Charity Registration No. 1188637
Northumberland Archives Trust
NORTHUMBERLAND ARCHIVES CHARITABLE TRUST
ANNUAL REPORT AND UNAUDITED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

NORTHUMBERLAND ARCHIVES CHARITABLE TRUST
LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
Trustees:
Stuart Bankier
Morag Boyes
William Browne-swinburne
John Carr-Ellison
(Term ends 31 December 2026)
(Term ends 31 December 2027)
(Term ends 31 December 2027)
(Retired 31 De￿mber 2024)
Lesley Lee
(Appointed 17 April 2024, term ends 31
December 2027)
(Retired 13 May 2025)
(Term ends 31 December 2026)
erm ends 31 December 2026)
(Retired 31 December 20241
Flora Moxon
Sue Shaw
Prof. Annie Tindley
John Webster
Charity Numbèr..
1188637
Prln¢ipal Address:
clo Northumberland Archives
QEII Country Park
Ashington
Northumberland
NE63 9YF
Indepéndènt Examlner:
Andrew Ayre
Bankers:
Unity Trust Bank
PO Box 7193
Planetary Road
Willenhall
WV19DG

NORTHUMBERLAND ARCHIVES CHARITABLE TRUST
TRUSTEES, REPORT
For the Year ended 31 March 2025
The Year Under Review
This is our fifth annual report since the Trust was registered on 19 March 2020. 2024-25 has
seen the Trust make progress in its core aims of raising funds to extend the work of
Northumberland's Archive Service, and making the archives in its care more widely known and
more accessible to more people. Although our annual turnover did not quite double in 2024-25, as
it had in 2021-22 and 2022-23, it increased substantially to just over £80,000, in comparison with
just under £50,000 in 2023-24. We have set ourselves a target of at least £100,000 in 2025-26.
The funds raised have enabled the Archive Service to pursue various of their projects, detailed
later in this report.
In helping the Service to develop these projects, we continue to pursue our aim of widening
access to the archives, particularly for hard-to-reach parts of the community. Some of the projects
involve working closely with local schools and community groups, and may result in further
materlal being added to the Service's online catalogue (CALM> or its digital LEARN platform
(Learning and Educational Archive Resources from Northumberland), from where it is available to
Our ObJectlve8 for 2024-25 and the Progress We Made
The Trust has adopted the practice of setting out at the start of each year its objectives for the
year ahead and then at the end of the year measuring progress made towards achieving them. In
2024-25, we aimed to.,
Continue fundraising for cataloguing and other ad hoc projects, exploiting various sources.
to reach at least the interim target of £1 OOK needed to enable the Service to recruit an
additional Archivist and Archives Assistant to clear the cataloguing backlog. We made
prog￿SS on this, with the cataloguing of two collections of estate papers completed during
the year, but aohieving sufficient funding to engage a suitable archivist on a short tenn
conlr8Ct has remained a challenge. However, a most generous offer by the Sir James
Knott Trust to match other fundraising up to £30,000 can, we hope, he built upon to enable
the recruitment of one additional archivist in 2025-26. A grant fmm th8 Foyle Foundation of
£30, 000, limited to the purchase of equipment, was used to buy 8 sophisticsted book
scanner for Woodhom, particularly needed for digitising estate papers.
Continue to support the Service's relstionship with schools and others. Most of the projeGts
involving the Trust have been concemed with education, mainly schools.
Attract one or more volunteers to work for the Trust. Little progress with t17is so far.

