Thank you all for coming tonight. The museum is very grateful for all the support given by its members and volunteers.
At the start of this report, I would like to commemorate three stalwart members of the museum, who sadly died in the last six weeks of 2022. Tony Owen, had been President of the Museum Trust for several years before he became ill; Anne Shire had been a steward for several years and helped manage the museum shop and Michael Le Bas, who had been our Deputy Curator for over twenty years, also had the freedom of Blandford for his contribution to local historical studies. They are all greatly missed.
2022 continued to be a busy time for Blandford Town Museum, opening four days a week: Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. The number of visitors doubled from 2021 to 2022, reflecting the greater tourist activity after lockdown.
We are constantly on the lookout for new stewards, as the Museum cannot open without them, but we are fortunate in having a dedicated group of stewards who work really hard to make the visitor’s experience to the Museum, interesting and rewarding. Their success is mirrored in the many complimentary comments we receive. Praise is due to Nessa Hickish and Clara Tavernor for their work in organising the stewards. The trustees are also planning a volunteer recruitment drive for 2023, which will include a focus on newcomers to Blandford on the new estates which are being built in the area.
We need to thank our curatorial team, Tessa Pearce and Carolyn Martin, who work weekly to maintain our collections and create our exhibitions, which is the core of why people come to the museum, and is what so many visitors comment favourably on. In addition, our archivists: Mark Churchill, Michael Le Bas, Pippa Lausen, Carol Argles, and John Tory, who, with input from Carolyn Martin and Tessa Pearce, answer queries about Blandford and its past and its residents, from all over the world. We get several of these each month and it is a time consuming task to reply to each!
Our learning team works with school groups and young people who come to do their work experience at the museum. Many thanks to Nigel Connelly, Sue Fletcher, Anne Quinney and Chrissie Wathen-Neal.
For several years, the trustees have taken the view that we should not be charging an entrance fee to the museum and comparison data shows that visitor numbers are much higher when there is no charge for entrance. This means that shop sales and donations are vital contributions to our income. Terry Cooper, Lin Johnson and Anne Shire have done a excellent job managing the shops, reviewing sales and searching for new lines to sell and as I said earlier, Anne’s contribution will be sadly missed.
Another important source of income for the museum is our programme of events and talks. An events group has been established and an exciting programme of talks, with supper beforehand, has been drawn up for this year. In September, Veronica Strang, a world renowned cultural anthropologist gave a talk on Living with the River: New Ways of Thinking about water, which drew on her fieldwork on the River Stour.
In October, we hosted a talk by Dr Steve Poole of the University of the West of England about the riots which took place in various locations, in 1831, prior to the Great Reform of 1832. Dr Poole gave a vivid commentary on the riot that took place in Blandford on 17 October 1831 and the day after the talk he led a guided tour of the key locations in that riot. Two Blandford men were transported to Van Dieman’s Land, after being arrested for riotous behaviour and the Museum has now established links with descendants of one of them, who live in Australia. The UWE Team also brought with them an exhibition about the events of 1831, which was on display in the Corn Exchange for several weeks after the talk. Work is
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also underway on a sound tour of Blandford, where visitors will be able to listen on their smart phones to the story of the Blandford riot, as they pass key places, where the events took place. The Museum is also forming a 1831 Research Group to work with the UWE team and carry out genealogical research on key players in the riot.
In addition, our Archaeology Group hosted talks on:
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Finding Mesolithic People under the Solent
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The Real Roman Britain: a skeletal and isotopic analysis of rural and urban populations
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Experimental archaeology at Wytch Farm
Members of the group also took part in an exploratory dig at Tarrant Launceston, which produced finds from the Early Neolithic period and some Bronze Age flints.
Alongside these talks, the Museum also has a programme of social events: coffee mornings on the second Saturday of the month and drinks and supper on the last Friday evenings in the month during the summer in the Museum Garden. Thanks go to the members of the Museum’s Victorian Garden Group who work so hard to provide a lovely setting for the coffee mornings and summer evenings in the garden.
The latest project for the Museum Garden Group is to change two areas bordered by paths and each with a bench for quiet contemplation. They will be developed to demonstrate cultivation and planting suitable for our changing climate. With increased temperatures and less predictable rainfall there is an urgent need for UK gardeners to use plants with climate resilience. These can be readily available familiar garden plants, rather than more expensive and less available alternatives. Changing to sustainable techniques will reduce the amount of water and time needed to tend the plants. Work started in autumn 2022, to design these areas. The planting will be resilient to dry conditions using mostly flowering plants very attractive to pollinating insects. Progress will be recorded and regularly updated on the Museum website and Facebook, as well as in the Garden itsel
Our webmistress, Shirley Dickenson, continues to do a magnificent job of pulling together information about the Museum, communicating it in a clear and attractive way and keeping it up to date. It is a great way to find out what is going on at the Museum. The address is https://blandfordtownmuseum.org.uk/
Work continues on the Stour Valley Project, where a group of members are working together to explore the influence of the River Stour on the development of Blandford and surrounding villages, looking at the archaeology, natural history, economic, agricultural, and social history of the area and to produce an electronic exhibition about the river, for display in the museum. One of the offshoots of this work is another group which is working on a Stour Valley Sampler, a tapestry of the middle Stour, looking especially at the role of medieval women.
