## The Friends of St. Margaret’s Church, High Halstow CIO
Registered Charity Number 1189941
April 2025
## **Chairman’s Annual Report to Trustees.**
The Friends of St. Margaret’s Church have had a successful year with some very well supported events which, with members’ subscriptions raised £26,835 This helped fund the £30,947 repairs to the Church roof replacing the temporary roofing that was installed after the theft of lead. This was a complicated process requiring employing an Architect, obtaining the necessary planning consent from the local council and approval from both English Heritage and the Diocese.
## **Organ restoration fund.**
The fund to restore our Victorian Church Organ has proved to be very popular and donations have been coming in steadily. This Fund is managed by the Friends of St. Margaret’s but is a standalone item not drawing on our general fundraising or subscriptions. We will soon have sufficient funds to allow grant applications which will hopefully meet the restoration costs of circa £18,000.
## **Recent Events.**
## **History Talks.**
In recent years a series of talks have been delivered which were well supported and very enjoyable. The most recent being an excellent talk by Ken Reynolds on **“The Life and Times of Thomas Aveling”** , a local man born in Hoo and considered to be the father of the traction engine. Many interesting facts about Thomas Aveling and his company were learnt by the audience.
An earlier talk on the **History of Cinemas in the Medway Towns** was so popular that it has been recorded and is now available for viewing on **YouTube.** Many thanks to Ken.
## **Garden Party July 2024**
Sadly this event was cancelled due to the Rector’s retirement.
## **Nashville Exile, 21. March 2025.**
An excellent evening in March 2024 with local band Nashville Exile was a “Sell out Evening” and we had no hesitation in asking them to return which they did on 21.3.2025. The concert made a net profit of £776.83. The band also enjoyed the evening and readily agreed to return in March 2026.
**Consideration** is being given to future Music Nights. Please let me know if you can recommend a band that would be suitable for our venue.
## **Christmas Cards.**
Ray Collins once again produced and sold good number of Christmas Cards at in the Post Office and Bradfords Garage.
## **Christmas Tree Festival.**
A wonderful success. The Church was magical for the Christmas Services and the Carol Concert.
## **Community Choir Concerts**
The Concert in July, **“Songs from the Musicals”** was a great success. This raised over £182, was well supported as was **The Christmas Concert in St. Margaret’s Church.** Both were very enjoyable.
The concert celebrating “ **The 100[th] anniversary of the Memorial Hall”,** on 9.11.2024. was excellent and very much enjoyed by the many villagers who attended.
It should be remembered that the hall was built to celebrate those villagers who fought in the first world war and returned.
The Friends are very grateful to the Community Choir who consistently support us and add greatly to Village life.
## **The Annual Scarecrow Festival, May - August 2024.**
Although the scarecrow festival was well advertised, a very disappointing number of scarecrows were displayed. Those on show were all excellent. Trustees have agreed to cancel the 2025 Festival.
## **Communication.**
Facebook is now being utilised much more effectively and we have a presence on our own Friends of St. Margaret’s page, on the High Halstow Appreciation page and similar pages serving Cliffe, Allhallows, Hoo and Strood.
## **Wedding Photos**
Mitch Dowsett is continuing to coordinate the project to celebrate the role of St Margaret’s in the community. In the October 2023 edition of the High Halstow Times you may have noted the article recording two Dowsett family weddings. If you have memories of events in which St. Margaret’s Church played a significant part then please contact Mitch at mitch.dowsett@btopenworld.com
## **Membership.**
In order to build upon our success, it is important that the “Friends” recruit new members. I am sure there are villagers who care about their church and wish to help preserve the oldest building in the village so that it remains our distinctive landmark and is available for generations to come. Membership Forms and details are available. http:thefriendsofstmargarets.org.uk
## Mike Meredith. Chairman of Trustees.
||
**Charity Name**
**The Friends of St Margaret's Church CIO**|
**Charity Name**
**The Friends of St Margaret's Church CIO**|
**Charity Name**
**The Friends of St Margaret's Church CIO**|
**Charity Name**
**The Friends of St Margaret's Church CIO**|
**Charity Name**
**The Friends of St Margaret's Church CIO**|**No (if any)**
**1189941**|**No (if any)**
**1189941**|**CC16a**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**For the period**
**from**||Period start date
01-Apr-24||**To**|Period end date
31-Mar-25|||
||||||||||
|**Section A Receipts and payments**|||||||||
|**A1 Receipts**|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest**
**£**||**Restricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**||**Endowment**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**|**Total funds**
**to the nearest £**||**Last year**
**to the nearest £**|
|Subscriptions|**5,180**||**-**||**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**5,180**||**5,281**|
|Gift Aid|**1,117**||**-**|||**1,117**||**1,176**|
|Parochial Church Council|**6,290**||**-**|||**6,290**||**4,094**|
|Legacy|**-**||**-**|||**-**||**10,000**|
|Donations|**1,174**||**-**|||**1,174**||**4,108**|
|Various fund raisingactivities|**1,258**||**-**|||**1,258**||**2,176**|
||**-**||**-**|||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**|||**-**||**-**|
|**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for_
_AR)_|**15,019**||**-**||**-**|**15,019**||**26,835**|
||||||||||
|**A2 Asset and investment sales,**
**(see table).**|||||||||
||**-**||||**-**
**-**
**-**|**-**|||
||**-**|||||**-**||**-**|
|**_Sub total_**|**-**|||||**-**||**-**|
|**_Total receipts_**
**A3 Payments**|||||||||
||||||**-**|**15,019**||**26,835**|
||||||||||
|Insurance|**415**||||**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**415**||**415**|
|Stationary||||||**-**||**7**|
|Roof repairs|**-**|||||**-**||**30,947**|
|Miscellaneous|**20**|||||**20**||**75**|
|Organ repairs|**420**|||||**420**||**-**|
||**-**|||||**-**||**-**|
||**-**|||||**-**||**-**|
||**-**|||||**-**||**-**|
||**-**|||||**-**||**-**|
|**_Sub total_ **|**855**|||||**855**||**31,444**|
||||||||||
|**A4 Asset and investment**
**purchases, (see table)**|||||||||
||**-**||||**-**
**-**
**-**|**-**|||
||**-**|||||**-**|||
|**_Sub total_ **|**-**|||||**-**||**-**|
|**_Total payments_**
**_Net of receipts/(payments)_**
**A5 Transfers between funds**
**A6 Cash funds last year end**
**_Cash funds this year end_**|||||||||
||||||**-**|**855**||**31,444**|
||||||||||
||**14,164**||||**-**|
**14,164**||**- 4,609**|
||**-**||||**-**
**-**|**-**||**-**|
||**34,715**|||||**34,715**||**39,323**|
||**48,879**||||**-**|**48,879**||**34,714**|
CCXX R1 accounts (SS)
14/12/2025
1
## **Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**
|**Categories**
Signed by one or two trustees on
behalf of all the trustees
**B5 Liabilities**
**B3 Investment assets**
**B2 Other monetary assets**
**B4 Assets retained for the**
**charity’s own use**
**B1 Cash funds**
CCXX R2 accounts (SS)|**Details**
**Details**
**_Total cash funds_**
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))
**Details**
**Details**
**Details**
#VALUE!
Signature
#VALUE!
2|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**48,879**
**-**
OK
OK
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**liability relates**
**Amount due**
**(optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
Print Name
M Meredith
R W Collins|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**|
|---|---|---|---|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||OK|
||||**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**When due**
**(optional)**|
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
||||Date of
approval|
||||13/12/25|
||||**02-Sep-25**|
||||14/12/2025|