OpenCharities

This text was generated using OCR and may contain errors. Check the original PDF to see the document submitted to the regulator.

2023-03-31-accounts

Trustees’ Annual Report for the period 1 April 2022 - 31 March 2023 (with a summary of activities from November 2021 - March 2023)

Reference and Administrative details

Name of Charity: Abbey Cwmhir Heritage Trust Charity No: 1196905 Principal address: Ty'r Ehedydd, Abbeycwmhir, Powys LD1 6PL

Current Trustees:

Roger Coward

John Hughes

Julian Lovell - Secretary

Jackie Marriott - Treasurer & Membership Secretary

Sian Meredudd

Mel Walters

As a result of changing to a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) at the end of March 2022, the Trust has changed its reporting year end from 31[st] October to 31[st] March.

The report of achievements and performance below covers the 17 month period from November 2021 to March 2023. This period covers both the 2022/3 financial year and the previous 5 months since the last AGM, which covered activities up to October 2021. Members have previously received the financial results for the period November 2021 - March 2022, so that financial information is not repeated here.

Objectives and Activities

The Trust’s Object is to advance the education of the public in the preservation and the historical and cultural importance of Cwmhir Abbey through the provision of information, events, research and continued learning.

The Trust carries out a range of activities, many of which are focussed on Community Heritage under the project ‘Demystifying the Abbey’.

1

Trustees’ Annual Report for the period 1 April 2022 - 31 March 2023 (with a summary of activities from November 2021 - March 2023)

Our activities include:

The Trust is extremely grateful for the substantial support provided by many volunteers. None of the activities above would be possible without their support.

Abbey Cwmhir Heritage Trust can confirm that they have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit.

Achievements and Performance

During this period the Trust has supported Cadw, through a grant of £12,670 to deliver improvements to the visitor experience at the Abbey. This has included improving lighting in the Exhibition Room and the commissioning and display of a number of 3D models of stones from the ruins that have been relocated to other places. These include Capitals now found in St Idloes Church, Llanidloes and statues that can be seen at Radnorshire Museum, Llandrindod Wells. The grant has also allowed the Trust to commission a new display board to be located at the ruins themselves. Cadw does not charge for access to the Exhibition Room at Abbeycwmhir, and we are most grateful to the Hamer family for allowing public access to the abbey ruins.

The Trust also completed the delivery of a grant to ‘Demystify the Landscape’ from Wales Council for Voluntary Action (WCVA) to the value of £11,191 that encouraged volunteering by providing a series of publically accessible training events. The events completed during the reporting period were:

2

Trustees’ Annual Report for the period 1 April 2022 - 31 March 2023 (with a summary of activities from November 2021 - March 2023)

We thank all the landowners who gave us permission to conduct these events on their property.

A video was made of our visit to Llanddewi Hall on 5[th] March 2022 which is available on youtube.com and with a link from our website. Our thanks to Alison Finnieston for the recording and preparation of this video.

Under the WCVA grant we trained a total of 84 people, compared with our initial target of 39. A total of 3589 hours were delivered against a target of 3028. The grant has been very important for the Trust as it made a link with a number of people in Radnorshire and Montgomeryshire, many of whom continue to actively volunteer with us on aspects of understanding the landscape and in particular heritage research. A meeting of this group was held on 3[rd] December 2021 and we subsequently meet on zoom on a monthly basis to share ongoing research findings. These meetings are recorded and links to the discussions are available on-line for the public to view.

As part of our research, we conduct field surveying and drone photogrammetry, and in regard to the latter, we are particularly appreciative of the support given by Julian Ravest, who has conducted drone surveys of a large number of sites of interest to us.

In 2021 and 2022 we conducted archaeological surveys at Cwmffwrn Farm in the Abbey Home Grange, and we have continued to excavate ‘old cwnfforn’ farmstead in this reporting period. Cwmffwrn Farm is owned by Angela and Ian Lewis and we thank them for

3

Trustees’ Annual Report for the period 1 April 2022 - 31 March 2023 (with a summary of activities from November 2021 - March 2023)

their interest in our research and their permission for us to survey and excavate on their farm.

In 2020 the Trust signed a Memorandum of Agreement with Prof David Austin of Strata Florida and the AHRC ‘Sacred Landscapes of Medieval Monasteries’ project. This agreement gave us the resources to conduct a resistivity survey and archaeological building survey at Home Farm. Although the MoA expired at the end of 2022, the Trust’s relationship with Prof Austin remains strong and productive, and it is hoped that our ongoing research will lead to the preparation of a book on Cwmhir Abbey within the series ‘Strata Florida Books’ https://www.facebook.com/YstradFflur/posts/3089811434576204/ . Prof Austin continues to support us with our research and our team have had meetings with him on 3 occasions during the period (4[th] May 2022, 3[rd] November 2022, 10[th] February 2023).

We hosted 6 on-line talks during the period:

We are most grateful to our speakers for the time and contribution that they have made to the Trust. Recordings of these talks have been placed on Youtube with links from our website.

