The Friends of Honeywood Museum
Trustees’ Report for 2022/23
Charitable Incorporated Organisation No 1175789
Welcome to another AGM at Honeywood. All the documents that we are required to provide are included in the AGM pack we have posted to you. They include the Annual Accounts which, along with this Trustees’ Report, need to be agreed to be sent to the Charity Commission.
The headings in this report follow the Charity Commission’s guidance notes on the information that charities must set out in their annual report.
Objectives and Activities
The objects of The Friends of Honeywood Museum are as follows:
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To advance the heritage and arts within the London Borough of Sutton for public benefit
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To advance education in the heritage of the London Borough of Sutton for public benefit
All of the activities of the Friends, referred to below, have been in support of these objects.
Structure, Governance and Management
The Friends of Honeywood Museum is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation governed by a Charities Commission Association model constitution. The Trustees are as follows:
Susan Kelsall (Chairman)
Lucy Kelsall (Secretary)
Christopher Cartwright (Treasurer)
Christopher Ford (Membership Secretary)
Anthony Price (Webmaster)
Susan Hoskin (Talks Secretary)
Jeannette Crosier
John Phillips
Jill Whitehead
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Each year a third of our Trustees have to stand down and seek re-election. The Trustees have agreed to go through this process in alphabetical order, which means that this year the following Trustees are standing down and seeking re-election:
Susan Hoskin
Lucy Kelsall
Susan Kelsall
The Board of Trustees has adopted Rules covering Procedural Rules, Financial Rules, Membership Rules and a Data Protection Procedure. These Rules regulate the way that the Trustees operate and are kept under review to make sure they reflect current good practice. Under the Procedural Rules, the Board of Trustees consists of a Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer and Membership Secretary (all Trustees) and up to six other Trustees. At the end of the year 2022/23 there were five other Trustees with one vacancy.
The Board of Trustees has the power to co-opt up to three non-voting members to the Board and for 2022/23 these have been:
Margo Cartwright
Elizabeth Price
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If any of our members would like to consider filling either the Trustee or Co-opted member vacancies then please contact the Board via Sue Kelsall – sue_kelsall@hotmail.co.uk
The Procedural Rules also provide that Sutton Council may appoint a local Councillor to act as their Representative at meetings of the Board of Trustees. The Council’s Representative is a non-executive attendee and for 2022/23 has been
Cllr Jake Short
Financial Review
Accounts for the year 2022/23 are set out separately as part of the Treasurer’s Report. There will also be a separate Membership Secretary’s Report. Our thanks go to Chris Cartwright and Chris Ford for keeping these areas running so smoothly.
The Friends income continues to come from subscriptions and donations, our regular talks and events and sales from our very popular shop (including duck food sales of course!).
On the expenditure side, there have been the usual costs of printing and sending out our newsletters and What’s Ons, and there is the monthly cost of the Friends’ Zoom account used at least to hold our regular Board meetings. All valuable ways that we keep in regular touch with our members. Also we do regularly buy new shop stock to keep our shelves well supplied with new and interesting items!
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The Board of Trustees has agreed to help fund some much-needed conservation work at Honeywood, following on from the successful restoration of the stained glass in the Drawing Room. We are investigating restoration work on the Drawing Room floor. We have also paid for new plants for the back garden as part of our garden restoration project and the removal of a tree which was damaging the grotto, as well as half the cost of the six hanging baskets on display at the front of Honeywood over the summer, which make such a difference to the appearance of the front of the Museum.
The Board has also agreed to buy all the craft materials needed for the very successful craft activities and trails in Honeywood. These are greatly enjoyed by families, adults and children alike! Our thanks go to Margo for the brilliant job she does in organising these activities.
Achievements and Performance
The Friends have continued to run regular Book Club sessions, monthly talks, Board of Trustees’ meetings, garden volunteers’ meetings and meetings with Heritage Service staff.
Our regular, posted, newsletters are always popular with members, very colourful as well as being informative! Many thanks to Tony Price for his wonderful designs for the newsletters and for the Friends posters, displayed both inside and outside Honeywood and showing how active the Friends are with a full range of events. Also a great many thanks to Tony for his fantastic work on the Friends’ website, which is always kept totally up to date and for chasing us all to provide the necessary information!
