SENHOUSE MUSEUM TRUST
Charitable Incorporated Organisation Charity No. 1175131
ANNUAL REPORT
to
31 March 2023
Charity no. 1175131
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ANNUAL REPORT for the year ending 31 March 2023
A. LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
THE SENHOUSE MUSEUM TRUST was constituted as a charity on 12[th] April 1985 by Declaration of Trust and converted to a Charitable Incorporated Organisation on 12 October 2017
Trustees at 31[st] March 2023 Dr. Peter Richard Wilson - Chairman of the Trustees Professor Maureen Fordham William Bernard Griffiths Roderick Grimshaw Eleanor Kingston Dr. Peter Messenger Rachel Margaret Newman Linda Radcliffe
Treasurer: N. Randall Clerk to Trustees: M.A. Lancaster
The Trust Deed provides that the Trustees can appoint new Trustees and officers and establish committees.
Principal Office Senhouse Roman Museum, The Battery, Sea Brows, Maryport, Cumbria, CA15 6JD.
The Trustees have appointed professional service providers and advisers, as below:
Bank HSBC Bank plc, 3 Pow Street, Workington, Cumbria, CA14 3AH. Solicitor Cartmell Shepherd, Solicitors, Montgomery Way, Rosehill, Carlisle, Cumbria, CA1 2RW. Independent Examiner Tattersall Bailey Chartered Accountants, 3 Fisher Street, Carlisle, Cumbria, CA3 8RR. Investment adviser Alington Ruthin Stockbrokers & Investment Management, Clwyd House, 3c Clwyd Street, Ruthin, Denbighshire LL15 1HF.
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The Trust Deed empowers the Trustees to receive and apply funds, to purchase articles for re-sale and to hold property as a museum, to invest Trust funds and to acquire land for archaeological purposes. In particular, the Trustees may set apart as an endowment fund part of the Trust Funds and apply the income for Trust purposes.
VAT Registration no. 531 4021 02
Objects of the Trust
The Charity's objects (the "Objects") as set out in the Articles are:
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to advance the education of the public regarding the history of the RomanoBritish period in general and West Cumbria in particular by the establishment and maintenance of a public museum within the Civil Parish of Maryport.
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to exhibit in such a museum the Netherhall Collection and any other documents, artefacts or items of interest relating to the history and archaeology of Maryport and West Cumbria and of the Romano-British period in particular.
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to promote research into the Romano-British period in general and West Cumbria in particular and to disseminate and publish the useful results thereof.
Organisation and history of the CIO and its predecessor Trust
The Trust opened the Senhouse Roman Museum in a Grade 2 listed building on the sea cliffs overlooking Maryport Harbour in April 1990. The Museum houses the Netherhall Collection, on loan from Mr J Scott Plummer. This is the finest collection of Roman sculpture and inscriptions from a single site in Britain. Mr Scott Plummer is a lineal descendant of John Senhouse, who established the collection at Netherhall before 1599.
The Museum is located next to the site of the Roman fort, which forms part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site (WHS), a trans-national World Heritage Site containing Hadrian’s Wall, the Antonine Wall and the upper German frontier, the Limes .
The Trust works closely with a number of organisations with related objectives, including Historic England, Cultura Trust, Museums Development North West, Arts Council England, Cumbria Tourism, Cumbria Cultural Learning Network, Cumbria CVS, the Cumbria Museum Directors Group, Cumbria Museums Consortium, the Solway Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Grampus Heritage and Training, the Hadrian’s Wall Learning and Interpretation Group, Maryport Cultural Consortium, Cumbria Arts and Culture Network and the cultural services of Allerdale Borough and Cumbria County Councils (soon to be Cumberland Council).
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Risk management
The major risks to which the Trust is exposed, as identified by the Trustees, have been reviewed and systems have been established to mitigate these risks.
