Chapel Arts Annual Report 2024-2025
Trustees’ Annual Report for the period
from 1 May 2024 to 30 April 2025
Charity name: Chapel-en-le-Frith Arts (known as Chapel Arts)
Charity registration number: 1178080
Charity Address: 29 Market Street, Chapel-En-Le-Frith, HIGH PEAK, Derbyshire, SK23 0HP
Objectives and Activities:
The objectives for which the charity was established are:
To promote and encourage public participation in, and appreciation of, the arts in CHAPEL-EN-LE-FRITH and its surrounding communities, in particular, but not exclusively, by the organisation and production of community arts festivals, workshops, events and performances.
Chapel Arts meets these objects by running a writing group; spoken word evenings; musical and dramatic performances; and a regular film night. We seek to conform to the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit by ensuring all activities are available to the people living in and around Chapel-en-le-Frith and are widely advertised. Any charges are kept to the minimum needed to defray costs or are offered free of charge, although donations are welcomed.
Governance and Management:
| Trustee Name | Position Held (if any) | Date appointed or resigned if during current year |
|---|---|---|
| Anne Cawthorn | ||
| Mark Henderson | ||
| Carol Jones | Treasurer | |
| Charles Pickering | Chair | |
| Simone Pottage | ||
| Christopher Sizeland |
Volunteers:
Chapel Arts is run entirely by volunteers, including its trustees, and has no paid employees. The trustees are extremely grateful for the help and support provided by our loyal band of volunteers. They devote many hours to our activities and without their contribution Chapel Arts would not be able to function. We are especially grateful to Julie Harratt for her role as Honorary Secretary. Her expertise is proving valuable in the running of our organisation.
Achievements and Performance:
Chapel Arts had a successful year in 2024-25, except for the Creative Arts and Crafts area, where we were unable to recruit a co-ordinator. Despite the increase in inflation and the cost of living we held our prices at the same level for further year. Healthy attendance, largely for Film Night and the Writing Group, has resulted in a small surplus for the year. The accounts can be found at the end of this report.
Performing Arts :
Performing Arts held only one concert during the period covered by this report. Unfortunately, unforeseen circumstances prevented us from holding a Spring 2025 event. Our Autumn 2024 concert, The Fay Brothers, attracted an audience of 47 to Chapel Town Hall, which is close to average. The feedback was universally favourable and people had an enjoyable evening. However, costs outweighed income, resulting in a small deficit.
Film Group:
The film nights, held at Rems, continue to be very popular with even more people attending each month.
We review the films prior to showing, ensuring a combination of new films and classics. After replacing the amplifier last year, we also had the projector system serviced and wiring replaced.
The film group committee continue to support this project.
Creative Writing:
June 2024 was largely devoted to preparations for our two Buxton Festival Fringe performances (July 11th and 14th) on the theme “Murder Foretold”. We also discussed future plans: writing one-act plays, and also monologues (on the theme “Remembrance”) to be performed in collaboration with the Partington Players, Glossop.
The initiative shown by members of the group - musical preludes and interludes, the use of props and costume – enhanced the audiences’ appreciation at our two Fringe performances, which were very well attended. Sales of tickets and of the booklet containing all our “Murder Foretold” contributions enabled us to make a substantial contribution to the local children’s charity, Little Cherubs. The review of our Thursday performance on the Buxton Festival Fringe website was gratifying.
Three of our group also submitted material to the 2024 Fringe’s “Monologue Project” and were rated first, second and third by the judges. This testified to the high quality of writing that the group overall has achieved.
When our sessions resumed on 16th September after the summer break, we discussed our works in progress, and enjoyed a few writing exercises, but our main focus was on our collaboration with the Partington Players (see above). Our monologues were performed, some of them by the authors and some by the Partington Players, on 7th November. A WhatsApp message received the following day from a member of the audience read: “Fabulous evening. Fascinating. Really enjoyed it. The quality of the writing was superb. You should be very proud of your group.” The Partington Players were keen to discuss future collaborations.
Our plans for the winter break (November-March) included experiments with 30-minute plays and further development of our works in progress. In the event, only one 30-minute play was attempted, but several works in progress had advanced significantly when we reconvened in the spring of 2025, some approaching publication.
We devised plans to use our performances at the 2025 Buxton Festival Fringe to celebrate the eight centenary of the foundation of Chapel-en-le-Frith and its church, and then to arrange a joint lunch with the Glossop creative writing group, Write from the Heart, after those performances.
We also asked the Chapel Arts Committee to seek a replacement for the current creative writing tutor, who having held the position for eight years considered it time to retire and hand over the reins to someone younger.
Spoken Word:
The Spoken Word group meets on an ad hoc basis on a Wednesday or Thursday evening at Rems bar in Chapel-en-le-Frith. As a winter day time alternative I used the Mustard Seed Community Café again, which is popular, but the size of the venue limits the numbers.
