Annual Report by Sir Andrew Lawson-Tancred, Chairman
For year ending 31 December 2022 Presented at the AGM on May 7, 2023
During the course of the year, The Friends of Roman Aldborough (“FORA”) offered members a programme of Talks and Visits.
Talks
A total of nine talks were given to members during the year. These were mainly face to face and with others being via the Zoom platform. With relevant permissions in place, the Zoom talks were recorded and posted on YouTube for members only. With Members from increasingly diverse locations, these recordings prove very popular, and FORA received some very positive feedback.
| There was a wide variety of talks, including: | ||
|---|---|---|
| Life of an author | Dr Adrian Goldsworthy | Zoom |
| Roman Glass in Northern Britain | Sally Cottam | Zoom |
| A Yorkshire Vineyard and | Ian Townsend | |
| The Vindolanda Writing Tablets | Dr Roger Tomlin | |
| The Iconic Roman Villa – thro’ the keyhole | Gillian Hovell | Zoom |
| Surveying Pompeii and other Roman Towns | Dr Sophie Hay | |
| Roman Pottery | Graham Taylor | |
| Digging Deeper at Isurium Brigantum | Dr Rose Ferraby | |
| Professor Martin Millett | ||
| Romano – British Mosaics | Stephen Cosh | Zoom |
| Tudors, Tancreds and Treason | Andrew Lawson-Tancred | |
| Hunday Field Farm Excavations | Nick Wilson |
Over 100 FORA members accessed the talks via a combination of Zoom and YouTube.
A survey conducted among members found that although the Zoom talks had been very much appreciated. Some members commented on the benefits of live talks with 44% preferring live talks with 43% asking for a mixture of Zoom and live.
Visits
4 visits took place during the course of the year. For the first time, FORA arranged a two-day visit to Birdoswald and Stenhouse Roman Museum, which proved very popular. Hopefully such multi day trips will be repeated in the future.
Other visits included:
A tour of Beadlam Villa and visit to Helmsley Archaeological Store
A tour of the Yorkshire Museum York, Roman Section led by curator
A tour of Aldborough led by Dr.Rose Ferraby and Prof. Martin Millett
Outreach Talks
There were 4 Outreach talks during 2022, three by Wendy Hyam and one by David Roberts. The venues were:
Snape Burton Leonard Kirk Hammerton Dunesforde Vineyard
Guided tours of the English Heritage site
These were organised by EH using their guides. Many of the guides are FORA members.
Education Group
After a period of no visits due to the pandemic, FORA was pleased to welcome schools back to the site and received some very positive feedback from the following schools:
June Jennyruth Workshops September Poppleton Road Primary Visit to the dig September Poppleton Road Primary Visit to the dig October Meadowside Academy
In September, two local schools visited the Cambridge led archaeological dig in Aldborough and explored the spoil heaps, washed finds and found out more about the work of the archaeologists.
Unfortunately, the current economic situation and rise in transport costs has meant that schools are generally finding such visits increasingly difficult to finance. In response to this FORA has sought to raise funds to help with transport costs and this has allowed one school Poppleton Road Primary School to visit the dig site which might otherwise have found the cost prohibitive. FORA is grateful to Boroughbridge and District Historical Society and others for donating towards this initiative.
English Heritage remains keen to encourage visits to the site and has recently revamped the Museum Handling Collection producing excellent resource materials for schools to use during the course of their visits.
FORA/EH meetings
FORA and EH met using Zoom for two update meetings.
Roman Garden Project
The FORA Garden Group has planted the prepared beds with plants Romans would have used. The vegetable and herb beds have been particularly productive.
Cambridge University Roman Town Project
The team from the University of Cambridge, led by Dr Rose Ferraby and Professor Martin Millett, have continued their dig and research activities in 2022 on the site dug in 2020 and 2021. The dig took took place between August 27 and September 24, 2022. Students from Cambridge University and local schools were able to participate in the dig. The excavation hosted an open day and welcomed a range of individual and group visits.
