## **Malvern Radar And Technology History Society (MRATHS) - 1183001**
## **Annual Report - 2023**
## **Summary**
An exciting and significant new opportunity was presented to us in February 2022 to open a small STEM museum in Great Malvern Station. This has been delayed due to delays in the sponsor’s programme but this project is now underway (February 2024).
The book titled ‘Boffins come to Malvern’ written by our Trustee Martin Hutchinson has sold 1000 books this year. with 800 remaining of the original 2000. This demonstrates public benefit well beyond our membership of ~150.
We continue public hybrid meetings which combine people attending in person with people on line. These meetings consist of a section on MRATHS news and an invited speaker on a topic of interest to the society. We have worked to improve the reliability and quality for our online attendees during 2023 some of whom cannot attend in person.
We have visited other groups and organisations and been able to deliver talks and other outreach activities in person, although at a lower level than in past years.
The historically important collection in our Archive is hosted at the QinetiQ plc site in Malvern and continues to receive donations. As the society grows we are receiving an increasing number of enquiries from the public and other organisations.
Trustee meetings have been held in person thanks to the generous provision of meeting facilities at QinetiQ.
Our balance sheet remains healthy and will underpin our plans for 2024.
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## **1 Public Benefit**
As an Educational Charity we deliver several public benefits. These are set out as objectives in our Constitution. The public benefit delivered in 2023 is summarised below.
## **1.1 STEM Museum**
The venue will be called ‘The Technology Station’ and will be inside in Great Malvern Railway Station. The lease was executed on the 22[nd] January 2024 and we were given access to the premises on 9[th] February 2024. Following our build phase, we now hope to open the museum sometime in late April. The Technology Station will include exhibits which cover: World War II, The Cold War, social history and more recent technological breakthroughs such as thermal imaging.
## **1.2 Open Public Meetings**
We continue public hybrid meetings which combine people attending in person with people on-line. These meetings consist of a section on MRATHS news and an invited speaker on a topic of interest to the society. We have worked to improve the reliability and quality for our online attendees during 2023, some of whom cannot attend in person.
The year’s meetings were again all held in Malvern College’s Lewis lecture theatre and are shown in the table below.
|January 2023|The History of Christchurch 1939-1942 ADEE/ADRDE|
|---|---|
|March 2023|AGM
Making the National Air Traffic Control System Operational|
|May 2023|The war in Ukraine: a military assessment|
|July 2022|Orange Poodle and Other Exotic Beasts - A potted history
of HF Radar in the UK|
|September 2023|British S----t Projects: Jet Fighters since 1950|
|November 2023|Sat Nav (GNSS) Past present and Future|
Meetings were again very popular with attendances varying between 40 and 80 with roughly 55% attending in person.
All meetings apart from the September meeting have been video-recorded and are made available to members on the MRATHS Wiki, subject to clearance from the speakers.
## **1.3 Website**
The website (mraths.org.uk) was reviewed and made simpler and more accessible to users. The stories which bring life to research and technology developed at the establishment were made searchable.
This year we added links on our Wiki to the 5 talks given at our general meetings.
A Facebook page was generated featuring, ‘The Technology Station’ and will be used as the main communication channel with the public.
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A central ticketing system (OS Ticket) is being trialled to bring together requests for information from Facebook, the website and by email. This will allow Trustees and volunteers to track and resolve these enquires more efficiently.
All of our websites including the main site, the wiki and the reports index were added to Google Search Console in the spring of 2023. This has produced a steady increase in the number of online visitors with Google reporting 200 clicks in December. This in turn has produced a steady increase in the number of enquiries.
## **1.4 Facebook**
The membership of the closed Facebook group has grown steadily in 2023 and ended the year at ~500. Facebook continues to contribute to our story and to share the history of the Malvern sites. The Trustees would like to thank David Whitaker for continuing his excellent work administering the site.
## **1.5 Requests for Information**
We continue to receive requests for information (~25 in 2023) concerning family members’ careers, and in most cases, we have been able to provide at least some information.
We are also getting requests from other historical societies and historians.
## **1.6 Exhibitions**
We have exhibited at the Malvern Spring Festival and the Autum show with the other Malvern charities.
The full-size model of the navigator’s position in the Avro Lancaster with original electronics, including the H2S radar, was exhibited at QinetiQ. This exhibit was funded in collaboration with the Communications and Electronic Museum Trust.