Tony also runs the Friends Twitter account and many thanks also to Jeannette who runs, very successfully, the Friends’ Facebook page. All these contacts have become so important to us as people rely more and more on social media for information.
Our thanks also go to John Phillips, not just for all the usual and many things he does for the Friends and Honeywood, but also for taking the lead, on behalf of the Friends, with the garden project, working with Jane Howard of the Heritage staff. John and Tony keep a wonderful section on the Friends’ website regularly updated with John writing a regular blog about developments. Good progress has been made by the gardening group in clearing away unwanted bushes, removing a tree causing damage and developing planting areas, including planting perennials by the Festival Walk Wall.
Many thanks also to our Secretary, Lucy Kelsall, for all her support in keeping things running, with agendas, minutes and grant applications whenever possible! She also runs our really successful Friends Book Club, which meets every month (except August) in Honeywood’s Drawing Room. They consider a wide range of books chosen by members of the Book Club. It’s free to join and even the refreshments are free!
Our talks Secretary, Susan Hoskin, has continued to organise a rich and varied programme of monthly talks. As she organises nine of these a year, this is a considerable task!
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In April our local transport historian, John Parkin, gave a talk with lots of illustrations entitled ‘The Disappearing - local scenes with buses and trains over the years.
In May we had a talk and tour of the historic All Saints Parish Church, Carshalton, with a history going back, at least to the Norman Conquest.
Last year’s AGM in June was the first to be held in Honeywood since the start of the pandemic. 47 members attended and after the meeting in the Drawing Room a social gathering was held out in the garden.
In July we had a talk on the history of Southwark Cathedral, which probably started in the 7[th] Century. In September we welcomed back our regular and very popular speaker, Ian Bevan, who gave a very informative talk on Edwardian Leisure, the first era to enjoy leisure time.
In October we held a special event to mark Black History Month. The Friends worked with SACCO (Sutton African and Caribbean Cultural Organisation) and ASKI who gave a special talk on ‘The Windrush Generation’ and their cultural influences, including all the new foods introduced to this country at the time.
We then had an incredibly successful event with Alison Weir on 1[st] December. Alison is a wonderful supporter of Honeywood and The Friends. We all look forward to her preChristmas event and this has grown from filling the Billiards Room in Honeywood to filling the theatre at Cryer Arts! Around 140 people, the largest audience we have ever had, enjoyed a very special evening. Her talk was on ‘Queens in the age of Chivalry’. Alison then drew the winning tickets for our very popular Autumn Raffle, with over 500 tickets sold, it’s a very good fundraiser for the Friends.
Our next talk was at the end of this March when a speaker from the RSPB Croydon branch spoke about local birds including our garden birds and with birdsong. As with all our talks currently this was a sold out event.
The Friends also ran two special events during the year. We had a successful event for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Weekend. On Saturday 4[th] June we were outside Honeywood with appropriately themed children’s crafts and performances by the Carshalton Ceilidhs, Penny Royal Clog Dancers, Madder Mill Morris and All Saints’ Primary School Choir. It was a really lovely afternoon and lots of visitors came along to enjoy it all.
For our second event, it was wonderful to have a full Frost Fair back, the first since 2019, on Saturday 3[rd] December. In the intervening years, The Friends have run Christmas events at Honeywood, but there is nothing like the Frost Fair! The Friends run everything inside Honeywood and in the Friends gazebo in Honeywood Walk. We work closely with Ecolocal who organise the craft and food stalls in Honeywood Walk, Festival Walk and the Memorial Gardens, as well as all the outside entertainment of singing and dancing.
It was an incredibly popular event, with thousands attending. In Honeywood there were nearly 1,500 visitors about as many as we can cope with and we did have to display our
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‘House Full’ sign for a while! Our wonderful Santa was fully booked all afternoon, the children’s crafts sold out, the Magic shows were all fully booked with the popular Steve Day, the free storytelling sessions were very successful and shop sales went really well. In the Friends gazebo the children’s games were very busy and the Lucky Dip sold out!
