Sturminster Newton Heritage Trust.
Trustees/Chairmans Report 2024.
General.
Since the last AGM in 2022 there have been a number of talks in the Exchange with varying size audiences.
The Railway project is on track for completion by the middle of this year and the number of those now involved in this project has increased to 8 thanks to the Shillingstone weekend when we managed to recruit some more volunteers. Thank you very much for your time and modelling expertise. Thanks are also due to Cllr. Pauline Batstone who arranged for the Railway Men to have a room in the old Barclay’s Bank building. I also wish to thank Cllr. Debbie Mantock for her help as the Town Council Representative at the Trust’s Committee Meetings.
Since the last AGM we have been in attendance at four events to showcase the Trust: The Civic Day on 19[th] November 2022 at the Stour Centre in Bath Road, The Big Lunch in June, The Shillingstone Railway Celebrations over the three days of the August Bank Holiday Weekend and lastly the information day in the Exchange. Thank you to all those who gave of their time to look after our stalls.
We have also been involved with the Windrush Film Project which is about preserving and digitising old films so that it becomes more readily available. Thanks are due to Sylvia, Zilla and Steve Case for their involvement with this project which is still ongoing.
The Trustees will review all policies due for review in 2024 (Nos. 1 to 15 inclusive).
Mill.
This year is a special year for us and the Mill. It was thirty years ago in 1994 when what was then Sturminster Newton Museum Society took on running the Mill as an attraction. We employed two people to be Mill Supervisors; Peter Loosmore and the late Roy Clark. Peter is still with us and is a Trustee. Thank you, Peter, for your wonderful service. Towards the end of this year our other Miller, Jonathan Clayton, resigned. Imogen Bittner has very kindly helped out since then. Visitor numbers have been good with visitors from Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the USA as well as Europe and the UK. We have run the usual events at the Mill: Milling Days, Cream Teas, Members and Volunteers Evening as well as school visits. The Radio Hams spent a day at the Mill during the summer and the Apprentice Millers Day was fully booked. We also opened the Mill free of charge one day for the Architectural Heritage event in September. Throughout the year the Men at the Mill group have been meeting and their numbers have grown throughout the year. Towards the end of the open season we had to stop milling due to mechanical problems. Since then, we have carried out repair work and we are now waiting for permission to start milling. Sadly, the Carol Service at the Mill had to be cancelled due to flooding.
Museum.
Visitor numbers are down on last year. The figures for 2023 are: Adults 1145, Children 103 and those for 2022 are: Adults 1350, Children 150. The Visitor Book has nothing but good comments and we have had visitors from Australia, New Zealand and the USA, as well as Europe and the UK. At the end of 2022 we received notification that our Full Accreditation has been renewed. Our next Accreditation return/submission is approximately in five years’ time. We have had several visits to the Museum from schools and the Sturminster Newton U3A History Group. In 2023 we had three Finds Days led by Ciorstaidh Trevelyan, which were all well attended, and in January 2024 we have another Finds Day booked. Changes were made to the 2022 Throwaway Living display to include some data on local changes in coastal wildlife and threats of climate change on Dorset coastlines and inland waterways. This display will be replaced in 2024 by one on Weights and Measures thanks to Vicky de Wit and Dorset County Council for their most generous gift of various old weights and measures from the 1800s. The Local History Display by Jo has been very well received judging by the comments in the Visitors Book and by word of mouth. This display will
remain in place for the foreseeable future. The Victorian Rural Clothes Display is being replaced by another display and later this year we shall be installing our new Railway Model Display in its place. Thank you to all of those involved in doing these displays.
In conclusion
Not a bad year and in some respects it has been a good year with grant successes, donations to the Railway Model Project and the renewal of the Museums Full Accreditation. Thanks are due to Sylvia for the many hours she put into this. Our displays have been well received and events at the Mill and the Exchange were well attended.
Our thanks are also due to our backroom team who meet during the week in the Museum to keep the paperwork up to date, research and help with displays. Thank you to Jo who looks after the Museum Shop and produces the Museum Duty Rotas and thank you Zilla who does the Mill Rotas and Jane who looks after the Mill Shop. Thanks are also due to my fellow Trustees who have put in a lot of work to keep everything running smoothly. Thank you to all of our loyal volunteers who enable us to keep the Museum and Mill open for the enjoyment of our visitors. We would like a few more volunteers for both the Mill and the Museum. If you think you could help, please contact us by e-mail via our website, by phone, letter or just pop into the Museum or Mill when they are open. Without all of these people who give so freely of their time we would not be here; so, thank you one and all. Lastly it gives me great pleasure to inform you that at the Dorset Museums Association AGM our two nominations for Volunteer of the Year, Ron Smith and Gwyn Rogers, were awarded their Volunteer of the Year Certificates. Thank you Ron and Gwyn.
Treasurer’s report 2023
After a successful year both in the Museum and the Mill the finances do not reflect this as in the end, we made a loss of just over £4000. This is not as bad as it looks as we paid back £10,000 on our mortgage to reduce our future monthly payments.
Looking at the Receipts register our income was again boosted by a substantial donation of £5000 from the Dorset Council. This donation will be doubled next year and for the next two years. This funding is a great help to our Trusts finances and thanks go to Vicky de Wit, our Council Museums Advisor, for helping us in the grant applications.
