Trustees’ Annual Report & Financial Statement
1 May 2024 - 30 April 2025
A Charitable Incorporated Organisation Registered Charity Number 1187853
Marlow Museum Centre Project Trustees’ Annual Report & Statement of Financial Activity for the Year Ended 30 April 2025
Contents
| Contents | Contents | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Reference and Administration Details 2024-25 ............................ 3 | |
| 1.1 | Charity Name & Registration ................................................ 3 | |
| 1.2 | Charity’s Address .................................................................. 3 | |
| 1.3 | Names of the Trustees ......................................................... 3 | |
| 1.4 | Names of Advisors ................................................................ 3 | |
| 1.5 | Bank ..................................................................................... 3 | |
| 1.6 | Independent Examiner ......................................................... 3 | |
| 2 | Structure, Governance & Management ....................................... 4 | |
| 2.1 | Type of Governing Document ............................................... 4 | |
| 2.2 | Trustee Selection Methods ................................................... 4 | |
| 2.3 | Governance & Management ................................................ 4 | |
| 3 | Activities, Achievements & Performance 2024-5 ......................... 6 | |
| 3.1 | Objects of the CIO ................................................................ 6 | |
| 3.2 | Statutory Declaration ........................................................... 6 | |
| 3.3 | Activities, Achievements & Performance .............................. 6 | |
| 4 | Financial Review .......................................................................... 9 | |
| 4.1 | Details of Any Funds Materially in Deficit ............................. 9 | |
| 4.2 | Policy on Reserves ................................................................ 9 | |
| 4.3 | Principal Sources of Funding and Outgoings ......................... 9 | |
| 4.4 | Remuneration of Trustees .................................................. 10 | |
| 4.5 | Financial Status .................................................................. 10 | |
| 4.6 | Statutory Statements on Liabilities ..................................... 10 | |
| 5 | Statement of Financial Activity .................................................. 12 | |
| 5.1 | Independent Examiner’s Report on the Accounts .............. 12 | |
| 5.2 | Receipts & Payments During the Financial Year Ended 30 April 202513 | |
| 5.3 | Approval of the Board of Trustees ...................................... 14 | |
| 5.4 | Notes to the Accounts ........................................................ 15 |
Marlow Museum Centre Project: Trustees’ Annual Report & Financial Statements 2024-25
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1 Reference and Administration Details 2024-25
1.1 Charity Name & Registration
The Charity’s name is Marlow Museum Centre Project, known informally as Marlow Museum. It is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation, registration number 1187853, registered with the Charity Commission on 10 February 2020. The charity is also registered with HM Revenue & Customs.
1.2 Charity’s Address
Court Garden, Pound Lane, Marlow, Buckinghamshire SL7 2AE. e-mail: contact@marlowmuseum.org
website: www.marlowmuseum.org
1.3 Names of Trustees
| Name | Office | Appointed | Resigned |
|---|---|---|---|
| Michael A. Hyde | Chair | 2020 | |
| David Part | Vice Chair | 2020 | April 2025 |
| Richard Krajewski | Treasurer | 2020 | |
| Jacqueline Roberts | Secretary | 2023 | |
| Philip Kersey | 2020 | January 2025 | |
| Roger Wilson | 2020 | ||
| Alex Collingwood | 2020 | ||
| Della Fitzgerald | 2020 |
1.4 Names of Advisors
Cllr David Johncock, Bucks Council
Cllr Natalia Mityaeva, Marlow Town Council Brendan Carr, Museum Mentor for Accreditation, (March 2021- Feb 2025)
Madeleine Ding, Documentation Officer (FTAs: July 2022-July 2023; Sept-Oct 2024)
Emily Toettcher, Fundraising & Audience Development (FTAs Sept 2023-Dec 2024)
1.5 Names of Staff on Fixed Term Agreements
Alice Le Page (Jan 2025 – Jan 2027) Philip Kersey (Jan 2025 – Jan 2027)
1.6 Bank
Lloyds Bank, 45 High St, Maidenhead SL6 1JS
1.7 Independent Examiner
Roger C. Smith
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2 Structure, Governance & Management
2.1 Type of Governing Document
The governing document is a constitution, based on the Charity Commission’s model governing document for a Charitable Incorporated Organisation with voting members other than its trustees.