Develop and increase the Trust's presen￿ on social media. Again, little progress so far.
Gradually increase the number of the Trust's supporters. We have one new patron, but the
number of members at £10 peryear has fallen slightly. The membership Scheme is under
review.
Mount talks about the Trust to voluntary and other bodies. One talk was d81ivered (to
BenviGk Civic Society) in January 2025. A number of others were booked for 2025 and
2026.
The objectives set at the start of the year did not include a review of strategy, but this was
begun and substantially completed in 2024125.
More detail is given below.
Our Projects and what they Delivered
Several of the projects either in progress or in preparation referred to in our 2024 Report are
still ongoing, but all have progressed. More new projects are In development.
Pro'ects in Pro
ress
a) The PhotOGentr8 Collection - 'Ev8ryday Life in North Northumberland,
This project began in 2021 and, subject to funding availability, could contlnue for
several more years, the current funding being due to run out in 2025.
The PhotoCentr8 Collection contains over one million photographic negatives
documenting all aspects of life in North Northumberland and the Scottish Borders
between 1951 and 2012. With funding generously provided by the Lough Fund
through the Community Foundation North East, the Service has been able to employ
a suitably qualified archival assistant to catalogue, preSe￿e and digitise some of the
contents of the Collection, so that they can be made available online and be used for
exhibition and other outreach work.
By May 2025, more than 18,000 entries had been added to the electronic catalogue (an increase
of 4,000 since June 2023) and over 2000 images had been digitised. A regular blog and other
social media output had built an online following for the project of over 2,500 people. Images from
the collection have been exhibited In Berwick-upon-Tweed and have been used for a number of
outreach events including exhibitions at Heritage Open Days and work with groups Including
BorderLinks. Some can also be viewed on the project's dedicated website at
htt s:Ilwww.
hotocentreberwi¢k.co.uk
The project also widened its remit beyond the Photocentre Collection and looked at other
photographic collections within the Berwick Archives, particularly those relating to outlying
communities including Scremerston.

b) Hospitals in the North
Work on this project, funded by the Bright Trust, began in 2022 and involves volunteers at
Woodhorn and Berwick. Together the volunleers are researching aspects of maternty care
provision in the county prior to the establishment of the National Health Service. An article by Sue
Wood, Head of Archives, and Lynne Riddell, project volunteer, publish6d in the September 2025
issue of Magna, the Magazine of the Friends of the National Archives, records that at the time of
writing trained volunteers had recorded sixteen oral histories of former patients and staff. The
project is ongoing and a County Hall exhibition is planned in March 2026.
c) Seaton Sluice to the Future
This new project is a re-run in Seaton Sluice of the successful "Blyth to the Future" and 'Ashington
to the Future" projects run in 2022-23 and 2023-24, again funded by a generous grant from the
Platten Family Fund through the Community Foundation North East. A grant was offered in
January 2024 in the expectation that the project would run in the summer, but, by agreement with
the funders,'it was deferred until September due to staffing constraints.
d) A Major Cat8loguing Project
This has again been the major focus of the Trust's fundraising efforts as in 2023-24.
Northumberland Archives holds a nationally important collection of estate records, one of the most
comprehensive of any English county. These are the records of landed families and estates,
some dating back to the 12 century. They include environmental, economic, cultural and social
records, extending to rich material on urban as well as rural life. Before central government took
on such duties as welfare and education, estates carried out many of these functions, so their
records cover a broad spectrum of society,
Many of thege collections remain uncatalogued, their content largely unknown, and they cannot be
made accessible to the public for security reasons. Cataloguing would unlock them for research,
education, outreach and strengthening community ties, but it requires more staffing resource.
However, as these are not public documents, the County Council is not under a legal duty to fund
the work and there is no realistic prospect of it being able to do so in the current financial climate.
In most cases, the Archive Service is in contact with the descendants of the various families
whose papers have been selected. Where this is so, the Trustees have cont8Cted them and all
have indicated their support. Some have made a financial contribution already, or indicated a
willingness to do so.
After the failure of 3 out of 4 applications to large national funders in 2023-24, we decided on
change of tack, initially to apply to some of the larger local funders in the North East. A most
generou8 offer by the Sir James Knott Trust to match other fundraising up to £30,000 can, we
hope, be built upon to enable the reoruitment of one additional archivist in 2025-26.
e) The Phipps Collection
The Trustees successfully applied to the EDF Renewables Barmoor Community Wind Farm Fund
through the Community Foundation North East to enable the cataloguing of this Collection, 4
utterly disorganised boxes of papers that arrived in the Berwick Record Office in the early 1970s,
deposited by the British Records Association from an unknown source. Samuel Phipps was a late
eighteenth century barrister and reputed owner of the Barmoor estate. The collection includes
evidence of the agricultural and other improvements he made to the estate. The cataloguing is