The Trust uses the eventbrite.com donation method to manage the ticketing process for non-members access to these talks. This method appears effective, although it does require a certain amount of on-line dexterity by users. In the event that there is an issue, the Treasurer issues tickets manually. The donation approach has resulted in £830.26 donations made towards the Trust’s heritage research fund over the period 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023.

4

Trustees’ Annual Report for the period 1 April 2022 - 31 March 2023 (with a summary of activities from November 2021 - March 2023)

Whilst our grant from National Lottery Heritage Fund was completed before this grant period, one of its outputs was a series of waymarked walks in the vicinity of Abbeycwmhir, accompanied by route descriptions that point out heritage features along the walks. We provide hardcopy route descriptions in the Exhibition Room and they are also on-line on our website. Whilst we do not have a way of counting the number of people who use these walks, we have had positive reports from many of our local walking groups. Visitors to the village appreciate the access to the route descriptions, which we also give to our local B&Bs, and the relevant part of our website is one of the most popular. The success of these walks has in part been due to the support given by Powys County Council Rights of Way team who helped us with waymarking and built a new pedestrian bridge over the Clywedog Brook in Summer 2022 and NRW who provided and installed two benches and installed a display board (purchased through the NLHF grant) on our behalf. We are most appreciative of their support.

The Trust hosted ‘The Pilgrimage’ long distance work on 9[th] July 2022. The weather was excellent and all participants gave good feedback. The Trust had the support of a number of our local community who acted as marshalls, and we are most grateful for their time. As there is a requirement to provide transport to the start of this walk at Strata Florida Abbey, we are finding that it is hard to run this walk in a way that is cost attractive to participants, and in future we may link up with local walking business’s instead and provide a tour of the abbey at the end of their walk. This approach proved to be successful in September 2022 when we linked with Bryn Walking (brynwalking.weebly.com).

We have started to offer bespoke tours of the abbey and village, advertised through our website. The groups donate to our heritage research fund and donations amounting to £110 have resulted over the period. These tours are proving very successful and have been conducted for the following groups:

Rhayader by Nature Bryn Walking Radnorshire Society

Alison Finnieston kindly recorded and prepared a video of a tour, which is available to the public on Youtube and via our website.

People are a significant part of our heritage and it is important to document their experiences. As such we are collecting memories of the village, both past and present. These memories will be recorded and preserved for future generations and are now available to view on People’s Collection Wales. This is an ongoing project and if you feel you have valuable experiences and information to share please contact us on cwmhirabbey@gmail.com.

5

Trustees’ Annual Report for the period 1 April 2022 - 31 March 2023 (with a summary of activities from November 2021 - March 2023)

Through a volunteer - John Brandrick - we now have a computer based 3D visualisation of the abbey as it may possibly have been. Much is speculation, as little hard evidence exists, but the image has drawn together our understanding of the likely architecture from other buildings of the period. John has done a fantastic job and we are very grateful to him.

A public facing newsletter describing some of the Trust’s activities was prepared in Summer 2022 with copies made available in the Exhibition Room, the village and on our website.

Our website www.abbeycwmhir.org has continued to develop over the period and now includes Discussion Areas that allow public feedback on specific activities. Our thanks are given to Julian and Naisi Ravest who manage the hosting of the website and have designed its overall structure. We also have a facebook and instagram presence and we advertise our activities on these platforms too.

Links to Other Organisations

We give our thanks to Catalyst Cyrmu and PAVO. Catalyst Cyrmu have provided our Trustees with training opportunities that have been invaluable to help us run the Trust appropriately. PAVO have also been at hand to provide advice and practical support.

Our links with Council for British Archaeology (CBA) Wales have developed during the period, such that we have been invited to host the next CBA Wales public meeting in June 2023 at Abbeycwmhir.

We have many links with the Radnorshire Society and we would particularly like to acknowledge the importance of their library resource.

During the period various papers have been submitted to a range of journals based upon our research. These are:

Lovell, J. The Hidden History and Heritage of Abbey Cwmhir Radnorshire Society Transactions 2021

Lovell, J. The Encroachment Settlements of New Well Radnorshire Society Field Group Newsletter 2022

6

Trustees’ Annual Report for the period 1 April 2022 - 31 March 2023 (with a summary of activities from November 2021 - March 2023)

Austin, D., and Ravest, J. Recent work on the precinct of Abbey Cwmhir, Radnorshire Arch. Cam. 2022

Pardoe, V., and Walters, M. Drone surveying over the Upper Afon Dulas: early results. Radnorshire Society Field Group Newsletter 2021

Bezant, J., Lovell, J., Ravest, J., Walters, M., Olivant, P. Survey of an upland landscape on the Golon Grange of Abbey Cwmhir, Radnorshire. Archaeology in Wales 2022

Coward, R. Old Carvings from Cwmhir Abbey and catalogue of Capital Decorations. Radnorshire Society Transactions 2022

We were featured in an article in the national magazine Current Archaeology in January 2022.

