Annual Report of
The Troyte Ringing Centre
(Registered Charity No. 1179374)
All Saints, Huntsham (Photo: Les Boyce)
2025
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Troyte Ringing Centre Annual Report 2025
TROYTE RINGING CENTRE
Annual Report of the Trustees for the year ending 31[st] December 2025
CHARITY DETAILS
CHARITY NAME
The Troyte Ringing Centre (often known as the “TRC”) was set up in 2004.
CHARITY REG’D NUMBER The Centre was granted charity status by the Charity Commission in July 2018. Its Registered Charity Number is 1179374. CONTACT ADDRESS Five Oaks, Bampton, TIVERTON, Devon, EX16 9LE.
CHARITY TRUSTEES Name Office Held Christopher Bolt Leslie Boyce Chairman Michael Hatchett Treasurer Jennifer Jones Secretary Sheila Scofield Michael Ward
ADVISORS Donald Carter Principal Conductor John Martin, Michael Spencer, Fergus Stracey & David Hird Conductors Jack Ward Accounts Manager Simon Bartlett Examiner of Accounts Ken Smith Webmaster WEBSITE http://www.troyteringingcentre.org.uk/index.htm
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Troyte Ringing Centre Annual Report 2025
STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE & MANAGEMENT
The Troyte Ringing Centre is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) and its governing document is the TRC Constitution adopted on 27[th] July 2018. The members of the TRC are for the time being its trustees. Additional trustees or trustees to fill vacant posts are appointed by the remaining trustees with due regard to the knowledge, skills and experience of the candidates. In particular, appointees must demonstrate their competence in ringing full circle tower bells and in the training and development of appropriate ringing skills.
Management
The TRC operates primarily from St Michael and All Angels Church, Bampton and from All Saints Church, Huntsham in Devon. The Centre has management agreements with the Parochial Church Councils of both churches which provide for access, maintenance arrangements and the respective responsibilities of the TRC and the PCCs. The trustees and other voluntary helpers appointed by the trustees are responsible for the day-to-day management and administration of the Centre. All the trustees and helpers work for the Centre on a voluntary basis without remuneration other than the reimbursement of reasonable expenses.
The Centre has developed a range of management policies covering issues such as health and safety, safeguarding, COVID-security and investment.
Links to other bodies
In addition to the agreements in place with the respective PCCs of Bampton and Huntsham, the Centre cultivates links with the North East Branch of the Guild of Devonshire Ringers and is designated an ART Teaching Hub by the Association of Ringing Teachers. The TRC also has a close relationship with Bampton Church of England Primary School and has run an after-school bellringing club for its pupils.
OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES
The TRC sets out its objective in its Constitution, namely:
For the public benefit, to recruit and train bell ringers, using individual and group-based programmes of continuing education and development, in Mid Devon, West Somerset and surrounding areas for the purpose of advancing the art of bell ringing on bells hung in towers for full circle ringing which are audible to the general public.
Note: This object requires the TRC to operate within three principal fields of activity:
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with the general public for the purpose of increasing public knowledge and understanding of tower bell ringing,
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within groups of practising bell ringers for the purpose of developing group ringing performances
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and with individual bell ringers to enable them to integrate more effectively into existing groups of ringers.
Troyte Ringing Centre Annual Report 2025
In attempting to meet this objective the TRC carries out a range of activities, primarily:
1) Developing competence in the full circle ringing of tower bells through training, mentoring, focused practices and recorded performances for those living principally, but not exclusively, within the local authority areas of Mid Devon and the western part of Somerset.
(2) Providing suitably competent bands of ringers to meet the reasonable bellringing needs and interests of the communities of Bampton and Huntsham and those living within the wider geographical areas of interest to the Centre.
(3) Providing appropriate recruitment information and events for those living principally within the geographical areas of interest to the Centre.
(4) Using any surplus income not used for meeting objectives 1,2 or 3 for the long-term maintenance and enhancement of the equipment used by the Centre which is owned by others and to support local communities.
