## **SENHOUSE MUSEUM TRUST** **Charitable Incorporated Organisation Charity No. 1175131** ## **ANNUAL REPORT** **to** ## **31 March 2025** **Charity no. 1175131** 1 ## **ANNUAL REPORT for the year ending 31 March 2025** ## **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 2024 Dr. Peter Richard Wilson - Chairman of the Trustees William Bernard Griffiths Roderick Grimshaw Eleanor Kingston Dr. Peter Messenger Rachel Margaret Newman 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. 2 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: - 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. - 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. - 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 II listed building on the sea cliffs overlooking Maryport Harbour in April 1990. The Museum houses the Netherhall Collection, on loan from the family of the late Mr J Scott Plummer. This is the finest collection of Roman sculpture and inscriptions from a single site in Britain. Mr Scott Plummer was a lineal descendant of John Senhouse, who established the collection at Netherhall before 1599. The Museum is located next to the site of Maryport’s 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 lower German Limes, two parts of the Danube Limes, and Dacia. 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 CVS, the Cumbria Museum Directors Group, Cumbria Museums Consortium, the Solway Coast National Landscape, the relevant Hadrian’s Wall Partnership Delivery Groups, Maryport Horizons CIC, Cumbria Arts and Culture Network, Cumberland Council’s Maryport Regeneration Team and the cultural services of Cumberland Council. 3 ## **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 2024-2025** Trustees met on 12 June, 15 November, 10 January for the AGM, 28 February and 12 March. Meetings have continued in either a Zoom format or a hybrid of in-person and Zoom for those unable to attend in person. In addition the Trustees met on 27 September for an away-day in Penrith to progress the proposed development of the museum and adjacent site. The Roman Roadshow project supported a Governance Review. The Review was carried out by Heather Lomas Consulting as part of the NLHF funded Roman Roadshow 2024 project. The recommendations of the review are to be included in a resilience master plan. Rod Grimshaw retired as a Trustee due to pressure of work. All remaining Trustees expressed their appreciation and gratitude for the hard work and diligence he had contributed during his time as a Trustee. Charles Scott Plummer continues as the representative of the Scott Plummer family regarding the Netherhall Collection. He receives minutes of Trustee meetings and attends meetings whenever his commitments allow. Arts Council England Museum Accreditation (Full) continues to be maintained. The Collection Development, Care of Human Remains and Social Media Policies were reviewed and approved. 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 in advance of Trustee meetings. 4 ## **C. REVIEW OF ACTIVITIES** There were 8649 visits to the Museum during the year (2023-24: 8,156). The Museum continues to offer free entry to residents within the CA15 postcode area. 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 field for volunteer-led tours and group visits. This year the volunteers guided 217 visitors around the fort. The VAQAS accreditation continues to be maintained by annual ‘mystery shops’ by Visit England assessors. The assessment scheduled for 2024 resulted in a continuing increase of the overall score. The Manager represents the museum on Hadrian’s Wall Marketing and Transport Group, Maryport Horizons CIC 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 on 17 April, 5 June, 4 September and 4 December. A small group of volunteers continued to work through the collection documentation backlog. Accessioning of the finds from the 2013 - 2014 excavation of the civilian settlement by Oxford Archaeology North was completed. Digitising of the accession records relating to these and other excavation continued in 2024-25. A Roman altar from the site (RIB 814), which has been on loan from Tullie House Museum, was transferred into the ownership of the Trust. A copy of John Horsley’s Britannia Romana was gifted to the Trust from the estate of Graham Harris by his nephew. 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. ## _**The Battery**_ The lighting in the Main Gallery was replaced completely with LED spotlights to both improve the visitor experience and the building’s sustainability. 5 The main telephone was upgraded to a digital service and the broadband router upgraded to enable the museum to benefit from fibre broadband when available. Cumbria Tourism provided an accessibility audit, which provided guidance on any proposed improvements to the building. ## _**Exhibitions, events and visits**_ The annual Arts and Literature Festival (theme: Life on the Edge) continued into May 2024 with a series of creative writing, photography, poetry and paint, and beach art workshops in the museum and community venues on the Solway Coast. The work created during the workshops was included in a temporary exhibition in the museum. The festival was supported by an Arts Council England Project Grant. Easter was the beginning of the summer season and young visitors were offered an Easter Egg Hunt and Easter themed family craft activities. The museum hosted a temporary exhibition of sculptures created by local artist Jade Melany. Slow Art Day took place on 14 April, when visitors and virtual audiences were encouraged to slow down and engage with objects in the collection in more depth. 