Summary of the main benefits derived from the Trust’s activities over this reporting period

Our beneficiaries are:

The key benefits that we have achieved over the period November 2021 - March 2023 are:

7

Trustees’ Annual Report for the period 1 April 2022 - 31 March 2023 (with a summary of activities from November 2021 - March 2023)

Financial Review

The fund’s held by Abbey Cwmhir Heritage Trust as of 31 March 2023 are as follows:

Main Account: £4,352.19 Deposit Account: £6,013.23 Petty Cash: £216.42 Total Funds Available: £10,581.84

For more detailed information on Income and Expenditure please refer to the Financial Accounts, included separately, for the period ending 31 March 2023.

We hold our deposit account in reserve to enable cash flow ahead of grant income. Within our main account we hold £3,400 for our research activities.

Our principal source of funds are grants, donations and membership as detailed in the attached accounts.

Assets held by the Trust as at the end of this financial year total £16,400, which have accumulated over several years and were transferred to the new CIO in April 2022. The majority of these Assets have been purchased during 2020 to 2023 using Grant money from National Lottery Heritage Fund, Cadw, WCVA and Magic Little Grants. The main assets include 3D Scanning models, laptop and tablet, excavation equipment, a camcorder and projector. They are currently held by Trustees or in our Exhibition Room at Home Farm, Abbeycwmhir. A full list of Assets can be made available by request.

Subscriptions to other bodies

The Abbey Cwmhir Heritage Trust are members of:

Grants Received during this period

The Abbey Cwmhir Heritage Trust have been fortunate to receive grants from:

8

Trustees’ Annual Report for the period 1 April 2022 - 31 March 2023 (with a summary of activities from November 2021 - March 2023)

Membership Report

Current Membership Fees £15 Single £20 Family. These fees haven’t been increased for some years.

In the transition to a new CIO, with a new bank account number, we have inevitably lost a few of our members, but we are pleased to welcome the following new members in this financial year: Fiona and John Marshall; Ian Fairley and Ken Addison

Our numbers are as follows year on year counting joint membership as 2.

No of Members as at 1 April 2022 49
No of Members as at 31 March 2023 (including 4 new members) 38

Risks and Mitigation

The two main risks that the Trust faces are:

The two main risks that the Trust faces are:
Risk Mitigation
Insufficient
Trustees
to
progress
the
activities of the Trust		 Encourage new and diverse Trustees by an
active recruitment process
Protection of Data We have already taken steps to hold much
of our data on Google Drive, however lots
of heritage data are held by individual
researchers.
The Trust needs to take advice on how best
to archive Trust information.

Structure, Governance and Management

Abbey Cwmhir Heritage Trust is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) with voting members other than its charity trustees. Trustee selection methods, including details of any constitutional provisions e.g. election to post or name of any person or body entitled to appoint one or more trustees, can be found in our Constitution.

9

Trustees’ Annual Report for the period 1 April 2022 - 31 March 2023 (with a summary of activities from November 2021 - March 2023)

Our Constitution and our Policies can be found on our website: https://abbeycwmhir.org/uncategorized/policies-and-procedures

Accounts Year end 31 March 2023

Accounts Year end 31 March 2023
Credit Debit
INCOME:
Donations £1,539.30
Deposit Account Interest £11.37
Eisteddfod £16.00
Gift Aid £203.99
Grants awarded:
Magic Little Grants 2022 £500.00
University of Wales £4,486.00
Cadw £4,008.08
WCVA £1,119.10
Membership £465.00
Pilgrimage Walk £450.00
TOTAL INCOME: £12,798.84
EXPENDITURE:
Assets -£364.08
Domain Name www.abbeycwmhir.org -£8.25
Eisteddfod -£200.00
Grant Expenditure:
University of Wales -£3,986.00
Cadw -£4,117.56
WCVA -£70.00
Hall Hire -£100.00

10

Trustees’ Annual Report for the period 1 April 2022 - 31 March 2023 (with a summary of activities from November 2021 - March 2023)

Insurance -£259.66
Online Resources -£458.07
Pilgrimage Walk -£168.10
Postage, Stationery & Printing -£158.44
Subscriptions -£47.50
Sundry -£196.79
-£10,134.45
NET INCOME/EXPENDITURE: £2,664.39
FINANCIAL ASSETS:
Lloyds Bank Account Closing Balance £4,352.19
Lloyds Deposit Account Closing Balance £6,013.23
Petty Cash Closing Balance £216.42
£10,581.84
REPRESENTED BY Reserves brought forward at 01/04/2022
Lloyds Bank Account £1,727.90
Lloyds Deposit Account £6,001.86
Petty Cash £187.69
Net Income/Expenditure £2,664.39
£10,581.84

11

Trustees’ Annual Report for the period 1 April 2022 - 31 March 2023 (with a summary of activities from November 2021 - March 2023)

DECLARATIONS

This report has been prepared, on behalf of the Trustees, by Mel Walters and Jackie Marriott using the guidance set out by the Charities Commission Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP).

The Trustees declare they have approved the Trustees’ Report above.

Signed on behalf of the Trustees

Julian Lovell Secretary Abbey Cwmhir Heritage Trust

12