Public Benefit
The Trustees are mindful of the guidance given by the Charity Commission in respect of demonstrating public benefit arising from the work of the TRC. In carrying out the activities outlined above the following public benefits are derived:
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Towers within the geographical area of interest are supported to provide information, open events and recruitment activities to explain and foster an understanding of tower bell ringing in the general population. Raising awareness of the heritage and history of bells and tower bell ringing from the mid-16[th] century is a key component of our public information activities.
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Through helping teachers in local towers or by directly providing tuition, the TRC enables new recruits to bellringing to be taught to control bells safely and effectively, thus sustaining ringing activities in towers that might otherwise fall silent and maintaining the centuries old tradition of ringing bells in England.
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Through providing continuing training in bell ringing, less experienced ringers are supported to maintain and develop their ringing and thus to improve their standard of public performance.
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Through offering readily available practice facilities using well-maintained bell installations, sound control systems and silent practice computer-based training, the TRC is further supporting ringers of all levels of ability. It thereby encourages the retention of ringers and supports ringers to achieve higher standards of public performance, while avoiding excessive disturbance to neighbours from long and frequent periods of open ringing.
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Through raising funds through its activities, the TRC supports its host churches to meet running costs, the costs of day-to-day bell maintenance and the investment needs for the longer-term overhaul of the bell installations.
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Bell ringing is an activity open to people of all ages from 8 to 80 and of all backgrounds. It offers good physical exercise and the opportunity for mental stimulation and social interaction.
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Troyte Ringing Centre Annual Report 2025
CENTRE ACTIVITIES IN 2025
Recruitment, Publicity & Fundraising
Recruitment of new ringers has been a concern for several years, as our existing ringers age and suffer greater infirmity. Some progress has been made this year, with five recruits signing up for lessons. Inevitably, some learners find the commitment required to learn to ring too much, but we have retained four of the five in 2025. A volunteer recruitment event run for several Bampton organisations in March produced one recruit. Coffee mornings, teddy bear parachuting and Heritage Open Day events are opportunities to promote bell ringing to the local community, but do not necessarily produce recruits in the short term. We have 10 service ringers and a further 5 who support the weekly practice. A wider pool of ringers is drawn upon to provide bands for weddings and other special ringing and helpers for our training events. We lost one very accomplished young ringer to university in Liverpool in the autumn and one older ringer decided to end their ringing career because of infirmity.
We retain a set of display boards illustrating the history and practice of bells and ringing. These were well used throughout the year for Heritage Open Days in September in Tiverton and Bampton, during fundraising events and for supporting talks. In all, 7 bookings were made during the year.
Coffee mornings were held at Bampton in April and October and a cream tea in the Bampton churchyard in August to raise over £1,600 for the Centre. The August Bank Holiday Monday event parachuting teddy bears from Bampton church tower and a tower open event in September for Heritage Open Days generated good public relations for the TRC. The funds raised by these events, peal fees and other donations allowed the TRC to support the running costs of the two churches and to make provision in the longer term for major work on the bells. Details are given in the financial review below.
Service ringing and requested ringing
In normal circumstances the Centre’s band of local ringers performs regularly prior to most Sunday services at Bampton and Huntsham. This is at least four times a month. The TRC band also rings for mid-week church services, weddings and to celebrate anniversaries, other life events and civic occasions when requested. There has been a growing trend for asking for bells to be rung at funerals. The local Facebook pages are used to inform the community of ringing for special occasions such as Holocaust Memorial Day and St George’s Day.
Group practices and Training Events
Regular Thursday night practices at Bampton have been held throughout the year. It has been possible to expand the repertoire of methods rung at practices in the last year and attendances regularly exceed 12 ringers. A monthly practice is also held at Huntsham targeted particularly at those who ring for weddings there. It gives those who normally only ring on 6 bells the opportunity to practice their skills while ringing on 8.