One important project was successfully completed. A few years ago, Sutton’s Heritage Service and The Friends were approached by the local Rotary Club. They wanted a suitable memorial to their long-time member, George Blanks, who had set up Elwyns double glazing, still trading in Carshalton High Street. He had been very active with the Rotary Club in Carshalton.
The Friends took on the suggested project, to replace the Information Board outside Honeywood. The board was looking faded and grubby! It displayed the ducks that could be seen on the ponds, but the information was out of date. It was agreed that the new board would show the Heritage sites that could be seen from that spot (and also just behind!) The Rotary Club provided a substantial donation to cover the cost.
We used local artist, Helena Vaughan, to design the new board, with all the Heritage information provided by John Phillips. Work was progressing well until the pandemic brought everything to a halt. However, we did manage to get back to this last year. We completed the lovely design with Helena. Then a local firm, recommended to us by the Council, refurbished the legs and frame and put the new board in place. This finally happened the day before the Frost Fair!
We think you will agree that the new Board looks great and is also very informative about the local sites and history. It is a fitting tribute to George Blanks, who is referred to on the board. The design also includes swans, as George was instrumental in getting them back on the ponds.
With the Friends also having their large gazebo at the Eco-Fair on the August Bank Holiday Monday with lots of children’s activities, it was a very busy and successful year.
Reference and Administrative details
Charity Name The Friends of Honeywood Museum
Registered Charity number 1175789 Charity’s Principal Address 46, Upland Road, Sutton SM2 5JE
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THE FRIENDS OF HONEYWOOD MUSEUM
2021/22
2022/23
Figures £
| 2021/22 | THE FRIENDS OF HONEYWOOD MUSEUM | THE FRIENDS OF HONEYWOOD MUSEUM | 2022/23 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Figures £ | INCOME AND EXPENDITURE FOR THE YEAR 2022 -2023 | |||
| INCOME | ||||
| 1,550 | Subscriptions | 1,758 | ||
| 826 | Donations | 1,548 | ||
| 318 | Gift Aid | 423 | ||
| - | Grants received - LBS | 800 | ||
| 399 | Contribution for Garden Bench | |||
| Contribution - Rotary Club - Information | ||||
| - | Board | |||
| 129 | Contributions by LBS - (Hanging baskets) | 107 | ||
| 7,188 | 3,151 | Sales of Shop stock | 5,311 | 10,722 |
| 4,037 | SumUp Card Payments | 5,411 | ||
| 1,350 | Fund raising Talks, activities, raffle and fairs | 2,980 | ||
| 4 | Interest received | 180 | ||
| 11,764 | 18,518 | |||
| LESS EXPENDITURE | ||||
| 1,540 | Postage, printing, advertising and website | 3,236 | ||
| 1,881 | Purchases for the Honeywood Museum | 3,212 | ||
| 30 | Gifts and Flowers | |||
| 15 | Books / Crafts | 667 | ||
| 3,581 | Shop Stock | 5,835 | ||
| 89 | Depreciation | |||
| 101 | Events | 997 | ||
| 415 | Talks | 535 | ||
| 586 | Insurance & Fees | 539 | ||
| 35 | Bank charges | 138 | ||
| 144 | Zoom fees | 188 | ||
| 8,417 | 15,347 | |||
| LOSS/SURPLUS ON ACTIVITIES | ||||
| BALANCE SHEET AS AT 31st MARCH 2023 | ||||
| ASSETS | ||||
| 38,822 | Current & Deposit Bank Holdings | 41,993 | ||
| - | Cash | - | ||
| 8,300 | Dickinson Silver | 8,300 | ||
| 829 | Fixed Assets | 480 | ||
| 2,969 | Stock of books, cards, maps, stationery etc | 2,322 | ||
| - | Sundry debtors | - | ||
| 50,920 | 53,095 | |||
| LIABILITIES | ||||
| Friends of Honeywood | ||||
| 50,488 | Museum | 50,341 | ||
| 432 | Grotto Research Fund | 432 | ||
| - | Sundry creditors | - | ||
| 50,920 | 53,095 |
Christopher Cartwright - Honorary Treasurer. This account is an Interim Account up to 31st March 2023. The Friends have new audit arrangements involving an independent investigation by ASP accounts and final figures will be available at the AGM.
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