complete, subject to some individual document listing that can be done by volunteers. It is
therefore now accessible, as the Archives, online catalogue is available to anyone in the world with
computer access, and The National Archives Discovery Catslogue indicates the availability of the
collection in Berwick.
f) Alkinson and Marshall Papers
From 1805, Northumbrian sheep farmers Atkinson and Marshall leased land,
eventually more than 100,000 acres, on the Highland estate of the Countess of
Sutherland. The introduction of large-scale sheep farming pioneered new
agricultural methods, but resulted in the mass eviction of tenant crofters, now known
as the Highland Clearances. The collection shows the Clearances from a different
Northumbrian perspective and sets them in the context of developments in
international trade. A successful application for a grant to the Strathmartine Trust,
Scottish academic fund, enabled the cataloguing of this collection, completed in
2024. ProfessorAnnie Tindley gave a lecture at St. Andrews University on the
findings that had emerged.
Protecting and Preserving the County's Archlves
There have been concerns for some time about the current storage arrangements for the
archives in Berwick. A solution for the storage problem and new accommodation for the
Bejwick Record Office has been found in the redevelopment of the Bewick Barracks -
Grade 1 listed complex built to designs by Nicholas Hawksmoor between 1718 and 1721. The
existing Mob Store, already upgraded and fitted out for a transitional year or as the
Maltings Cinema at Bewick Barracks, will provide safe and secure storage Spa￿ for the
archives, with a public search and reading room located adjacent to it within one of the
Hawksmoor-designed barracks buildings.
The redevelopment of the Barrack8 will be a complex and lengthy process but the substantial
funding allocated means that real progress is being made. The Trustees stand ready to offer what
help they can in bringing to fruition these important plans for the Berwick Archives.
Our People
Patrons and Su
orters
The support of local people concerned to preserve their county's heritage is a critical ingredient in
the Trust's continued success. We have introduced two levels of membership for our supporters,
patrons donating at least £100 pa to the Trust and members donating £10 pa. During 2024-25 the
overall number of members fell slightly, but 2 new members joined, one member upgraded to
become a patron and we recruited one other additional patron.
As can be seen from the attached accounts, the expenses of running the Trusl are Small and the
donations made by these committed supporters are sufficient to ensure that the money we receive
in grants and the donations from casual donors visiting the Archives or via the Trust's website can
be entirely spent on supporting the Archive Service. The Trustees are very grateful to all who
support the Trust in this way.
We are working to improve our communications and other interactions with our regular supporters,
while being conscious that there is a balance to be struck to avoid information overload. We plan