The TRC programme of 8 training courses and Extended Practices saw 31 ringers benefit from these events. Demand for help with raising and lowering in peal remains strong and much of the training programme focuses on the needs of less experienced ringers in the earlier stages of their ringing careers.
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Troyte Ringing Centre Annual Report 2025
Our young ringers group now operates entirely with youngsters living in Bampton but attending Tiverton High School. The group uses facilities at St Paul’s church in Tiverton immediately after school and the pupils return home to Bampton by bus afterwards.
In the first half of the year we also ran an after-school group for pupils from Bampton Primary School. The primary school group finished in June when its members transferred to secondary school. We were unable to continue running a primary group in the autumn, but those pupils who progressed to Tiverton High School joined the High School group.
Recorded performances – peals and quarter peals
The TRC promotes the value of extended ringing performances as a way of developing the skills of ringers. Ringers throughout the South West are encouraged to participate in weekly peal attempts. A “peal” is a continuous performance of a minimum of 5,000 changes and takes between 2½ - 3 hours to complete. 44 successful peals were recorded in the year.
Details of the peals rung at Huntsham in 2025 can be seen on the TRC website: https://troyteringingcentre.org.uk/peals/peals2025.htm
Similarly, the Centre also hosts regular quarter peal attempts by the local ringers and bands from further afield. 15 successful quarter peal performances were recorded at Huntsham, many being rung to develop the skills of the TRC local band. A “quarter peal” is a continuous performance of a minimum of 1,260 changes and takes about 45 minutes to complete.
Governance
The trustees were able to meet face-to-face on five occasions in 2025. The trustees receive regular reports on finance, health and safety, safeguarding and tower maintenance issues. As well as planning and reviewing Centre activities, the group has considered the maintenance needs of both bell installations, reviewed the Centre’s insurance cover, reviewed the fees and charges we make for our services, prepared guidance for our ringing leaders on how to organise our practices and produced information sheets for the guidance of visiting ringers.
An annual meeting of the ringers in the local band was held in April and a category of associate membership of the charity is being trialled with a view to developing a package of benefits for associates and making a change to the TRC Constitution to formally recognise them.
We continue to search for new trustees from amongst those with both the relevant bellringing skills and other abilities in managing the organisation.
Facilities Maintenance and Improvement
The main project for 2025 has been the repainting of the bell frame at Bampton. Five volunteers from the ringers’ group met weekly from May to November. The process of repainting involved scraping down and sanding the steelwork of the sub-frame and recoating with a red oxide primer, undercoat and two applications of a specialist topcoat. In 2026 the team will resume work, tackling the cast iron ‘A’ frames.
During the year, the defunct microwave oven at Huntsham was replaced with a secondhand oven sourced through Freecycle. At the request of the churchwarden the unused overhead projector and trolley were removed from the church and have been disposed of. An outstanding piece of work at Huntsham to check and refurbish the roller boxes for the free running of the ropes should be completed in 2026.
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Troyte Ringing Centre Annual Report 2025
FINANCIAL REVIEW
The Financial Statement for the period 1[st] January to 31[st] December 2025 and the Report of the Examiner of Accounts are appended.
Income
Total receipts during 2025 were £8,270 compared with £8,431 for 2024, Peal income was slightly less than it was in 2024 but the income from quarter peals, weddings, funerals and other celebration ringing was slightly increased. Voluntary donations were significantly less in 2025 compared with 2024. In particular Gift Aided Small Donations and personal Gift Aid donations were less and as a consequence the Income Tax recoverable was less during 2025. Fund raising was slightly more successful during 2025 than it was during 2024. We raised £1,633 during 2025 compared with £1,596 during 2024.
Expenditure
Our expenditure on repairs and maintenance was significantly less in 2025, £683 in 2025 compared with £6,323 in 2024. This was because Nicholson Engineering were unable to undertake the work they were contracted to do during 2025. This work is still outstanding in June 2026 and the cost implications of this delay are likely to be significant.
