical and archaeological interest, archives, photographs and working to support the flora and fauna and arts and crafts of Mountsorrel. In meeting those aims we have:
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Continued to provide a village Museum facility here at the library which we normally open two afternoons and one morning per week. This year we took the decision to close the museum between display changes to allow ourselves the time to set displays out to their best advantage. That has taken the pressure of Committee Members who for most part are the ones who carry out research, develop displays and staf the museum. Following a plea in a recent Newsletter we now have two Members who have volunteered to assist on an ad hoc basis for which we are grateful, and we would welcome more.
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Visitor numbers are a variable but over the 125 days the museum has been open this last 12 months we have had 330 visitors. The Primary School’s History Detectives After School Club have again visited our exhibitions and are helping develop for us display related quiz sheets suitable for the younger visitor.
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The electronic archive of photographic and written material which covers all aspects of the village’s history and environment, continues to grow albeit now more slowly than at first but new (as in previously unknown) material continues to arrive. We currently hold approx. xxxx photos (some duplicates) and xxxx documents. There is also a printed archive of documents and books and a collection of artefacts. The accessibility improvements we made last year have paid of with displays now supported by appropriate material access using the large touch-screen with printing available should visitors wish copies.
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Our autumn to spring Monthly Talks held at the Mountsorrel Memorial Centre (MMC) continue to be popular with members and non-members alike and I would like to note our thanks to MMC staf who have always been very supportive of the Group.
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Whilst we have not carried out any Archaeological Test Pit digs this last year, we continue to look for appropriate opportunities to do so.
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Our environmental work still concentrates on the Navins Wildflower Meadow, which we continue to develop organically through a traditional regime of scything, seed
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drop and set followed by hay collection. We have also continued our regular workparty in the Peace Garden from spring through to Remembrance Day.
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Our website is still a challenge for us to maintain but does have visitors and does generate queries and requests from across the UK and worldwide. In 2022 the site had 3496 visitors with a total of 10,844 views.
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We have continued to use Facebook as an immediate engagement point with members and the public and our Fortnightly Photo feature sparks comments, memories, and questions. As with the website it is also a conduit for specific queries and requests for information from near and far. On Facebook we have 1097 “Followers” and we average up to 2000 readers of our postings.
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We recognise that there is a large cohort who neither use social media nor IT generally and for members in that bracket we provide printed copies of our Monthly Newsletter which electronically goes to the Membership of 46 plus a further 22 individuals and Groups mostly outside the village including some overseas.
Future
There are two priority challenges membership and the Museum space.
We welcome (and need!) more members, and whilst we fully welcome those who are simply interested in any aspect of the village, we particularly need those with an active interest in researching the village’s past and environment – we haven’t covered every aspect of the village’s history, there is more out there needs to be captured for the Archive and made available to our community. At present it is essentially only members of your committee who do research work but we would really welcome input from any, indeed all, members. If you feel you are able to help in this please talk to us, similarly if you feel research is a challenge to far but have memories of the village that could be recorded, again please talk to us.
The other priority is one which is really out of our hands and that is the further development of the Village Museum to more efectively exploit the available space. Here we need to wait on the Council finalising all the arrangements concerning the building and the relationship with the Owner and the County Council. They know we wish to progress but we recognise that they cannot advance until all the legalities are settled.
Thank you, are there any questions?
Mountsorrel Museum & HerÉta e Trust Balan Sheet for the eriod Janua 1st to Dernber 31 St 2022 Income 2469.04 50.00 836.00 70.00 421.72 565.00 1500.00 18.00 Ex nditure 361.00 260.00 304.50 208.26 200.00 472.20 186.57 489.13 3448.10 £5,929.76 Balan blfwd Members. Subs Meetin s Income Donations Sales Quiz Eve Income Grants Sund Income Room Hire S eakers, Fees Insuran Statione Web Hostin Qutz Eve ExFenses Sundry Expenses ui ment Balan cjfwd TOTAL TOTAL £5,929.76 Llo ds Bank Treasurerfs Account Cash in hand TOTAL £3,390.17 £57.93 £3,448.10 These accounts have been Independently Examined By Geoff. WairMwighL LLLLI1L January 23rd 2023