## **1.7 Historic Research**
The book titled ‘Boffins come to Malvern’ written by our Trustee Martin Hutchinson has sold 1000 books this year. with 800 remaining of the original 2000. This demonstrates public benefit well beyond our membership of ~150.
We are currently supporting Dennis Williams (DAHG and MRATHS) to write a book on radar research flying 1935 to 1977 which will be published by Crécy.
Our own research continues, often with the help of other societies including the Communications and Electronic Museum Trust, the Defence Electronics History Society and the Defford Airfield Heritage Group.
## **1.8 Restoration**
We continue our active support of the Communication & Electronics Museum Trust (Charity 293539) with the restoration and replication of historic radar equipment.
The Lancaster project described in Exhibitions above, was also a restoration project.
Our Airborne Surface Vessel display illustrating the Battle of the Atlantic benefits from a restored ASV MkII receiver and Indicator (operator’s display).
Other restoration projects are underway including the build of an H2S modulator.
## **2 Board of Trustees and Board of Management**
At the AGM on the 8[th] March 2023 three of the Trustees retired by rotation as required by the Charity Commission. The membership re-elected all three as indicated in the table below.
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Mike Burstow stood down as chairman at the end of 2022 and Roger Appleby was elected as the new chairman in 2023.
We have been developing and refining our new model of working with increasing emphasis on working groups. The Board of Management will only now meet as necessary to coordinate large projects.
The Trustees are currently:
## **Update below**
Roger Appleby Chairman and Website Admin Mike Burstow **†** . David Williamson Secretary Lew Amphlett **†** Treasurer Hugh Williams Archivist Martin Hutchinson Exhibitions co-ordinator Darren Coe John Gillham Dennis Williams * Ron Henry **†** Enquiries from the Public David Humphrey
* Also Museum Curator at Defford Airfield Heritage Group
> **†** Re-elected Trustees
## **3 Membership**
The total number of members was 149 at the end of 2023.
## **4 The Archive**
Enquiries continue to arrive, sometimes on a daily basis, which consume a significant amount of time and effort to answer.
Discussions have opened with the RAF museum at Henlow and the Royal Signals museum at Blandford Camp over potential collaboration / sharing of resources.
The archive is providing much of the material for the displays at Great Malvern Railway Station.
The Communications Electronic Museum Trust have loaned us a large collection of jamming equipment which will be used in a major exhibition to mark D Day in 2024.
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We have now finished cataloguing all the Malvern related report series and have moved on to the equally large collection of material from other establishments and organisations.
We now have a high-level catalogue (down to box level) of the complete archive and a map of their physical location. We have introduced a collection management policy based upon the nine Primary Procedures of the Spectrum 5.0 UK collection management standard. We are grateful to the two volunteers who have worked on this.
There are web-based search tools for reports and for images. The image tool requires further development, but the images and negative register from the photographic unit for 1941 to 1953 have been combined. These images can be viewed via the wiki.
Sales of surplus and duplicate items have raised a significant sum for Society funds.
## **5 External Bodies**
We have continued our collaboration with several other charities and groups with similar interests. Excellent mutual support and collaboration has been delivered with the Communications and Electronic Museum Trust, Charity 293539 and the Defence Electronics History Society.
## **6 STEM Museum – The Technology Station**
The project, originally timetabled to complete by March 2023 was delayed by extensive repair work to the premises by Network Rail and West Midlands Trains. However, the project began on 9[th] February 2024 following delays to the execution of the lease.
This project has received grants from Malvern Hills Town Council, West Midlands Trains Ltd, and the West Midlands Community Rail partnership.
## **7 Volunteers**
Our volunteers who help us with public exhibitions have been underutilised, but others have been busy helping in the Archive, conducting research for future projects, designing and building exhibition pieces and restoring historic equipment for display. The new museum will rely on our volunteers, and we thank them for their patience while waiting for this project to start.
## **8 Challenges for 2024**
The opening of the Technology Station will be a step change for the society. It will provide us with an opportunity to increase our public benefit and raise our profile. We will need to increase the number of volunteers and train them to ensure smooth operation of the exhibition.