Outturn, Transfers and Funds
We ended 2025 with a surplus in our current account of £7,504 compared with £4,276 at the end of 2024.Our Deposit account contained £3,492 compared with £3,349 at the end of 2024. During 2026 we have transferred a further £3,000 from our current account into our Deposit account. At the end of 2025 our Major Works Funds, invested by each PCC in the Church of England Investment Fund were valued in total at £36,535 compared with £35,948 at the end of 2024.
Finally in summary the total funds available to the Troyte Ringing Centre on 31 December 2025 were £10,995 compared with £7,959 at 31 December 2024.
DECLARATION OF TRUSTEES
This annual report and the accompanying accounts were approved by the Trustees at their meeting held on the 1[st] July 2026
Signed Leslie Boyce Chairman Signed Jenny Jones Secretary
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Troyte Ringing Centre Annual Report 2025
Troyte Ringing Centre Financial Statement for period 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025
| RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS ACCOUNT | General | Huntsham | Bampton | Training | TOTAL 2025 |
TOTAL 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RECEIPTS Use of bells 1 Voluntary receipts 2 Fund raising 3 Other incoming resouces 4 Total receipts PAYMENTS Maintenance & Repairs 5 Fund raising costs 6 Facilties 7 Training 8 Other outgoing resources 9 Total payments Surplus (Deficit) Note |
Unrestricted £ |
Designated £ |
Designated £ |
Designated £ |
£ | £ |
| 585 156 |
2,583 716 0 0 |
267 1,589 1,633 0 |
95 646 |
2,850 2,985 1,633 802 |
2,511 3,420 1,596 904 |
|
| 741 | 3,299 | 3,490 | 741 | 8,270 | 8,431 | |
| 581 | 1,800 12 |
683 8 2,000 12 |
331 | 683 8 3,800 331 605 |
. 6,323 27 3,700 270 643 |
|
| 581 | 1,812 | 2,703 | 331 | 5,426 | 10,963 | |
| 160 | 1,487 | 786 | 410 | 2,843 | (2,532) | |
| TRANSFERS Transfers between funds 10 Surplus (Deficit) after transfers |
0 | 0 | ||||
| 160 | 1,487 | 786 | 410 | 2,843 | (2,532) | |
| AVAILABLE FUNDS 11 Available funds at start of Financial Year Available funds at end of Financial Year |
2,986 3,316 |
7 1,392 |
2,642 3,489 |
2,324 2,799 |
7,959 10,995 |
10,427 7,959 |
| STATEMENT OF ASSETS AND LIABILITIES | General | Huntsham | Bampton | Training | TOTAL 2025 |
TOTAL 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monetary assets Bank current account Cash & cheques not paid in Deposit account Investments Bell Major Works Funds 12 Investment Pending 13 Liabilities Cheques not presented Agency Account 14 Note |
Designated £ |
Designated £ |
Designated £ |
Designated £ |
£ | £ |
| 3,316 0 0 |
(354) 0 1,746 |
1,743 0 1,746 |
2,799 0 0 |
7,504 0 3,492 |
4,276 334 3,349 |
|
| 3,316 | 1,392 | 3,489 | 2,799 | 10,995 | 7,959 | |
| 0 0 |
13,619 1,000 0 0 |
22,916 0 0 |
0 | 36,535 1,000 0 0 |
35,948 0 0 0 |
|
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Jack Ward Mike Hatchett Accounts Manager Treasurer
Approved at Trustees Meeting on
Jenny Jones Secretary
| NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENT | General | Huntsham | Bampton | Training | TOTAL 2025 |
TOTAL 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Use of bells Peals Quarter Peals Weddings, funerals and celebrations Visiting Ringers Branch Practices 2 Voluntary receipts Online Giving Non-Gift Aided Donations Gift Aided Donations Income tax recovered (Gift Aid Scheme) 3 Fund raising Trading Events 4 Other incoming resouces Bell Club fees & subscriptions Training fees Refreshments Grants Transfer from Deposit Account Other 5 Maintenance & Repairs Maintenance & repairs New equipment 6 Fund raising costs Invoices & reimbursements Cost of trading 7 Facilties Use of faclities Major Works Investment Fund 8 Training Training material Reimbursements Other 9 Other outgoing resources Administration Bank Charges Insurance Other |