to develop a more regular pattern of contact with supporters in future, including social media, and
also to update our website regularly.
In the last quarter of 2025, the Membership Secretary collaborated with the Archivists to
implement a 'Sponsor a Box, scheme for 2026. with the aim of encouraging more support.
Volunteers
We value highly the efforts of those who volunteer to help the Archive Service. There has for
many years been an established pattern of volunteers assisting in this way at BeNick Record
Office. Volunteering has been less common at Woodhorn, but a small group of volunteers are
helping there with Hospitals in the North.
c) Trustees
Those who currently serve a8 Trustees are listed at the beginning of this Report. They are all
volunteers and come from a wide range of professional backgrounds, bringing a wealth o* relevant
experience to the task. 2024-25 again brought changes to the membership of the Trustee body,
when John Carr-Ellison and John Webster both retired at the end of their terms. John Carr-Ellison
was one of the four founding trustees. He gave us the benefit of his considerable experience as a
charity trustee and played a substantial part in recruiting our patrons. John Webster took the lead
in setting up digital aids, including our website and our member management tool, and began
active fundraising at an early stage. We thank them both for all they have done for the Trust and
wish them well for the future.
Our Funding and Financlal Contro18
The Trust's Accounts for the year under review are attached to this report, We are most
grateful to all those funding organisations and individuals who have enabled our support for
projects undertaken by the Archive Service to increase in 2024-25. The accounts, which
have been independently examined, confirm that the Trust continues to be adequately
funded to meet its liabilities. The Trust wishes to record its grateful thanks to Andrew Ayre,
who has acted as our Independent Examiner during the current year.
During the past year, Trustees reviewed the Trust's protocol for the authorisation of
ex
enditure and approved a reserves policy. Regarding the former, Trustees confirmed the
following statement:
All expgnditure must be authoris8d by two Trustees, at least one of vwhom must be either
the Chainnan or the Treasurer. Similarly, all bank payments must be authorised by two
Trustees at least one of whom must be either the Chairman or th9 Treasurer. At each
Trustees, meeting the Treasurer must circulate a detailed statem8nt of income 8nd
expenditure for the current year and details of cunEnt resen/es. At the end of each financi81
year, an Independent Examiner will be appointed, who will review th8 financial statements
prepared by the Charity to ensure that they a￿ 8 true reflection of the financial position of
the Charity.
Regarding reserves, the Trustees review them on an annual basis taking into consideration the
inherent risk associated with running a small charity. The Trustees always take into consideration
the wider economic environment and the potential impact that this can have on the results for the
year. The balan￿ of funds is reviewed taking into consideration operational and financial plans for

the year to ensure that the Trust has sufficient funding to meet its obFeCtives on an on-going bas18.
We are satisfied that this rethains the case.
Finally under this headingi, the Trust'8 arrangements to enable those who use th¢ Offices at
Berwick and Woodhorn to make casual donations to the Trust in cash have again produced
results. In 2024-25, cash donatlons totalled £1,700.40 (£1,545 in 2023-24).
Our Governance
The Trust contlnued its practice of reviewlng It8 sulte of governance pollcies systematlcally at
Decembei meetlng. See above for changes to the Board of Tru6te88 In December 2024.
Both continuing and newly appointed TrusteeG are @ncouraged to undertake relevant training (6.g.
on fundralslng and safeguarding) whenever this Is ne.¢888ary andlor appropriate.
Conclusion
The Trust has enjoyed a ffifth 8u¢cessful year. Where things have not gone so well, we have
learnt lessons. A8 we hope this report shows, it 18 making good progre88 delivering on Its
.obj8Ctives, In the public interegt.. We ar8 ambitious to grow our support for the Northumberland
Archlve Servlco and to prornote and increa88 tha accessiblllty of the County's Impressive archlval
herftage, and In so dolng to bring Its widar herttage (economlc, political, industrlal, cultural, soclal
and envlronmental> vlvldly to life. Ari underlying alm Is to regenerate prlda In local communlties
and rMnerg188 the North E88t,
Approved by the Trustees at thelr meetlng on 16 , January 2025 and 8igned on thelr behalf by:
Sue Shaw (Chalr)
Stuart Bankler (Treasurer)
Date:
2azL

