ALDBOURNE COMMUNITY HERITAGE GROUP CIO Exploring the Village Story
Aldbourne Community Heritage Group CIO (A Charitable Incorporated Organisation)
Report and Financial Statements For the year ended 31[st] December 2020
Charity Number 1186866
ALDBOURNE COMMUNITY HERITAGE GROUP CIO
Annual Report 2020
Aldbourne Community Heritage Group CIO
Report of the Trustees for the year ended 31[st] December 2020
The Trustees present their report and financial statement for the year 12[th] January* to 31[st] December 2020.
[* - The assets, liabilities and objects of the predecessor unincorporated charity were vested in the newly created CIO on 12[th] January 2020; hence the later start date.]
Reference and Administrative Information
Charity Name: Aldbourne Community Heritage Group CIO Status: Charitable Incorporated Organisation Charity Registration Number: 1186866 Registered Office and Aldbourne Heritage Centre, The Square, Aldbourne, operational address: Marlborough, Wiltshire, SN8 2DU
Trustees
Mrs E Dymond Chair Mr A Heasman Secretary Mr J Dymond Treasurer Mr T Gilligan President Mr G Dixon Ms C Rust Mrs J Hunt Ms J Lambourn
Bankers : Barclays Bank UK plc, Newbury Branch
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Annual Report 2020
Our Aims and Objectives
Purposes and Aims
The purpose of the Aldbourne Community Heritage Group [ACHG] are set out in the organisation’s constitution and is namely:
- To advance education for the public good by the promotion of knowledge and interest in the heritage of the village and parish of Aldbourne and by the establishment and maintenance of a museum to preserve and display that heritage.
As also stated in our constitution, we seek to advance that aim in the following ways:
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a. providing a forum for those interested in the history of Aldbourne village and parish and history in general;
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b. promoting the conservation of the historical heritage of the area;
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c. promoting research, discussion, field studies, talks, publications, exhibitions, and other activities relating to local history and to further the education of the public of all ages in these aspects;
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d. occupying a suitable building in Aldbourne as a permanent museum in order to display our local heritage and promote interest to all ages;
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e. accepting, taking permanent ownership of, and displaying written records, artefacts and other items donated to or purchased by the Group in accordance with the ACHG collection and acquisitions policies, and at the discretion of the trustees;
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f. accepting, keeping and displaying written records, artefacts and other items loaned to the Group in accordance with the ACHG collection and acquisitions policies, and at the discretion of the trustees;
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g. gathering together from any source available including the internet and making public by archive or display the story of the village and parish of Aldbourne;
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h. involving other local organisations as much as possible particularly youth organisations and school;
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i. engaging in any other activity which furthers the core object of the ACHG providing it complies with both the requirements of this constitution and the regulations of the Charity Commission.
Delivering our aims
The year started full of hope for an exciting season, a new set of displays for the Heritage Centre, a full set of talks for our members each month, bookings for several coach-loads of American visitors on tours following the “Band of Brothers”, a Dr Who convention, and last but by no means least, a Medieval Fayre planned for a weekend in May. We started well with our
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ALDBOURNE COMMUNITY HERITAGE GROUP CIO
Annual Report 2020
first two talks and the Centre was resplendent with its new displays ready to reopen for the summer at the end of March …
Impact of Disruption by Covid-19 Pandemic
… when the whole world came to a halt. All of our monthly meetings, including the inaugural general meeting of the new CIO, had to be postponed and the Heritage Centre could not be opened to the public. Nor could it be used by volunteers or trustees to carry out normal conservation and administration work. Planned sessions with the village school were moved online rather than in person. Trustee communications and decision making continued by telephone and email until in May we restarted our monthly meetings using Zoom.
The Medieval Fayre planned for May was delayed until October, only to be delayed again and finally abandoned. And a Dr Who Convention planned for June was also cancelled.
The usual visits of coach tours from the National Museum of World War 2 [NMWW2] were cancelled, thus losing a significant part of our annual income.
Over £1,500 was spent in building a new Covid-secure welcome desk and other necessary steps to prepare the centre to open in the new infection-aware environment. After achieving VisitBritain’s “We’re Good to Go” standard. the centre opened on 14[th] October for three weekends until the renewed lockdown.