We continued to receive monthly donations from Audrey Cooper, Alan & Felicity Harrison and Sylvia Denham. A donation of £500.00 was also received from the legacy of the late Judith Bennetts estate.
Various members and grants helped to fund the railway layout improvements.
We thank all these members and institutions who help the Trust to improve our Museum and Mill for the benefit of the townspeople and visitors to the town.
The Payments register shows that our advertising & marketing costs rose significantly as we paid for entry into an online marketing website, Kingfisher. Our visibility on this site should bring more visitors to our venues in the future.
As a charity and Trust, we are still financially sound with around £20,000 cash funds.
We own the Museum building, difficult to value but is probably worth around £260,000, with a mortgage of £37,000 owing. This will be repaid in less than 10 years.
Our new Accounts Examiner, Chris Hawkins, completed her examination and was happy to report that all was well. Looks like I’m in the job for life!
Now that I have raised the subject it is time to bring more trustees into the Trust. We desperately need a Curator, a Miller and a Treasurer to continue the work of the Trust into the next few years. After the AGM please form an orderly queue for those volunteers
I CHARITY COMMISSION | FOR ENGIAND AND WALE5 Receipts and pa ments accounts CC16a For th? pertod from To 01rtCY2022 Section A Receipts and payments Unrestrlcted Restrlcted Endowment fund funds funds th•n••rnBt £ ) th• rwwt£ knthTrnMr•#t£ kn th• I•r•t knth•rn•J••te Tot•1 fund• L411 y••i Al R•c•l INTEREST CREAM Tels DONATIONSGFWS t)RAWS FLOLR SILES FVNDRAJSIIIG a Mtsc. emexp. GFT A}cLA LECTURES IAU L)CIATf4S LL ENTRANCE FEES LL Repth (j)r4 xEs ALL $E8 MUSEUM DDM4TK)NS MUSEUM SALES RfvJLWAY LAY¢Jn Fl)14D RAILWAY COmE SuB5cPTIs 104 104 10.217 10 2.297 T.1 7,386 226 Ll.477 t14 2.201 2.847 io n)ss Incom8 ARJ A2 A•••t and InvMtm•nl Ml••. IM• tsbl•). lini tot 34J26 J26 31.731 A3Pa nts AOMIN & MISC EXPENSES DVERfssiNG 8 WRKETh ELECTRICITY UUSEUM EQUIPMENT & RESTORAr EXTER SU&S FLOUR PRWUCTth c&8rs GRAN PURCHISE INSUPAfKE kWNT Tell & Eoull)UENT k•JRTGAQE REPAYMENTS PRWTNG, POSTAGE & STATbJlERY $TOGK TELEPHOME WL TELEPHONEIBROAD8ANg MLKSEUM WAGES WATER Jzo
20 708 2S2 xo 87S 3.711 21 21 293 181 1,266 268 207 Sub knt A4 Ass•t and Investnmnl purchlses. see table Sub tstal 37.852 S.131 AS Transfers befvnen fvnds A6 Cash funds last year end 24.768 20,710 A710
Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period Unr•Jtrlcted lunds Endowmenl funds lund• Bl Cash fiwKIJ no nK Unvvtrictsd fvnds funds fund• B2 Oth•r mryMtry as••ts v4u• Co•tlopkndTr B4 Assets relaln•d for th• charlty'$ use 260. CRC6S 14ME. Musew & MLL ST¢XK 171 MLK8EUPAATFKTS FurKI to w•1• Am•wld BO Liabiliti CHAB Thy W( MORTGAQE Prfnt Nam• Data of roval trtrusté sn•ture PATRICK AGER 17kbV2 15.1l.Z3 RICHARD BROWN CCXX R34>xKts ISSI
CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examiner's report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner's Report Report to the truste membors of rvLMI pJsfER EwfDrJ Ir4E rtvST On a¢¢ount8 for the year ended Charity no (If any) 30 &FPTEMAER 2oz3 11?320 Set out on pages I report to the trustees on my examation of thè a¢count8 of the abova charity (Yhe Trusf) for the year ended 30 og 20 11 Responslbllltle$ and As the chanty trustees of tho Trust, you are responsible for the preparation basls of report of the accounls in accordance wilh the requirements of the Charities Aci 2011 {"Ihe Acl"). I report in respect of my èxamination of the Trust's accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145{5)Ibl of the Act. I have completed my axamination. I confimi that no material matters have come to my attention { in connection with the 8xamination vthich gives me cause lo believe that in. any material respect.. accounting records were not kept in accordance wth section 130 of the Act or the accounts do not accord wlth the accounting records Independent •xamlne¢s statomont I have no concems and have come across no other matters in connection wilh the examination to which attèntion should be drawn in order lo enable proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. Please dele¢e the Wofds in the brnckets if they do not apply. Signed: Dat•: S 1? Name: Rèlevant professional qualificatlon(sl or body lif any): Address.. Ltro J> Jsfic> I IER October 2018
ection B Disclosu Only cL)mplete if the examiner needs to highlight matters of concem (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts.. directions and guidance for examiners). Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to dlsclose. IER October 2018