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 and a group demonstrating Roman life and food. From the beginning of Easter to the end of October volunteers led guided tours of the fort every weekend. 217 museum visitors benefited from the guided tours, including those visiting as part of pre-booked special-interest groups. On 12 June the museum hosted a launch event for Hadrian’s Wall in Our Time, a new publication inspired by the felling of the Sycamore Gap tree. Edited by Professor David Breeze the publication celebrates approximately 80 views of the Hadrian’s Wall Frontier. Professor Breeze presented a lecture titled ‘The Chainsaw Massacre: The Genesis of a Book’. On the weekend of 10 - 11 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 the plans for the development of the museum and Roman site. In September the museum collaborated with Cultura Trust and a young digital artist to create a virtual tour of the fort. The project (What Lies Beneath) was part of the national Heritage Open Days initiative. 6 The annual Arts and Literature Festival launched over the weekend of 7 to 9 March 2025. The festival theme was ‘Strangers in a Strange Land’ and was funded by an Arts Council England Project Grant. This grant enabled the festival to expand its programme and increase the number and reach of the creative writing and art workshops. The festival included outreach workshops (creative writing, beach art, and poetry and paint) in community venues in Maryport and the Solway Coast. The workshops were led by local artists and writers. ## _**Education**_ A total of 519 school pupils from 19 schools visited the museum. These schools included heritage tourism students from St Benedict’s School, Mayfield Special School, local studies students from Netherhall School and a small group from West Cumbria Learning Centre. In addition, the learning team delivered several outreach visits in schools and adult informal learning settings. These included local women’s groups and local history groups. The museum continues to maintain its Arts Award Centre registration with three Arts Award advisors. The advisors support young people to carry out Arts Award projects from Discover to Gold. The outreach team attended the Ewanrigg Fun Day in May. Activities included ‘dress like a Roman’ and make and take-away your own Roman cavalry pendant. During June the museum hosted a group of local people taking part in a reminiscence / local history / drama project called Audio Adventures. The participants shared their experiences of living and working in Maryport, created their own scripts and delivered a promenade performance around the town. The museum was awarded a Shared Prosperity Fund Grant to deliver a learning programme for schools, youth groups and adults, both formal and informal learning. The project included learning sessions delivered by ‘Ancient Britain’ and Potted History. Participants included junior schools, scouts and army cadets. A series of Roman pottery workshops were delivered to adult learners by Graham Taylor of Potted History. During the summer holiday Ancient Britain provided a series of living history days of Roman life and food. Potted History delivered four Roman pottery days in the museum. The Museum was visited by the following groups: Cockermouth Heritage Society, Maryport Heritage Society, Cumbria Trefoil Guild, Maryport Scouts, West Lakes U3A, Cumbria Adult Learners refugees, Cockermouth U3A Latin Group. The Sociable Reading Group met in the museum. The group meets every month in the evening April to October and in the afternoon November to March. 7 The Maryport branch of the Young Archaeologists’ Club continued to meet in the museum, supported by the Museum Manager and three volunteer leaders. Work placements continued in partnership with Netherhall School with a 6[th] form student spending a week in the museum discovering the variety of work that is carried out in museums. The Manager represented the museum in meetings with the Hadrian’s Wall Learning and Engagement Forum, Hadrian’s Wall Learning and Interpretation Delivery Group, Cumbria Arts and Culture Network and the Family Arts Network. ## **Reimagining Roman Maryport** A project steering group for the museum development (working title Reimagining Roman Maryport) continues to meet monthly. The steering group includes three Trustees, the Museum Manager, Cultura Trust and a Cumberland Council officer from the Maryport Regeneration Team. The project is a collaboration between the three organisations, and aims to develop the museum and adjacent Roman site into a joint attraction. In 2022 the project submitted a successful Expression of Interest to the Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal. The Trust submitted a successful application to the National Lottery Heritage Fund for a Heritage Grant. The grant for up to £66,000 supported a programme of community engagement and consultation in 2024. The project included: - the ‘Roman Roadshow’ outreach programme led by Becks Skinner of Hardheads Heritage - audience development research led by Graham Hackett of Osprey Delivers - business planning led by Steve Green of Bowles Green - A governance review led by Heather Lomas Consulting - Project evaluation led by Jennie Crawford 8 The 2024 project will support the Reimagining Roman Maryport development. The Trustees met for an away-day in September 2024 to consider the outputs of the project and incorporate the findings and recommendations into a master plan. The Trustees continued to work with Crosby Granger Architects (Kendal) to develop an architectural design for the development of the museum building. By the end of 2024-25 