2.2 Trustee Selection Methods
There must be at least three charity trustees. There is no maximum number of charity trustees that may be appointed to the CIO.
In accordance with the Constitution, Trustees are appointed or re-appointed by a resolution passed at a properly convened meeting of the charity trustees or at the Annual General Meeting of Members.
In appointing Trustees, due consideration is given to ensuring that the Trustees have, between them, the skills and experience necessary to manage the charity effectively and in accordance with charity law.
All new trustees are given a copy of the Constitution, the most recent Trustees’ Annual Report & Financial Statement, and Minutes of recent Trustees’ meetings.
2.3 Governance & Management
The Trustee Board is responsible for governing the charity. Council representatives, and any other advisors appointed from time to time, provide advice to the Board to assist strategic planning.
The Board delegates responsibility for the day-to-day operation of the museum to a Management Committee, which must include at least one Trustee and both parttime members of staff. The Management Committee reports regularly to the Trustee Board.
There are three sub committees, Planning & Finance; Managing Collections; and Volunteers & Visitors’ Engagement, which report to the Management Committee and make recommendations for the Committee’s approval.
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Marlow Museum Organisational Structure January 2025
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3 Activities, Achievements & Performance 2024-5
3.1 Objects of the CIO
The Objects of Marlow Museum Centre Project are to advance the education of the public by the establishment and maintenance of a museum for the collection, preservation, conservation, explanation, interpretation and display of artefacts, specimens, historical and other records relating to the communities of Marlow Town, Bisham, Little Marlow, Great Marlow, Marlow Bottom, and Medmenham.
3.2 Statutory Declaration
The Trustees confirm that they have paid due regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit in deciding what activities the charity should undertake.
3.3 Activities, Achievements & Performance
a) Museum Refurbishment
22nd May 2024 was the 15[th] anniversary of the opening of the museum. The museum marked it with an official reopening party after the Makeover Stage One. About fifty people took part, including sponsors, councillors and representatives of various local organisations. During 2025 we are planning Makeover Stage Two, which will involve replacing or improving the display cabinets and upgrading the way we exhibit the history of Marlow.
b) Exhibitions and displays
During 2024-25 we have undertaken two major new exhibitions, on a scale unprecedented for Marlow Museum. The first was ‘Writers in Marlow - From Frankenstein to Noddy’ which ran from July 2024 - March 2025. This included borrowings from other museums (Eton and Henley), from private collectors and a specialist bookshop. A highlight of the display was a unique and precious watercolour of the boat from which Percy Bysshe Shelley drowned in Italy, borrowed from Eton College Museum. The exhibition was enhanced by a ‘literary trail’ map of Marlow, as well as an exhibition booklet for sale, and walks and talks given by our writer & researcher Heather Adams to our Welcome Volunteers and to the general public.
The second exhibition was ‘Lace –From William Borlase to Pamela Nottingham’, which is running from April to September 2025, to commemorate our sadlymissed volunteer Pamela Nottingham. She was a lace maker, explorer, teacher
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and writer, who left the museum her MBE for services to lace making, as well as her collection of lace, books and lace making equipment, and a substantial financial legacy which has made the museum secure for the foreseeable future. We involved lace making groups around the country and abroad, who wanted to express their indebtedness to Pamela for her books and teaching. Their input has enriched the exhibition and many of them came to the Exhibition Launch Party, which was also live-streamed to enable Pamela’s far-flung family and friends to participate. In fact, April saw the highest number of visitors on record for the museum. There have since been talks on the history of lace, tying in with the Marlow Society’s programme of talks, and on Saturday 5th July 2025 the museum will be putting on a lace-themed folk concert in All Saints’ church, featuring award winning folk artists, Jackie Oates and John Spiers. This will be the biggest fundraising event we have attempted so far.