Indep¢ndont examinels report to the trustees of Northumberland Archlves Charltable Trust
I report to the trustee5 on my examination of the accounts of Northumberland Arthives ChaTitable Trust
(the Charity) for the year ended 31 March 2025.
Responslbllltles and ba$15 Ot report
As the charlty trustees of the Charity. you are responsible forthe preparat¥on of the accounts in
accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 20111'the kv).
I report In respect of my examinatlon of the Charivs accounts carried out under 5ertion 145 of the 2011
Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Direthon5 given by the (hrity
Commlsslon under section 14515llbl of the Art.
Independent eXan￿nerfs statement
I have completed my examlnation. I confinn that no material matters have come to my attention in
connethon with the examlnatlon 84vin8 me cause to believe that in any material respect:
l. accounting records were not kept in re5pert of the awity a5 required by Section 130 of the Act; or
2. the accounts do not accord with those records; or
3. the accounts do not comply with the applicable reqU1￿meThts Con￿rning the fomi and content of
accounts set out In the Charltfies {Accounts and Reports) Regulatloft$ 21X)8 other than anv
requlrement that the accounts glve a true and fair view which is not a matter considered a5 part of
an Independent examination.
I have no con￿M$ and have come across no other matters In connect5on with the examination to which
attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understsndin8 of the accounts to be
reached.
518ned:
Name:
Address:
I Il,/"

Northumbgrland ArGhlve8 Charltable Trust
Accounts p8ilod 0110412024 to 3110312025
31 March
2025
31 March
2024
Incorne
Patrons
Community Foundallon Re PhOtO￿￿tre
Cornmunrty Foundation re Phot8 Centre
Community Foundation re Phipps
NCC Repayment r8 Plallen
Platten
Strathmartine Tiust
Sir Jatn8s Knott Trust
Foyle Trust
Donation re Yo$anqu81 Papers
Donation re Gibson Papers
Lord Crawe Charlly
Josephine Butler
Clayton of Cheste
NCC New Burden5
Communlly Foundatlon Ro Ashinglon
DonatiorTrs General
Memberships
Gift Aid claim from HMRC
Gift Aid clained through Stewardship
Total Incom?
1,405
10,000
3,420
6,670
4,777
11,124
S,ODO
6,WO
30,000
1,508
10,000
2,500
1,000
6.000
2,000
3,372
5.000
15,602
1,545
155
700
1.700
95
25
80,216
49,476
Le$• Expenillture
W8b$ile chaFge$
Bank Charge8
Informsllon Comml$slon•r
Artwork
Insur8n
Strategy Day
fvlembennojo
Plallen Project
VONNE Memborship
Woodhorn r8 Phipps
Woodhorn ra Foyle
Woodhorn re Sealon Sluice
Woodhorn re Photo Cèntre
Woodhorn re Photo Centr8
Woodhom re Sir James Knoll Truii
Woodhorn ie Plallgn rep8yment
Woodhorn re Slralhmartine
Woodhom re New Burdens
Woodhorn re Jos8phina BUt￿r
Woodhorn re Cl8yton of Chesters
Woodhom re 805anquet
Woodhorn re Gib$on pape
Woodhorn re Lord Crewe Char
Communtty Foundallon re A8hlngton
12781
12051
1721
1401
1601
12481
12781
17591
1501
12551
1851
16,6701
130,eooi
13,4201
110,0001
18,0001
14,7771
15.0001
110.0001
15.0001
12,0001
13.3721
12,SODI
11,OCNJI
16.0001
15.602
178,6271
146.3991
Exc985 on Income over Expfrndltu
1,689
3,077
10

Balznce Sheet
31 March
2025
31 MarGh
2024
Balance per bank
32,199
21.428
Debtors
HMR¢ re Glft cla
700
700
Less Creditors
Krealive Teehng109y
Commltted Exp8ndllure'.
WoDdhorn r• Photo Cenlre Extra
Woodhorn re 81rJames Knoll Trust
Woodhorn r8 New Burd8n$
Woodhom re B06anquel papors
Vvoodhom re tslbson papers
Woodhorn ie Photo Centre
12081
11451
13.4201
18,0001
15,0001
12,5001
11,0001
15,0001
12.5001
11,0001
118,1281
19.8451
Net A$8•ts 4t 3110312025
Repro8&nt•d by..
Reserves brought loward frorn prlor year8
Curr•ni yoar surplvs 1¢ date
rotsl Ra8•rves At 31103120ZS
12,483
9,406
li