Designated £ |
Designated £ |
Designated £ |
Designated £ |
£ | £ |
| 1,540 263 520 260 |
230 37 |
1,540 263 750 37 260 |
1,690 171 650 0 0 |
|||
| 0 | 2,583 | 267 | 0 | 2,850 | 2,511 | |
| 17 568 |
531 185 |
309 1,280 |
64 31 |
17 904 1,496 568 |
96 964 1,729 632 |
|
| 585 | 716 | 1,589 | 95 | 2,985 | 3,421 | |
| 5 1,629 |
5 1,629 |
0 1,596 |
||||
| 0 | 0 | 1,633 | 0 | 1,633 | 1,596 | |
| 156 | 233 360 24 29 |
233 360 24 0 0 185 |
168 346 59 0 0 332 |
|||
| 156 | 0 | 0 | 646 | 802 | 905 | |
| 683 | 683 0 |
6,323 0 |
||||
| 0 | 0 | 683 | 0 | 683 | 6,323 | |
| 8 | 8 0 |
27 0 |
||||
| 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 8 | 27 | |
| 800 1,000 |
1,000 1,000 |
1,800 2,000 |
1,700 2,000 |
|||
| 0 | 1,800 | 2,000 | 0 | 3,800 | 3,700 | |
| 65 126 140 |
65 126 140 |
170 100 |
||||
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 331 | 331 | 270 | |
| 84 347 150 |
12 | 12 | 0 84 347 174 |
75 102 347 119 |
||
| 581 | 12 | 12 | 0 | 605 | 643 |
- 10 The General Fund is used for payments which are not liabilities falling to one of the other funds (e.g. administration, insurance, bank charges, website costs and governance) and receipts which are not other fund credits (e.g. income from internet puchases) or not attributal to a single fund (e.g. standing orders and donations to the TRC, and Gift Aid).
11 Monetary Assets less Liabilities
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12 Investments in the Bell Major Works funds are made by the Huntsham and Bampton PCCs using the annual grant made by the TRC (see Note 7). The funds are controlled by the respective PCCs but can only be used for major work on the bells.
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13 Annual grant for Bell Major Works Fund (see Note 7) not yet invested.
14 Money which passes through the TRC's bank account but which is not part of its income or expenditure. e.g. Collections for other charities.
CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND ANO WALES Independent examiner's report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner s Report Report to the trusteesl mernbers of Trowe Ringing Centre On accounts for the year ended 31 December 2025 Charity no (if any) 1179374 Set out on pages 1 &2 I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity llhe Twsf) for the year ended 3010612025. Responslbllltles and As Ihe chartty trustees of the Trust. you are responsible for the preparation basis of report of the accounts in accordance wtth the requirernents of the Charities Acl 2011 (Yhe Acr). I report in respect of my examination of Ihe Trusl's accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by tt)e Charty Commission under section 14515)(bl of the Act. I have ci)mpleted my examination. I confimi that no material matters have come to my attenlM)n ') in conn8clion with the examination which gNes me cause to believe that in, any material respect: accounling records wer8 not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or the accounts th) not accord with Ihe accounting records Independent examiner's statemenl I have no concems and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper undersianding of the accounts to be reached. . Please delete the words in the brackats rf they not apply. Signed: Date: Name: Relevanl professional qualification(s) or body (if any): Address: 11 CUSE 4% Mrrt) IER October 2018
Section B Disclosure Only complete rf the exarniner needs to highlight rnatters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of Charity accounts: directions and guidanc8 for examiners). Give here brlef details of any items that the examlner wishes to disclose. IER October 2018