The merger of the Blandford and District Civic Society with the Blandford Forum Museum, Heritage and Arts Trust, which took place at the end of March 2022, has been well accepted and has boosted museum membership. The involvement of the Civic Society will allow the Trust to focus on the external, architectural environment in Blandford. The Civic Society will remain as one of the groups within the Trust family. In August, this group organised a guided geological tour of Blandford and in September, a guided Town Centre Heritage Walk.
The Museum has been successful in attracting grant funding from the Southwest Museum Development green grant for the Blandford CAN (Climate Action Now). A new Blandford Museum Environmental Group has been set up to work on events and projects with an environmental focus such as sustainability fairs, tree planting, rubbish
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collection, and working to make Blandford a “Plastic Free” town. The Group, which incorporates Blandford War on Waste and the Clean Up Blandford Campaign, will also arrange craft and children’s events, lectures, and discussions on environmental topics. In August, the Museum helped organise two environmental fairs in Blandford and on 17 December, a Have a Green Christmas event was held at the museum.
One big step towards sustainability has been the installation of solar panels on the rear face of the museum roof. We are already reaping the dividends of the solar panels, as our fuel bills have reduced.
As a result of all the activities at the Blandford Town Museum, we are seeing a growth in our membership, which is very heartening.
Before I finish, I would like to say a few words of thanks to particular people. Thank you to Tim Coats and John Tanner, who have been trustees for some time now but are stepping down due to personal reasons. Also Kirsty Astin, who has done sterling work as our treasurer for the past two years and will much missed. Thankyou also to the four people who are putting their names forward to be trustees in the coming year: Gillian Jones (as Garden Club rep), Martyn Gleaden (Stewards rep), Heather Packwood, who has done a brilliant job managing our Membership list and is now putting her name forward to be the named Membership Secretary and Franki Campbell who is putting her name forward as Treasurer. I must not forget all the work Dave Hiscock has done to manage our energy costs and get the solar panels installed. And last but definitely not least I want to pay tribute to our Director, Sylvia Hixson Andrews, who is the driving force behind this museum and has continued to give her all in the past year despite several periods of ill health.
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Closing Income and expenditure, for year ending 31 December 2022, for Blandford Museum, Heritage and Arts Trust, charity number 1190608
| 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income | £ | £ | £ | £ | |
| Grants:Blandford Town Forum SLA | 2,000 | 2,000 | 2,000 | 2,000 | 2,000 |
| Grants:Rural Proofing Resilience Project Payment | 200 | ||||
| Grants:Originally for Fund Raising Workshop, used for rebranding | 300 | ||||
| Grants:Dorset County Council re Covid | 9,000 | 10,000 | |||
| Grants: Dorset County Council Organisational Grant | 10,502 | ||||
| Grants:Heritage Grant | 8,000 | ||||
| Grants:Dorset County Council | 498 | 1,334 | |||
| Grants:DMA Grant | 500 | 2,480 | |||
| Grants:106 Funding | 2,000 | 3,000 | |||
| Grants:Leader Grant | 20,197 | ||||
| Grants: Local Restrictions Support | 4,097 | ||||
| Grants: Restart Grant | 8,000 | ||||
| Grants: Small Grant Big Improvement | 998 | ||||
| Grants: CAN2022 Civic Society | 500 | ||||
| Interest | 369 | 120 | 846 | 756 | 879 |
| Gift Aid | - | 334 | 1,503 | 946 | |
| Subscriptions | 1,874 | 1,690 | 1,468 | 1,291 | 1,243 |
| Donations | 1,794 | 2,388 | 1,181 | 4,276 | 2,302 |
| Honour & Friendship Chapter donation | 0 | 150 | |||
| Other income | 196 | ||||
| Compensation from Barclays | 50 | ||||
| Net Income from Activities:- | |||||
| Fund Raising Events & Sundry | 1,838 | (179) | 157 | 371 | 445 |
| Curatorial | (2,424) | (4,877) | - | 75 | - |
| Education | (294) | 120 | (30) | (470) | 48 |
| Talks | 284 | - | 165 | 440 | 332 |
| Room Hire in Museum | - | 100 | |||
| Museum Shop Sales | 548 | 134 | 230 | 1,299 | 775 |
| 10% Levy from Archaeology Club (2019 only) | 66 | ||||
| 10% Levy from Garden Club (2019 only) | 186 | ||||