## **9 Financial Statement**
The accounts were Independently examined by Jeannie Roberton a member of the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers. The Trustees wish to express their warm thanks for undertaking this task again this year. With her agreement, the Board will propose her re-appointment at the AGM to serve for 2024.
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Lewis Amphlett Treasurer 3 March 2024 Roger Appleby Chairman 3 March 2024
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## **Statement of Income & Expenditure**
## **As at 31-12-2023**
|||**2023**|**2023**||**2022**|**2022**||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**INCOME/RECEIPTS**||**General**|**Restricted**||**General**|**Restricted**||
||Members subscriptions|£2,095.00|||£2,080.00|||
||Members donations|£286.00|||£241.00|||
||Non-members donations|£121.80|||£39.03|||
||Other Payments/Donations|£161.00|||£0.00|||
||Sales of Archivist items|£4,259.53|||£4,783.62|||
||Talks|£100.00|||£90.00|||
||Book Sales|£3,180.45|||£5,130.99|||
||Event ticket sales||||£1,068.75|||
||Gift Aid|£679.30|||£0.00|||
||Miscellaneous income||||£41.00|||
||Grant -QinetiQ||||£2,500.00|||
||Grant - Malvern Town Council(GMS)|||||£2,400.00||
||Grant - West Midlands Trains(GMS)|||||£5,000.00||
||Grant - WMCA(GMS)||£1,800.00|||||
|||||||||
|||**£10,883.08**|**£1,800.00**||**£15,974.39**|**£7,400.00**||
|||||||||
|**PAYMENTS**||||||||
||Consumables|£639.97|||£575.74|||
||Depreciation|£1,958.63|||£189.67||_Note 1_|
||Equipment,computers & software(under £500per item)|£436.12|||£635.54|||
||Exhibition facilities|£0.00|||£329.45|||
||Hire of Meetingvenues/rooms|£2,010.00|||£1,320.00|||
||Speakers fees|£108.00|||£140.00|||
||Miscellaneous|£127.88|||£22.08|||
||Ebayfees/postage|£0.00|||£912.04|||
||Postage|£3.49|||£4.45|||
||Public LiabilityInsurance|£202.24|||£193.82|||
||Sale Books stock|£1,729.66|||£3,811.75|||
||Bank charges|£91.32|||£96.02|||
||Great Malvern Station(GMS)|£3,038.60|£114.49|||£3,209.65||
|||**£10,345.91**|**£114.49**||**£8,230.55**|**£3,209.65**||
|||||||||
|||**£537.17**|**£1,685.51**||**£7,743.84**|**£4,190.35**||
||**Excess Income over Expenditure(inyear)**|**£2,222.68**|||**£11,934.19**|||
|||||||||
||**_Notes:_**|||||||
|_1_|_Petty cash income and expenses for 2023 are included in the figures above_|||||||
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## **Balance Sheet**
## **As at 31-12-2023**
|**Statement of Assets & Liabilities**|**Statement of Assets & Liabilities**|||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|||||||||
|||**31-Dec-23**||||**31-Dec-22**||
|Fixed Assets||||||||
||Equipment|£1,942.74||||1942.74||
||Equipment Depreciation|-£1,942.74||||-1942.74||
||GMS assets|£5,875.86||||5623.20||
||GMS assets depreciation|-£1,958.62||||0.00||
||||£3,917.24|_See Assets Sheet_|||5623.20|
|||||||||
|Currrent Assets||||||||
||Bank Account|£23,183.65||||17645.31||
||Book stock|£3,538.34||_806@ £4.39_||5268.00||
||Prepayments|£288.53||_See Prepayments Sheet_||172.48||
||PettyCash|£36.38||_See Petty Cash sheet_||32.46||
||||£27,046.90||||23118.25|
|||||||||
|Current Liabilities||||||||
||||£0.00||||0.00|
|||||||||
|Net Current Liabilities|||£27,046.90||||£23,118.25|
|||||||||
||**NET ASSETS**||**£30,964.14**||||**£28,741.45**|
|||||||||
|Equity||||||||
||Profit b/f 2022|£28,741.46||||16807.27||
||Retainedprofit 2023|£2,222.68||_See Inc & Exps 2023 sheet_||11934.19||
||**TOTAL EQUITY**||**£30,964.14**||||**£28,741.46**|
||||0.00||||-0.00|
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