these plans had been developed to a RIBA stage 2 concept. This process included consultation with the Planning Department of Cumberland Council. ## _**Research**_ During the preparation of the surveys and studies to support an application for listed building and planning consent the Trust commissioned a ground penetrating radar survey of the museum yard, car park and approaches. The survey results are to be assessed but do appear to reveal both archaeological and geological features. The survey was conducted by Archaeological Research Services free of charge. ## **D. MANAGEMENT AND FINANCE** ## _**Management and Staffing**_ Jane Laskey continues as Museum Manager, assisted by Museum Assistants Vanessa O’Donnell and Judy Wagg, supported by a group of enthusiastic and committed volunteers. The volunteers focused on providing the guided tours of the fort, supporting events, leading school visits, grounds maintenance, outreach and documenting the collection. Staff and volunteers attended a series of training sessions covering customer care, collection care, tour guiding, safeguarding and equality and diversity (both provided by Cumbria Adult Education). Project funding supported training sessions in heritage interpretation, digital literacy, finds handling and community engagement. The staff and two volunteers completed their first aid for appointed person training, this is renewed every three years. The Manager attended in-person and virtual training workshops provided by several organisations including the Association for Independent Museums, Museums Development North-West, Collections Trust and Cumbria CVS. The Museum has a group of 15 volunteers. The volunteers contributed 1284 hours of their time to the Museum’s activities. The Trustees are grateful for all the hard work and enthusiasm they contributed towards supporting the museum and its activities. ## **Finance to year end 31 March 2025** ## **Operations and Development** 9 Operating costs amounted to £108,103 (£102,455) for Museum Operations and Publications. Management and administration costs were £40,416 (£32,269). Total resources expended were £223,758 (£157,392). Additional resources were required to cover the costs of the Reimagining Roman Maryport development. ## **Museum revenues** The total receipts at the museum were £21,963 (£21024), Commercial Fundraising produced £13,118 (£12,849), donations and grants £25,259 (£48,914); additionally, investment income amounted to £70,536 (£71,471) providing a total income of £130,876 (£154,258). ## **Museum costs** Staff costs were slightly higher at £70,191(£59,418) for the Museum operations. ## **Donations and grants** Grants included: Ace Lottery £11,533, Cumberland Council £9,795. Donations included: Mainhouse Charitable Trust £2,750.00 ## **Investments and Reserves** Investment income received was £70,536 (£71,471). At the year end the Trust’s total net assets were valued at £1,479,655 (£1,546,527). ## **PATRONS** The Trust continues to benefit from the support of Lord Inglewood and Professor David Breeze. Peter Richard Wilson Chairman of Trustees 9 January 2026 10 THE SENHOUSE MLSEUM TRUST FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 3 IstK4RCH ?0?5 INDEPFNDENT ExAmI￿R.5 REPORT STATEMF.pir OF FINANCIAL ACTh'ITIES BAiAliCE SHEEr NOTES TO THE ACCOUTr SCHEDLiE OF ]NVESTMETr*TS IIELD &8" -11., F Ill r4CYpr <¥e4r '.1111 I lila Il J Iii$l j. ly °1 fl ill A2R I Ci r* r c> v> * t￿>0 tkn￿¥>￿ 51111, oocJoooaocJ o CJ -8.888888" Rgi Pthc Xk 14 •7 * 6È-{8Slf¥*S1 %%¥iX%I%8X a2g 11 I p I a F24- i:&1 g{è -gg{ Independent Examinerfs provisional Report to the Trustees of The Senhouse Museum Trust I report on the accounts ofthe charity lor the yearended 31 March 2025, which are sel cul on the followng pages. Respective responsibilities of trustees and examinèr The charity's trustee5 are responsible lor the preparation of the accounts. The charity's tnjstees consider that an audlt is not required for this year under section 14412} of the Charrties Act 2011 (the 2011 Act) and that an independenl exarnination ts reeded. It is my ￿SponsIbl11ty lo.. examine the accounts under seclion 145 oflhe 2011 Acl." follow the proc*dure5 down in the general Directions gven by the Charty Commission under section 14515llbl of the 2011 Act". and slate whetl*r particular rnatters have come to my altenlK)n. Basis of independent examinerfs report My examination was carried out in accorijance wrth the general Directions given by the Charity Commission. An examination includes a review of the accounling records kept by the charty and a comparison of the accounts presented with Ih05e records. It also Indudes conStdefal￿n ol any unusual items di5clcsures in the accounts, and seekin9 explanabons from you as trustees conceming any such matter5. The prO￿dureS undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit and consequenlty opinion is given as to wheiher Ihe a¢¢ounls present a Irue and fair view" and the report is limited to Ih¢)5e matters set out in the statement below. Indeptrndent examinerfs 5tstement In conneclson with my examination, no matter has come to my attent￿rt= which gives me reasonable causè to bdieve thal. in any material ￿SpecI, the requiremenl$'. to keep accounting records in acco(dance ￿th Settl￿ 130 of the 2011 Act.. and to prepa￿ accounts which a¢tofd wth Ihe xcounting records and compty wth the accounting fequirements of the 2011 Acl. have not been met.. or lo whith. in my opinion. atteniion should be diawn in orderto enable a proper understanding of the a¢¢(yunls to be reached. Paul Bailey Tatte￿311 Barfey CharteredA¢¢ountants 3 Fisher Streel Cartisle CA3 8RR IS January 2026