| Decrease in value of stock | -346 | -2,631 | |||
| Increase in value of stock | 3,006 | ||||
| Net Restricted Income:- | |||||
| Railway | 35 | 267 | 254 | ||
| Archaeology Club | (595) | (455) | 238 | 318 | 541 |
| Garden Club | (314) | 253 | (177) | (406) | 678 |
| Civic Society | 9,131 | ||||
| Total Income | 25,563 | 26,793 | 23,801 | 36,800 | 13,443 |
| Expenditure | |||||
| Utilities & Council Tax & Insurance | (6,338) | (5,637) | (4,491) | (5,069) | (5,253) |
| Office & Admin Expenses | (2,838) | (5,249) | (907) | (1,627) | (2,281) |
| Building Maintenance | (10,850) | (3,109) | (2,259) | (3,988) | (1,092) |
| Hospitality | (53) | (190) | |||
| Sundry Expenditure | (25) | (74) | (82) | (210) | |
| Curatorial | 0 | (3,150) | (1,365) | (1,531) | |
| Publicity/Advertising | (1,505) | (1,310) | (1,008) | (1,371) | (1,118) |
| Grant Expenditure | 0 | (5,608) | |||
| Financial Costs - Square Contactless Reader | (42) | (5) | (0.76) | ||
| Refurb project | 0 | (31,295) | (8,247) | ||
| Honorarium | (1,500) |
Total Expenditure (23,072) (15,334) (17,550) (44,797) (19,922) 2,491 11,459 6,251 (7,997) (6,479)
(Deficit) /Surplus for year
Closing Balance Sheet, as at 31 December 2022, for Blandford Museum, Heritage and Arts Trust, charity number 1190608
| Current Assets Bank/Savings balances Current Account: Barclays a/c Current Account: LLoyds main a/c Current Account: Lloyds 2 a/c re Archaeology Club Current Account: Lloyds 2 a/c re Garden Club Current Account: Lloyds 2 a/c re Civic Society Current Account: Lloyds new CIO a/c Virgin Money Account (tfrd to CIO a/c during 2020) Bath Building Society (tfrd to CIO a/c during 2020) Petty Cash (Including Arch Petty Cash) Total Bank Stock - As per Square Total Current Assets Current Liabilities Creditors Net Current Assets (Current Assets less Current Liabilities) Accumulated Fund (Deficit) /Surplus for year |
£ £ £ £ £ 70 21,380 8,635 24,615 1,916 2,070 2,117 2,254 2,920 2,428 9,131 4,129 4,903 483 70,290 70,088 50,535 49,727 54,099 21,048 25,888 17,215 17,176 37,048 152 25 20 50 49 |
|---|---|
| 108,920.03 105,894.05 97,483 88,334 99,831 4,478 4,824 1,818 1,153 852 |
|
| 113,398 110,718 99,301 89,487 100,683 |
|
| 634 445 486 1,018 122 |
|
| 112,764 110,273 98,814 88,469 100,561 |
|
| 110,273 98,814 92,563 100,560 107,039 2,491 11,459 6,251 -7,997 -6,479 |
|
| 112,764 110,273 98,814 92,563 100,560 |
The foregoing Balance Sheet together with the Income & Expenditure Account have been properly prepared from the Books and Vouchers of Blandford Forum Museum Trust and are in accordance therewith.
Dr S Hixson Andrews Director
K Astin R Hatchard Treasurer Accountant
Independent examiner's report on the accounts
Section A Independent Examiner’s Report
Report to the trustees THE BLANDFORD FORUM MUSEUM, HERITAGE AND ARTS TRUST On accounts for the year 31[st] December 2022 Charity no 1190608 ended (if any) Set out on pages (remember to include the page numbers of additional sheets)
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 31/12/2022 .
Responsibilities and As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the basis of report 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.
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Independent I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have
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examiner's statement come to my attention in connection with the examination (other than that disclosed below *) which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:
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the accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act; or
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the accounts did not accord with the accounting records; or
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the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a ‘true and fair’ view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination.
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.
- Please delete the words in the brackets if they do not apply.
Signed: Name: Robert Hatchard Relevant professional ACCA qualification(s) or body (if any): Address: 13a Mill Lane
Date: 31[st] October 2023
Oct 2018
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IER
Wimborne
BH21 1LN
Section B Disclosure
Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight material matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners).
Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose .
Oct 2018
2
IER