Responsibilities of the Trustees for the Annual Report and Accounts
The Trustees’ duty of public accountability and stewardship requires that they:
keep proper accounting records of the transactions in each fund within the charity
present Annual Accounts which disclose a proper appreciation of the charity’s financial transactions during the year, and which give a true and fair view of the charity’s funds at the end of the year.
provide the Annual Report which contains information on the objects and constitution of the charity, and which describes its activities and future plans.
B. GOVERNANCE 2022-23
Trustees met on 24 June in person and by Zoom, and virtually on 30 September and 24 January 2023 for the AGM. Meetings have continued in either a Zoom format or a hybrid of in-person and Zoom for those unable to attend in person.
There were no retirements from the Trust and no new Trustees were appointed.
With great sadness the Trustees were informed of the death of Joe Scott Plummer in late December 2022. His son, Charles Scott Plummer, took over as the representative of the Scott Plummer family regarding the Netherhall Collection.
Arts Council England Museum Accreditation (Full) continues to be maintained. The Volunteer Policy was reviewed and approved at the meeting on 24 June.
The Manager continues to report weekly by telephone to the Chairman of Trustees as her line manager. A written report is circulated to all Trustees monthly.
C. REVIEW OF ACTIVITIES
There were 8,436 visits to the Museum during the year (2021-22: 6523). The Museum continues to offer free entry to residents within the CA15 postcode area. Visitor numbers have returned to pre-pandemic levels.
Trustees continued to liaise with Cultura Trust as owners of Camp Farm (the site of Maryport Roman fort and civilian settlement) in line with the Memorandum of Understanding . Cultura Trust continues to grant the Trust permission to use the fort
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field for volunteer-led tours and group visits. At the Trustees meeting on 24 June Graham Bell (Cultura Trust) updated the meeting on the plans for Camp Farm.
In September a working group including two Trustees, the Museum Manager, Graham Bell (Cultura Trust) and two Allerdale Borough Council officers from the Maryport Regeneration Team submitted a successful expression of interest to the Borderlands Growth Deal: Hadrian’s Wall on behalf of the Trust.
The VAQAS accreditation continues to be maintained by annual ‘mystery shops’ by Visit England assessors. The assessment scheduled in May 2022 resulted in a continuing increase of the overall score. The Manager represents the museum on the Hadrian’s Wall Marketing and Transport Group and with Cumbria Tourism.
Permanent Collection and Displays
The museum continues to offer an identification service for archaeological material found by the local community. The Portable Antiquities Scheme’s Finds Liaison Officer for North Lancashire and Cumbria continues to carry out finds identification days in the museum. He visited the museum to identify and record finds brought in by members of the public in April, June, October and February.
A small group of volunteers continued to work through the collection documentation backlog. Full accessioning of the finds from the 1990 excavation of Milefortlet 21 was completed. Accessioning of the finds from the 2013 - 2014 excavation of the civilian settlement by Oxford Archaeology North continued and was approximately 50% completed at the end of March. Digitising of the accession records relating to these and other excavation archives commenced and is expected to continue into 2023-24.
Two PhD students visited to study the reserve collection: one studying Roman tombstones looking at the tombstone discovered in the 1966 excavation of the fort and one studying Roman ceramic flue tiles.
The finds from the evaluation excavation in advance of the installation of the cycle path between Allonby and Silloth were deposited with the museum by NAA (Northern Archaeological Associates).
The Trust contributed towards the cost of remedial conservation for RIB 2030, which was transferred to Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery by the Scott Plummer family.
The Manager represents the museum on the Hadrian's Wall Curators Group and the Hadrian's Wall Learning and Interpretation Delivery Group. Both groups continued to meet virtually.
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The Battery
The internal WiFi remote stations were upgraded to improve the signal within the building for both visitors and remote meetings.
Defective lighting in the entrance vestibule, corridor and toilets were replaced with more sustainable LED units.