Spoken Word allows people to read any literature, usually short stories or poems. There is a mixture of work they’ve written themselves and work by other authors. The evening or afternoon is split into two sessions, which usually allows people to read twice, with a time limit of five minutes per person in each session. Some people also like to come along to listen rather than perform.
In March, local artist Yvette Ribot-Smith came along to talk about one of her paintings, “Court Room Statement”, which was inspired by the high profile Giselle Pelicoe court case.
Spoken Word is a free event as Rems don’t charge for the venue and donations are usually made by the participants. The Mustard Seed do charge for heating, but donations given by the participants cover the cost. Donations from participants are given to Chapel Arts to help cover administrative costs, which amounted to £24 over this period.
The Spoken Word group met three times between 1/5/24 and 30/4/25. The numbers attending ranged from 8 to 10, which was slightly down from last year. In July, the Chapel Arts Creative Writing Group performed twice at Rems as part of the Buxton Festival Fringe, so I skipped the Spoken Word meeting that would have been due at the same time. I and three other regular Spoken Word participants from the Chapel Arts Writing Group also attended the Partington Players on the 7th November to read stories on the theme of Remembrance.
I use the Chapel Arts Facebook page and our Website to advertise the next Spoken Word event and print my own posters and flyers to distribute around the town.
Visual Arts and Crafts:
The search for a volunteer coordinator for Visual Arts and Crafts continued throughout 2024-25 without success. In the absence of someone to organise and run a programme of events including the Art Show, activities have been in abeyance.
FINANCIAL REVIEW:
Brief Statement of the Charity’s Policy on Reserves:
The Charity employs no staff, nor does it rent permanent offices. Therefore, the Charity does not need to hold significant reserves.
Cash reserves are regularly reviewed. The Charity holds sufficient cash to cover six months of central costs, such as public liability insurance and web-hosting, plus amounts to cover any outlay committed to planned events, to replace equipment, or to meet any unforeseen expenditure.
Further Financial Review Details:
At the end of the of the financial year 2023-2024 we had cash funds of £6556, while at the year end 2024-2025 this had risen slightly to £6722, an increase of £196.
The finances of the Charitable Trust remain healthy with ample funds in reserve. A business savings account with the NatWest has been opened, the modest interest helping to defray central administration costs. Administration costs doubled from 2023-24 to 2024-25. This increase was caused by the commissioning of a new website, as proposed in the 2023-2024 Annual Report. With the website in place, administrative expenditure should return to more usual levels in 2025-26.
Reserves remain healthy.
CHARITY ACCOUNTS (1 May 2024- 30 April 2025) CHARITY COMMISSIONChapel4n40-Frlth Arts FOR ENGLAND AND WALE 1178080 Receipts and payments accounts CC16a Forth• wriod from 01105124 To Section A Receipts and payments UnroStrScted funds IDthp Restricted rurwjs Endowmeni lunds tothp npwq¥tE Totsi funds IL¥thw ¥t£ A1 Recelpts Perfortnanc& Arts Filrn Ni hl Ea5 Fund.Rai5in Liter8 Art5 rt&Craft S ken Word Donations Interest Sub total(GFW ifJ¢oFne lorARI Assoiand Inv•stsNni salgs. 520 1,087 520 1,087 1,514 904 1,134 872 23 23 100 26 123 123 Sub totsl Tot8l*welp AJPa Perfortnance Arts Filrn Ni ht Ea5 Fund.Rai5in Arts rt&Craft Central Administratb S ken Word Short sio Com 742 664 742 664 1,041 160 361 351 803 934 934 tion Sub tota Assotand InVtmOnl rchasos table 449 Sub tota Totalpaymon Nei of t&1pt[paymértts AS Trartsf b8iw•orh fvnd8 A6 Cash funds lastyear end Cash funds this yeor 196 196 6,556
Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period Unrestricted funds Restricted lund5 to nAarAst£ Endobvmgnt funds Catagori Details 81 Cash funds Natwesl Current Acc 2.589 14 Petty Cash Natwesl Savings Account Total cash funds 4.149 6,752 Unrestrfctod funds Restrfct•d Endowmpnt funds DgLall$ to nur•¥tE Fundtothk au•t b•lonp Costlèp Curr•ntvau• lopdonall Fundtothkh •u•t b•long Unre5tricled CO<0P0n) Curr•ntv lo011) B4 AMets r•tain8d forth• thaiity'5 oivn u58 Film ProieGtK>n & Souryj System Blu Ray DVD Player Amplffier 2,128 Unre8thcl8d Unre5trictgJ 4S9 300 FundfDthk Amuntd I0) Wh4nd lopdonall BS Liabilities Dale of roval behfof 1 ty*ltusteg5 SKJnalure Prini Name
DECLARATION
The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.
Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees:
Signed:
Charles Frederick Pickering
Chair
Signed:
Carol Ann Jones Treasurer
Date: 10 November 2025