These two exhibitions have shown what we can achieve, in spite of being in such a small building: we have substantially grown our audience, through attempting new things. They have also highlighted the importance of planning, thinking laterally, and involving as many people as possible to draw in the community.
.
c) Museum professionals working with the Museum
Towards the end of 2024, the Trustees, building on the Audience Development work done by Emily Toettcher, realised that the museum had progressed to the extent that the volunteers could benefit considerably from professional assistance to develop it further. A decision was made to set aside some of the legacy monies to enable two part-time fixed-term posts to be created, one for a Museum Development Manager at 10 hours a week and one for an Exhibitions and Display Designer at 5 hours a week, both for 2 years from January 2025-January 2027. We were very fortunate to find an experienced Museum Development Manager, Alice Le Page, and an equally experienced Museum Designer, Philip Kersey. Philip has been with the museum since its inception, but was pleased to be able to give more professional time to its development, leaving his role as trustee to enable this. Their presence since January 2025 has already made a considerable difference to the museum. The beautiful exhibition ‘Lace’ is our most striking display ever, and Alice has already expanded the museum’s work in the community, providing activities for children in school holidays and having a regular presence on social media.
d) Accreditation
The trustees applied for Accreditation with Arts Council England in February 2025. The application was well received and a subsequent visit went very well.
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The award of Accredited Museum status was announced on June 19[th] 2025. This is a considerable achievement for a small, mainly volunteer-led museum. Future plans are to publicise our new Accredited Museum status and to further implement the policies, plans and procedures created in working towards Accreditation.
e) Legacies
Over the last two years, the museum has received a total of £512,400 from the will of former member, volunteer and museum supporter – Pamela Nottingham Johnson. The trustees have designated the majority of this money as an investment fund, from which the museum can cover much of its running costs, thus avoiding the risk of repeated operational deficits, as incurred in many previous years.
The Trustees have also received news of a further legacy from another late member of the museum together with a final settlement from the Johnson estate. The combined receipt from these is c.£45,000.
f) New Website and more use of IT
The trustees commissioned a new website which went live in January 2025. It presents a more up-to-date image and enables more information to be made available to the public. The trustees also purchased Three Rings software in July 2024 to better manage the volunteer rota online. A new laptop was bought in Autumn 2024 to enable the Collections database to be transferred to Modes, the standard museum collections management system. The museum was fortunate to acquire the services of three new Collections volunteers who had been working as a team at Wycombe Museum. They are working through the inventory, taking photographs, checking all details are in Modes, and ensuring items are labelled and packed correctly. A stronger presence on social media is now being maintained for publicity purposes, with regular posts on Facebook, and Instagram.
g) Looking Ahead
The aims for 2025-26 are: to recruit more volunteers to make opening hours more secure; to undertake Makeover Stage 2 - improving the cabinets and displays; to create a better learning programme for schools; and to further develop the public programme of activities for families.
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4 Financial Review
4.1 Details of Any Funds Materially in Deficit
The Charity has no funds which are materially in deficit.
4.2 Policy on Reserves
The Charity’s policy on reserves is to generate and maintain a balance which is sufficient:
a) to preserve the financial viability of the Charity in the event that unforeseen and/or unavoidable circumstances precipitate a short-term fall in its income;
b) to enable the Charity, in the interests of meeting its objectives, to undertake from time to time the setting up of new and innovative projects on a pilot basis to demonstrate the viability and potential benefits of such activities as a precursor to securing the external funding necessary to maintain such projects on an on-going basis.
For these purposes the Charity will endeavour to generate and maintain reserves which are at least 50% of its annual expenditure.
4.3 Principal Sources of Funding and Outgoings
The museum incurred a cash deficit of just under £9,000 in the year.
Our single largest source of income in the year was interest income (c.£8,600). Our second largest income was a £3,000 grant funding the final part of the museum refurbishment in 2024.