How we deliver public benefit
Monthly talks
We provide benefit to the population of Aldbourne and neighbouring villages by offering a talk each month on some aspect of village history. This year our offering have been severely curtailed by lockdown, with only the first two talks able to go ahead: Medieval Aldbourne in January, and Bell-founding in Aldbourne in February. With the gradual easing of lockdown, we were able to offer our annual Walkabout Quiz in September (delayed from July).
In late November we gave an online talk over Zoom to a small group of members as a trial run for a more extensive set of online talks in 2021.
We also distribute regular newsletters to our membership and other interested parties.
Heritage Centre
The opening of our Heritage Centre provides the focus of our work normally, opening for 5½ hours every Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holiday through the summer months, and catering for between 1,500 and 2,000 visitors a year. However, as mentioned above, the pandemic reduced our opening to just three weekends in October and a couple of sessions just before Christmas.
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While the lockdown meant that visitors with interests in many aspects of village history remained unsatisfied, we were able to continue helping those with an interest in their family history. We received many requests from around the country (indeed, the world) for help and information on their ancestry via email to our enquiries desk, and those we were able to help remotely almost as effectively as we could face-to-face.
Online Presence
We have kept our website up-to-date with regular additions, particularly transcriptions and translations of documents and stories relevant to the village from as far back as the 15[th] century.
We also post photos on our Facebook daily, and these are much appreciated by over 600 followers from around the world. As a result of this ongoing connection with our followers around the world, we often receive new information and even new lines for research which we can then share with our wide audience.
Outreach
We work closely with the village primary school to make National Curriculum themes more relevant to the children by using local assets and historical events. Sadly this year we were restricted to just two sessions. In May, as part of the remembrance of the 75[th] anniversary of the end of WW2, we gave an online talk to the school about various military units who were stationed in the village during their training, including the well-known “Band of Brothers” of the U.S. 101[st] Airborne Division. We also reviewed the Operation Nightingale dig on their camp which took place in 2019 and which every child from the school had visited. While in October to enlarge on their study of the Great Fire of London, eight of our trustees and volunteers walked around the village with groups of children, some 60 in total, exploring the story of the fire which largely destroyed our village in 1777. We also worked with the school to incorporate significant local events into a national and international timeline which they were designing for the playground.
As part of the lead up to the planned Medieval Fayre, we ran five hands-on sessions of sword & shield making with the Scouts and Cubs and a session of medieval cooking with the village youth club. The lockdown stopped further planned sessions.
Plans for work to support the residents of the Aldbourne Nursing Home had to be shelved for the year.
Financial Review
We are an Association organisation, so our principal funding source is the membership subscriptions of our hundred or so members, augmented by a number of significant donations from local families. We also normally welcome several hundred mainly American guests on
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Annual Report 2020
tours organised by the National Museum of World War 2 in New Orleans, whom we take on guided tours of the WW2 sites in the village for a charge of £5 per head. No such tours could be held in 2020. We also received a donation from the BBC for our help in filming a documentary about a Dr Who series filmed in the village fifty years ago.
Grant Income
We applied for and received three grants in 2020:
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Marlborough Area Board - £969 to upgrade CCTV and other security equipment. This project was completed
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National Lottery Heritage Fund – Support for the Medieval Fayre planned for May 2020. We received £5,300, but the Fayre was postponed firstly to October and then into 2021. [Note: the plan was abandoned in 2021 and the unspent grant was returned to NLHF .]
As we are liable to business rates we were also entitled to and received a Covid-19 Business Support Grant of £10,000 from the government.
As a result of this last windfall grant, we are in an unexpectedly robust financial position at the close of 2020.
Reserves Policy
Even as an unincorporated body we strove to ensure that we had available reserves amounting to a full year’s running costs. This proved crucial to keep our group and centre afloat during the early part of the year. The government grant has enabled us to move forward into 2021 with our reserves enhanced rather than depleted.
Plans for Future Periods
As soon as the situation allows we plan to return to serving our community in the ways laid out in our Aims above. In addition to the work we have done in past years, we also hope to be able to visit the Nursing Home for discussions and “nostalgia sessions”. If our American friends feel able to restart their visits (we know that a huge demand has built up) it will help bolster our finances.
