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2023-05-31-accounts

Report of the trustees of Wainsgate Chapel CIO for the year ended 31 May 2023

Contents

Contents 1
Charity information 2
Registered number 2
Registered address 2
Trustees 2
Independent Examiner 2
Report of the trustees 3
Constitution 3
Our charitable object and the public benefit 3
Structure, governance and management 3
Achievements and performance 4
Buildings 4
Graveyard 5
Heritage 6
Studios 6
Music 7
Dance 8
Accounts 9
Receipts and payments account for the year ended 31 May 2023 9
Statement of assets and liabilities 10
Financial Summary 11
Reserves Policy 11
Risk management 11
Report of the independent examiner 12
Responsibilities and basis of report 12
Independent examiner’s statement 12
Approval of the trustees 13

1

Charity information

Registered number

1198994

Registered address

Wainsgate Chapel Wainsgate Lane Hebden Bridge HX7 8SU

Trustees

Dave Nelson (Chair) Andrea Holmes (Treasurer) Rob Hopper Jane Morris

Independent Examiner

M R Heaton FCCA FCIE DChA KM Chartered Accountants 1[st] Floor, Block C The Wharf Manchester Road Burnley BB11 1JG

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Report of the trustees

The trustees present their report and accounts for the period ended 31 May 2023.

Constitution

Wainsgate Chapel CIO (the “Charity”) was registered as a charity on 18 May 2022 with charity number 1198994.

Our charitable object and the public benefit

The charitable object of the Charity is:

“To advance the education of the public in the historical and cultural significance of Wainsgate Chapel by the provision of:

(a) a range of heritage, musical and artistic events highlighting the heritage and cultural significance of Wainsgate Chapel;

(b) the day-to-day-running and maintenance of the Grade II listed Wainsgate Chapel.”

The trustees have regard to the Charity Commission’s guidance as to public benefit when conducting the business of the Charity. The trustees ensure that the charitable object of the Charity is achieved through its activities for the public benefit.

Structure, governance and management

The Charity’s governing document is a model constitution for a CIO with a voting membership (in addition to the charity trustees). The constitution requires a minimum of three trustees. There are currently four trustees, identified above. The trustees meet on a regular basis to review financial performance and make decisions in relation to current and future activity. A committee and a number of sub-groups of volunteers assist the trustees in performing the day-to-day activities of the Charity.

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Achievements and performance

Buildings

Maintaining the fabric and ensuring the viability and usability of the chapel as a venue continues to be a primary concern for the trustees. During the last year we have:

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Graveyard

This past year has seen changes in our graveyard/gardening work force. One volunteer who had taken a leading role on the work in the graveyard has stepped down. We wish to acknowledge this volunteer’s indefatigable and amazingly energetic maintenance of and care for the graveyard and we want to note our appreciation for all his unstinting work.

We now have a group of 5-6 volunteers, quietly and generously led by a professional gardener, whose wife was buried at Wainsgate recently. We meet every Wednesday morning, and aim to keep the graveyard managed and accessible whilst re-wilding sensitively, sowing more wild flowers and creating a “sanctuary for wildlife”. We have already seen an increase in insect and butterfly activity, and have plans to organise a night-time moth count in the autumn.

Organising burials and funerals at Wainsgate continues in the competent hands of one particularly dedicated volunteer. He has developed good working relationships with all the local undertakers, and whilst burials are less frequent now, the chapel and its beautiful setting remain in regular use for pre-cremation services. The same volunteer is also our archivist of family information and local history, assiduously gleaned from the gravestones still standing and legible. His work overlaps essentially here into our heritage and education charitable purposes.

New burial plots still for sale are down to single figures, as the available land has gradually filled up. The trustees have decided not to open further rows of graves for now, pending completion of the Garden for Lost Workers. There is still some space for ashes interment and scattering, and we hope to develop an area for small memorial stones along the wall edge of the graveyard.

The Garden for Lost Workers project, headed by a local garden designer, is currently with Calderdale’s planning department for approval. Once granted, we can then plan our funding campaign. The project will involve using the area of the graveyard from the chapel front out to the first gate, and visually will include the grassed area up to the beekeepers/garden shed (the former hearse house).

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Heritage

Wainsgate is working on an innovative and inclusive heritage program that explores both the past and present. The cultural program aims to bring people into the building and create opportunities for communities to develop a relationship with the place, so that it becomes a familiar space where people feel they belong. We see all parts of our program as contributing to the exploration of heritage. People who feel invested in the building are also becoming its supporters, advocates, and protectors. Our heritage events brought over 400 people into the building over the last year.

Over the past year, we have created a Heritage Team - a group of dedicated volunteers, to focus on bringing the history and heritage of Wainsgate alive for the public. We have built a photographic archive of the chapel and the surrounding area, highlighting the ways in which Wainsgate is a crucial part of the community. These photos have been part of three heritage days at Wainsgate throughout the year. One of these days included an interactive demonstration of a printing press based on the Arab Press invented by Josiah Wade, who is buried at Wainsgate Chapel. In another very lively and informative event, we invited the public to bring their own photos and help us put names to faces in our own collection. We are also building an aural collection of interviews with people about their experiences from Wainsgate over the years to use in exhibitions and events and to preserve for future generations.

One of our volunteers has also developed a wonderful website - The Wainsgate Graveyard Project - which explores the history and heritage of Wainsgate through the lives of the people buried here (https://wainsgategraveyardproject.co.uk/).

Studios

We have said goodbye to two studio holders this year and two new artists have now joined Wainsgate Chapel as studio holders.

Open studios has been an ongoing success in showcasing the amazing talent we have in Wainsgate, in bringing new people and having lots of interesting conversations about art and our projects here at Wainsgate.