Exhibitions, events and visits
2022 was designated the 1900[th] anniversary for the building of Hadrian’s Wall. The year saw a wall-wide programme of events and activities. The museum took part in or led four projects that responded to the HW1900 programme. An artist-led songwriting project worked with the Ewanrigg Community Choir to write and perform ‘A Song for Maryport’. An arts project delivered by a local arts practitioner working with local Guides, Brownies and Rainbows creating a life-size Roman altar decorated with Guides’ badges. The museum’s learning team delivered a ‘Solway Saturnalia’, a community engagement project including creative writing and familyfriendly craft sessions presented in a Saturnalia event on 17[th] December and a temporary exhibition. The museum collaborated with the Beacon Museum, Muncaster Castle and Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery to create a film presenting the Roman heritage of the Cumbrian Coast, including a drone fly-over of the Roman sites on the coast. The projects were funded by grants from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Copeland Borough Council.
Slow Art Day took place on 2 April, when visitors and virtual audiences were encouraged to slow down and engage with objects in the collection in more depth.
The postponed 30th anniversary conference was rescheduled to 22 - 23 April. The conference ‘Celebrating Roman West Cumbria’ saw lectures from representatives of recent archaeology projects in West Cumbria. The keynote speaker was Professor Rebecca Jones from Historic Environment Scotland. Speakers included Professor David Breeze, John Zant, Professor Ian Haynes, Tony Wilmott, Lindsay Allason-Jones, Rachel Newman, Kurt Hunter Mann and Dr. Pete Wilson. The second day included a visit to the museum and a tour of the site of the excavations at Maryport. The conference was hosted at The Wave and was a hybrid event with a live audience of 41 and virtual audience of 48. Museum volunteers contributed over 70 hours towards supporting the conference.
Family-friendly events were scheduled during the school holidays including halfterms. These included themed treasure hunts and craft drop-ins. The Summer Festival included a series of living history days led by live interpretation specialists including a Roman potter, a Roman soldier and a group demonstrating roman life and food.
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From the beginning of Easter to the end of October volunteers led guided tours of the fort every weekend. 422 museum visitors benefited from the guided tours, including 10 pre-booked special-interest groups.
During May and June the museum hosted an exhibition of art and stories created by local school children facilitated by the ‘La’al Collective’, a group of arts practitioners based in West Cumbria.
On the weekend of 13 - 14 August staff and volunteers manned a stall at Maryport's Taste of the Sea Festival. The team were joined by Ancient Britain, a living history group who delivered sessions on Roman food and life. This enabled the team to promote the museum, its services and expand its learning outreach programme.
The Museum was open to the public for additional days between Christmas and New Year (27 - 30 December).
The annual Literary Festival scheduled for November was moved to March 2023. The festival theme was ‘Living on the Edge’ and was funded by an Arts Council England Project Grant. This grant enabled the festival to expand its list of invited speakers and increase the number and reach of the creative writing and art workshops. For the first time the festival included outreach workshops in community hubs as well as at the museum.
Education
A total of 320 school pupils from 12 schools visited the museum. In addition, the learning team delivered several outreach visits in schools and adult informal learning settings. These include local women’s groups, U3A and local history groups.
The museum continues to maintain its Arts Award Centre registration with three Arts Award advisers. The advisors support young people to carry out Arts Award projects from Discover to Gold.
The Museum was visited by the following groups: Lakes Car Club, The 41 Club, Peter Sommers Travel, Andante, the Friends of Roman Aldborough, Appleby Archaeological Society and Maryport Scouts. Most groups included a tour of the fort as part of their visit.
Maryport & District Archaeological Society, Maryport & District Natural History Society and the Sociable Reading Group continue to meet in the museum.
The Maryport branch of the Young Archaeologists’ Club continues to meet in the museum, supported by the Museum Manager and four volunteer leaders. This year the group structured their meetings around the industrial and buildings archaeology of Maryport.
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Work placements continue in partnership with Netherhall School. In July a year 12 student contributed towards the planning and PR for the Summer Roman Festival. In March one 6[th] form student spent a week in the museum finding out about the careers available in museums and contributing to the collection management.