Structure Governance and Management
Governing Document
We are an Association organisation with a membership of about 100 (drawn from a village of about 1,800 souls) and are governed by our Constitution which is lodged with the Charity Commission.
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Premises
Our only premises is our one-room Heritage Centre which we rent from the Parish Council for a peppercorn rent of £8 per year. During 2020 we negotiated an extension to our lease on the same terms until 2036. Our previous lease as an unincorporated body was due to expire in 2022.
Recruitment, Appointment and Induction of Trustees
Our constitution allows for twelve trustees on our governing body, but at present we only have eight. The recruitment of new trustees is an on-going problem. We are keen to bring a younger demographic into the body of Trustees, but people of working age have little free time to devote to projects and we compete against a plethora of village bodies and interests.
No new trustees have joined the body during 2020. We do, however, have full procedure and documents in place to take any new recruit through their induction and training.
Organisational Structure
We are a small group, so the disciplines of governance and management are handled by the Board of Trustees (normally referred to as “the committee”). In addition to the three officers named above – Chair, Secretary and Treasurer – we have also appointed one trustee as Curator who is nominally responsible for management functions. But again as a small organisation all responsibilities tend to be shared.
Signed
Mr J Dymond (Trustee)
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ALDBOURNE COMMUNITY HERITAGE GROUP CIO
Annual Report 2020
Accounts for the Year 12[th] January 2020 to 31[st] December 2020.
As reported above, the interests of the previous unincorporated charity (Aldbourne Community Heritage Group) were vested in the new Charitable Incorporated Organisation on 12[th] January 2020. This report is therefore fore the period 12[th] January to 31[st] December 2020.
The organisation maintains an Acquisition Fund for the purchase of objects for the collection which is reflected in the Restricted Funds below. This fund receives and agreed transfer from unrestricted funds at the start of each financial year and benefits further form donations and bequests which specify such use.
Income and Expenditure
| Income and Expenditure | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A1 Receipts | Unre- stricted |
Re-Note 2 stricted |
Endow- ment |
Total £ 4 £ 100 £ 880 £ 183 £ 0 £ 16,269 £ 0 £ 150 £ 0 £ 17,586 £ 0 £ 17,586 |
Last Year | |||
| Bank Interest | £ 4 |
£ 4 |
£ 9 |
|||||
| Donations: GeneralNote 3 | £ 100 |
£ 100 |
£ 844 |
|||||
| Donations: Acq’n FundNote 4 | £ 880 |
£ 880 |
£ 1,813 | |||||
| Events & Meetings | £ 183 |
£ 183 |
£ 689 |
|||||
| Village Tour Fees | N I L | £ 0 |
£ 1,669 | |||||
| GrantsNote 5 | £ 10,000 | £ 6,269 | £ 16,269 | N / A | ||||
| MembershipSubsNote 6 | N I L | £ 0 |
£ 1,432 | |||||
| Miscellaneous Income | £ 150 |
£ 150 |
£ 35 |
|||||
| Sales | N I L | £ 0 |
£ 325 |
|||||
| Sub total A2 Asset & Investment Sales Total receipts |
£ 10,437 | £ 7,149 | £ - |
£ 17,586 | £ 6,816 | |||
| £ - |
£ - |
£ - |
£ 0 |
£ 0 |
||||
| £ 10,437 | £ 7,149 | £ - |
£ 17,586 | £ 6,816 |
| A3 Payments | Unre- stricted |
Rest- ricted |
Endow- ment |
Total | Last Year | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fees Subs etcNote 7 | £ 65 |
£ 65 £ 3,714 £ 417 £ 333 £ 1,010 £ 5,539 £ 2,104 £ 7,643 £ 9,943 |
£ 75 |
|||||
| Centre Costs | £ 3,714 | £ 2,998 | ||||||
| Collection | £ 256 |
£ 161 |
£ 103 |
|||||
| Event & MtgCosts | £ 333 |
£ 804 |
||||||
| Office CostsNote 8 | £ 1,010 | £ 1,523 | ||||||
| Sub total A4 Asset & Inv’t Purch’sNote 9 Total payments _Net of receipts/(payments) _ |
£ 5,378 | £ 161 |
£ - |
£ 5,539 | £ 5,503 | |||
| £ 643 |
£ 1,461 | £ - |
£ 2,104 | £ 1,845 | ||||
| £ 6,021 | £ 1,622 | £ - |
£ 7,643 | £ 7,348 |
||||
| £ 4,416 | £ 5,527 | £ - |
£ 9,943 | (£ 532) |
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ALDBOURNE COMMUNITY HERITAGE GROUP CIO
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| A5 Transfers bt’n FundsNote 10 | (£ | 300) | £ | 300 |
£ - |
£ | 0 |