Andrew Lawson-Tancred Chair: Friends of Roman Aldborough
October 2023
The Friends of Roman Aldborough Financial Statement 2022
Opening Balance January 1, 2022: £11,329.97
| Jan | Feb | March | April | May | June | July | Aug | **Sept ** | Oct | Nov | Dec | TOTAL | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| INCOME | |||||||||||||
| Renewals | £875.00 | £370.00 | £245.00 | £70.00 | £55.00 | £120.00 | £20.00 | £35.00 | £5.00 | £330.00 | £375.00 | £2550 | |
| New Members | £30 | £15.00 | £55.00 | £75.00 | £40.00 | £20.00 | £70.00 | £20.00 | £325.00 | ||||
| Visitors | £20.00 | £90.00 | £105.00 | £215 | |||||||||
| Visit Bookings | £520.00 | £180.00 | £20.00 | £120.00 | £80.00 | £169.00 | £15.00 | £26.00 | £1485 | ||||
| Outreach Talk | £50.00 | £40.00 | £40.00 | £40.00 | £170.00 | ||||||||
| Guide Book Sales |
£40 | £13.50 | £13.50 | £18.00 | £58.50 | £143.50 | |||||||
| Grant – Garden |
£2000.00 | £2000.00 | |||||||||||
| Rafe Income | £81.00 | £70.00 | £91.00 | £143.00 | £385.00 | ||||||||
| Book Sales | £27.25 | £27.25 | |||||||||||
| Donatons | £20.00 | £10.00 | £5.00 | £15.00 | £50.00 | ||||||||
| Donatons G | £10.00 | £10.00 | |||||||||||
| Donaton - E | £100.00 | £50.00 | £600.00 | £850.00 | £1600.00 | ||||||||
| Donatons – Teas |
£83.93 | £43.80 | £126.93 | ||||||||||
| Donaton – Amazon |
£8.61 | £9.01 | £17.62 | ||||||||||
| Donated Cash | £42.00 | £42.00 | |||||||||||
| Float repayment |
£32.00 | £32.00 | |||||||||||
| TOTAL IN | £1125.00 | £445.00 | £900.00 | £2569.50 | £358.29 | £260.00 | £125.00 | £333.01 | £239.00 | £26.00 | £1003.50 | £1590.80 | |
The Friends of Roman Aldborough Financial Statement 2022
| EXPENDITURE | |||||||||||||
| Hall Hire | £60.00 | £60.00 | £75.00 | £60.00 | £255.00 | ||||||||
| Mobile Phone | £4.50 | £4.50 | £9.00 | ||||||||||
| Fortuna | £25.00 | £25.00 | |||||||||||
| FORA Subscriptons |
£45.00 | £20.00 | £30.00 | £95.00 | |||||||||
| BAFM Membership |
£100.00 | £100.00 | |||||||||||
| Insurance - Public Liability |
£198.00 | £198.00 | |||||||||||
| Insurance – Employee |
£102.00 | £102.00 | |||||||||||
| Site Guides | £269.60 | £269.60 | |||||||||||
| Visit Cost | £600.00 | £188.00 | £788.00 | ||||||||||
| Design Cost | £315.00 | £315.00 | |||||||||||
| Rafe Float | £20 | £20.00 | |||||||||||
| Rafe Prizes | £12.50 | £17.00 | £29.50 | ||||||||||
| Speaker Expense/Fee |
£28.75 | £33.60 | £350.00 | £72.05 | £484.40 | ||||||||
| Printng | £37.23 | £98.97 | £26.86 | £43.11 | £205.90 | ||||||||
| Zoom Licence | £143.88 | £143.88 | |||||||||||
| Web Hostng | £160.89 | £160.89 | |||||||||||
| Domain Names New/Renew |
£55.60 | £55.60 | |||||||||||
| Stamps | £96.60 | £86.60 | |||||||||||
| Outreach Expenses |
£10.00 | £20.00 | £30.00 | £60.00 |
The Friends of Roman Aldborough Financial Statement 2022
| Ofce Expenses |
£122.32 | £122.32 | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zoom Equipment |
£463.18 | £463.18 | |||||||||||
| Donaton – EH i-pad |
£197.50 | £197.50 | |||||||||||
| DigEquipment | £66.90 | £66.90 | |||||||||||
| Dig– Tent Hire | £400.00 | £400.00 | |||||||||||
| Refreshments | £29.23 | £29.23 | |||||||||||
| Educaton – Bus Hire |
£400.00 | £400.00 | |||||||||||
| Educaton Expenses |
£423.00 | £432.00 | |||||||||||
| Miscellaneous | £4.35 | £4.35 | |||||||||||
| TOTAL OUT | £70.00 | £209.86 | £650.67 | £1949.78 | £656.07 | £123.11 | £287.50 | £66.90 | £588.00 | £423.00 | £605.73 | £64.50 | |
| NET INCOME | £1055.00 | £235.14 | 249.33 | 619.72 | -297.78 | 136.89 | -162.50 | 266.11 | -349.00 | -397 | 397.77 | 1556.30 | |
| Bank Balance | £12,284,97 | £12,620.11 | £12869.44 | £13489.16 | £13191.38 | £13328.27 | £13165.77 | £13431.88 | £13082.88 | £12685.88 | £13083.6 5 |
£14639.95 |
Closing Balance December 31, 2022: £14,639.95