In December the museum launched a project in collaboration with Cultura Trust and Netherhall School that aimed to understand the archaeology and land management of Milefortlet 23, situated on the adjacent fields of Camp Farm. A group of students from Netherhall School joined the Community Engagement Officer for Cultura Trust and the Museum Manager in the first of a series of sessions that explored the site of the Milefortlet and the nearby Milefortlet 21. The project is expected to continue into 2023-24.
In November and December the museum hosted two away-days for local teachers commissioned by Curious Minds. Over 50 teachers met in the museum to find out more about how museums and other heritage sites can support the learning of pupils and students in West Cumbrian schools. The sessions used the museum galleries as a resource for their learning.
In March the Museum Manager attended the annual Hadrian’s Wall Networking Day to promote the museum and present a talk about the museum and plans for its future development.
The Manager represented the museum in meetings with the Hadrian’s Wall Education Forum, Hadrian’s Wall Learning and Interpretation Group, Cumbria Cultural Learning Network and Cumbria Arts and Culture Network.
Research
The conference Celebrating Roman West Cumbria supported recent research in Roman archaeology and stimulated academic discussion for the participants.
D. MANAGEMENT AND FINANCE
Management and Staffing
Jane Laskey continues as Museum Manager, assisted by Museum Assistants Tim Okins and Vanessa O’Donnell, and a group of enthusiastic and committed volunteers. The volunteers focused on providing the guided tours of the fort, supporting events, leading school visits and documenting the collection.
Staff and volunteers attended a series of in-house training sessions covering customer care, collection care and documentation, tour guiding and safeguarding.
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The Museum Manager and one volunteer attended a series of three training days provided by Brantwood, Wordsworth Grasmere and the University of Cumbria called Natural Connections.
The Manager attended virtual training workshops provided by several organisations including the Association for Independent Museums, Museums Development NorthWest, Collections Trust and Cumbria CVS. Training included LGBTQ+ awareness, Understanding the Treasury Green Book, collections documentation, Museum Accreditation Mentor and understanding autism.
The museum benefited from a new county-wide volunteer development programme led by the Cumbria Museum Consortium (Tullie House, Wordsworth Grasmere and Lakeland Arts). The programme is expected to promote the volunteering opportunities in museums to the communities served by the museum and support recruitment and training of new volunteers.
In July the museum volunteers featured in a Radio Cumbria programme hosted by Belinda Artingstoll, aimed at promoting volunteer opportunities in Maryport.
The Museum has a group of 16 volunteers. The volunteers contributed 1213 hours of their time to the Museum’s activities. The Volunteer Co-Ordinator, Judy Wagg, stepped down from the role due to pressure of work. The Trustees are grateful for all the hard work and enthusiasm she contributed towards supporting the volunteer team.
Finance to year end 31 March 2023
Operations and Development
Operating costs for the museum were higher than the previous year because the Covid restrictions were lifted. These amounted to £105,320 (£83,409) for Museum Operations and Publications. Management and administration costs were £22,561 (£47,262). Total resources expended were £145,318 (£130,671 before taking into account the development provision write off).
Museum revenues
The total receipts at the museum were £22,891 (£18,685), Commercial Fundraising produced £15,057 (£9,120), donations and grants £17,837 (£45,185); additionally, investment income amounted to £62,936 (£56,561) providing a total income of £118,720 (£129,551).
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Museum costs
Staff costs were similar at £51,047 (£51,721) for the Museum operations.
Donations and grants
Total grants and donations of £17,837 (£45,185) were received, including £2,750 from the Mainhouse Charitable Trust, Allerdale D C: £2,000, Newcastle City Council £5,000 and ACE Lottery £6,210.
Investments and Reserves
Investment income received was slightly higher at £62,936 (£56,561). At the year end the Trust’s total net assets were valued at £1,527,362 (£1,776,841).
PATRONS
The Trust continues to benefit from the support of Lord Inglewood and Professor David Breeze.
Peter Richard Wilson Chairman of Trustees
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