£ | 0 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A6 Funds last year endNote 11 | £ | 5,176 | £ | 899 |
£ - |
£ | 6,075 | £ | 6,148 | ||||
| Cash Funds this year end | £ | 9,292 | £ | 6,726 | £ - |
£ | 16,018 | £ | 5,616 | ||||
| Assets and Liabilities | |||||||||||||
| B1 Cash Funds | Unrestricted | Restricted | Endowment | Total | Last Year | ||||||||
| Bank Accounts | £ | 9,093 | £ | 6,726 | £ |
£ | 15,819 | £ | 5,427 | ||||
| Cash in Hand | £ | 199 | £ | - |
£ |
£ | 199 |
£ | 190 | ||||
| £ | 9,292 | £ | 6,726 | £ |
£ | 16,019 | £ | 5,617 | |||||
| B2 Other Monetary Assets | Unrestricted | Restricted | _Endowment _ | ||||||||||
| Accounts Receivable | £ | - | £ | - |
£ - |
||||||||
| £ | - | £ | - |
£ - |
|||||||||
| B3 Investment Assets | Belongs to | Cost | |||||||||||
| N I L | £ | - |
£ - |
||||||||||
| £ | - |
£ - |
|||||||||||
| B4Assets Retained for Own Use | Belongs to | Cost | Current Value |
||||||||||
| CollectionNote 12 | ACHG | £ | 4,702 | £ 4,702 | |||||||||
| Furniture & EquipmentNote 13 | ACHG | £ | 6,796 | £ 4,331 | |||||||||
| £ | 11,498 | £ 9,032 | |||||||||||
| B5 Liabilities | Belongs to | Amount Due | When Due | ||||||||||
| Accounts Payable | ACHG | £ | |||||||||||
| Loans etc | ACHG | £ | |||||||||||
| £ |
Notes:
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Aldbourne Community Heritage Group CIO was incorporated on 12[th] January 2020 and the assets and liabilities of the unincorporated Aldbourne Community Heritage Group were vested in the new corporate organisation on that date. The first eleven days of January 2020 were included in the final year accounts (2019) of the unincorporated organisation.
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Funds donated for a specific purpose – i.e. those set aside in the Acquisition Fund and certain grants.
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Donations received in the Heritage Centre donations box.
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Consisting of large bequests from two late members plus the funeral collection of a third and a donation from a visitor researching family history.
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Small Business Covid Grant of £10,000 towards general funds, plus £969 from the Area Board towards the cost of new security system and CCTV and £5,300 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund for the Medieval Fayre (which had to be postponed due to Covid-19).
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The Committee resolved to waive membership fees for 2020 in view of our inability to offer members anything approaching normal service in return.
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Includes £40 annual fee to the Information Commissioner to comply with GDPR.
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Includes £50 annual maintenance fee for MODES Collection Management System.
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Included Security & CCTV installation costing £1,560 of which £591 was paid from general funds, while £969 was taken from Restricted funds (being the Area Board grant received for that purpose).
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Major collection items purchased included a 5-bell latten set by Robert Wells and a 17[th] century trading token of Richard Clarke of Aldbourne. Three volumes of the companion guide to the “Awborne Gospels” were purchased in memory of Ethel Underwood.
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The committee agreed in 2016 to set aside £300 each year for larger acquisitions (i.e. to become “restricted” funds).
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Petty Cash and Floats were previously omitted from the annual report, but are now included. This report therefore shows a small discrepancy from last year’s reported figures.
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Collection assets with a resale value. No depreciation is applied to collection items. [ There is no expectation ever to sell these or any other items, but we need to track items of significant value for insurance purposes ].
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Accumulated depreciation on Furniture & Equipment - £2,466.
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