Our “on-going” income was otherwise broadly flat year on year.
Our grant income was significantly down on last year – the grants being principally to fund the museum refurbishment which was completed at the start of the financial year.
Significant line items of expenditure in the year were:
- £5,000 of expenditure on the current lace exhibition;
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• £7,000 of expenditure on three consultants who have been helping to develop the museum’s offering, the development of processes as we headed towards accreditation, as well as opening the museum for an additional day in the week;
• £3,000 investment into the redevelopment of the museum (this was covered by grant income).
Aside from these items, our costs were broadly flat year on year.
With significant cash resources, the trustees decided in the year to invest almost half a million pounds into a portfolio of (FSCS protected) deposit accounts designed with a variety of maturities to maximise income, whilst providing access to funds as required. Our objective is to generate, in interest, sufficient income to cover our on-going deficits (certainly whilst interest rates remain relatively high). Had we had a full year of interest, we would have achieved that in the year.
We ended the year with over £20,000 at the bank and an investment fund of £490,000.
4.4 Remuneration of Trustees
All Trustees act in a voluntary capacity and receive no remuneration or other material benefits from their services to the Charity.
Out-of-pocket expenses necessarily and reasonably incurred by Trustees in promoting the purposes of the Charity are reimbursed at cost.
4.5 Financial Status
The charity’s current resources from unrestricted and restricted funds are sufficient to meet its outgoings for at least the next year.
All the indications are that this will remain the case for the foreseeable future.
4.6 Statutory Statements on Liabilities
The Trustees declare that:
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-
The charity has given no guarantees where potential liability under the guarantee is outstanding at the date of this statement ( e.g.: any outstanding/ongoing contract or legal undertaking to buy or provide specific services);
-
The charity has no debt outstanding at the date of this statement which is owed by the CIO and which is secured by an express charge on any assets of the CIO ( e.g.: a mortgage on property owned by the charity).
Approved by the Trustees and signed on their behalf,
Michael A. Hyde (Chair)
Date: 18[th] June 2025
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5 Statement of Financial Activity
5.1 Independent Examiner’s Report on the Accounts
Report to the Trustees and Members of Marlow Museum Centre Project on the accounts for the year ended 30 April 2025 set out on the following pages
5.1.1 Responsibilities and Basis of the Report
As the charity trustees of the Trust you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (‘the Act’).
I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
5.1.2 Independent Examiner’s Statement
I have completed my examination.
I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:
-
accounting records were not kept in respect of the Trust as required by section 130 of the Act; or
-
the accounts do not accord with those records.
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
Roger Smith
Date: 18[th] June 2025
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5.3 Approval of the Board of Trustees
The Trustees declare that they have approved the above Annual Report & Statement of Financial Activity.
Signed on behalf of the Trustees:
Rick Krajewski, Treasurer
Date: 18[th] June 2025
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5.4 Notes to the Accounts
a) Accounting Policies
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the Charities Act 2011 Section 133, using the Receipts and Payments basis available to small charities and the charity’s own Simple Accounts Spreadsheet.
b) Reimbursement of Out-of-Pocket Expenses
Out-of-pocket expenses necessarily, reasonably and incidentally incurred by Trustees in the course of their duties as Trustees are reimbursed in accordance with the prevailing Financial Policies & Procedures.
c) Salaries & Professional Fees No trustee receives any payments for the services they provide to the charity.
d) Fixed Assets
The charity has not purchased or disposed of any fixed assets in the current financial year.
e) Creditors
Cheques issued prior to the end of the financial year but not appearing in the end of financial year bank statement are only reported as outstanding creditors if they remain unpresented at the time of producing the financial statements.
f) Rounding Discrepancies
All amounts are recorded to the penny, but in these accounts are shown as digitally rounded to the nearest pound. This can occasionally result in a total apparently not being the sum of its constituent amounts. All individual amounts, and their totals, are nevertheless correct.
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Court Garden, Pound Lane, Marlow, Bucks SL7 2AE www.marlowmuseum.org
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