The studio holders remain an important part of Wainsgate as artists and also as volunteers helping with our many events.

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Music

The following concerts took place in the year to 31 May 2023:

Month Artist
May 2022 Les Gillon and the Agents of Karma -
Acoustic Sextet
June 2022 Spirited Flutes - Baroque and Contemporary
music
September 2022 Meliora Ensemble - Flute and strings trio
Dan Sealey - Singer Songwriter
October 2022 Ubunye - Kwa Zulu jazz
Beware of Trains - Operatic pop duo and
string quartet
Phil Taylor - Contemporary
piano/mixed-media
March 2023 Alyssium / RGT - Choral and jazz trio
April 2023 Tania Opland and Mike Freeman - Folk duo
Lounge Society - Indie

The Lounge Society concert was particularly successful, not only in that it sold out and attracted a wide audience of all ages, but also because we realised we could put on more young and upcoming bands and thus potentially attract a younger audience to the chapel.

Apart from raising money for the chapel from both ticket sales and refreshments, the concerts brought into the building many people who had never visited before. These people not only saw the Chapel’s interior but also wandered round the rest of the building or took drinks outside to look around the graveyard. Many visitors remarked that the chapel was a wonderful building to visit, and how good the performers sounded. Many said they would come to other concerts at the chapel (and did!) whilst some said they might well be interested in volunteering. As to the approximate number of people engaged by our concerts in the year to 31 May 2023:

Volunteers: 40

Performers: 53 Audience: 590

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Dance

Over the past year, Wainsgate Dances has been working to build heritage in the present by bringing people into the building for meaningful and life-affirming physical activities that create memories for the future and lasting relationships between people and the building. The project has delivered a varied program of movement and dance-related activities to communities from near and far, bringing performances and workshops from major artists to this hilltop community. There have been 245 morning dance sessions open to the public, bringing people aged 3 to 83 into the building, a footfall of over 1,960. Participants have described these sessions as life-saving, joyous, and treasured community events. There have been monthly performances and artist residencies, attracting funding from Arts Council England and Sadlers Wells Theatre. The dance program was recently celebrated in an article in the Guardian, which spoke highly of the ways in which it serves and is served by the surrounding communities. The dance program has brought 2,580 people into the building across the year, and many of those people attend our other community and heritage events.

The article is available here:

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2023/aug/27/wainsgate-dances-west-yorkshire-chapel-charli e-morrissey

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Accounts

Receipts and payments account for the year ended 31 May 2023

Receipts £
Studio Rental 6,965
Dance 6,947
Other Room Hire 884
GFLW Memorial garden 1,471
Concerts 4,958
Donations/Guide Books 492
Collection Box 170
Burial Plot/Funerals 9,225
Bar Takings 4,501
Other 34
Interest 146
35,792

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Payments £
Alcohol Stock Costs/TEN 1,178
Concert Costs 3,989
Toilet Hire 234
Graveyard Costs 260
Memorial Garden Costs 1,072
Repairs and Maintenance 15,363
Access Improvements 1,765
Insurance 50
Purchases of Equipment 5,051
Toilet improvements 11,108
Misc 649
Donations 200
Newsletters/Printing 248
Web Site 211
Fire Improvements 1,031
HCT 3,000
Cleaning 313
45,721
Net receipts less payments -9,928
Balances brought forward 51,147
Balances carried forward 41,219

Statement of assets and liabilities

Bank balances 41,219

Liabilities

Independent examination 750

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Financial Summary

This financial year has seen a slight increase in revenue (£35.8k in 2023 compared with £32.5k in 2022) however due to expenditure on the toilet refurbishment and various other required improvements the balance at bank has decreased to £41k from £51.1k in May 2022.

Substantial revenue contributions came from artist studio rental (£7k), burial plots and funerals (£9.2k) and our partnership with Wainsgate Dances generated £7k for the chapel.

The toilet refurbishment cost £11.1k in total but has given the chapel a fully accessible toilet. We also replaced the railings at the entrance to the Sunday School at a cost of £3.5k and embarked on a much needed project redecorating much of the Sunday School which so far has cost £4k. The vestry needed to be rewired so that it could be heated appropriately at a cost of £1.6k and panelling around the stage was replaced and new storage drawers manufactured to go under the stage at a cost of £3.3k.

Reserves Policy

The Trustees believe it is best practice to maintain an annual spending and reserves policy which details how Wainsgate Chapel expect to utilise their funds over the next 12 months. This policy will take into account the current balance available, expected income and balance this with the urgent needs of both the Chapel and Sunday School building. The expenditure has been prioritised by the committee members in line with maximising the revenue of the building as soon as possible to ensure the financial sustainability of the building in the long term.

The current bank account holds our `Reserves’ and the Trustees have agreed that a balance of £10,000 should be maintained at all times as a contingency fund in case of emergency expenditure requirements.

Risk management

The Trustees have introduced a risk management process to assess business risks and are implementing systems to mitigate these risks. Internal risks are minimised by the implementation of procedures or authorisation of all transactions and projects and to ensure consistent quality of delivery for all operational aspects of the Charity. Procedures are in place to ensure compliance with health and safety of staff, volunteers, clients and visitors to the premises. These procedures are periodically reviewed to ensure that they still meet the needs of the Charity.

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Report of the independent examiner

I report to the charity trustees on my examination of the accounts of the charity for the period ended 31 May 2023.

Responsibilities and basis of report

As the charity’s trustees 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 charity’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 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.

Independent examiner’s statement

I have completed my examination. I confirm that no matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe:

(1) accounting records were not kept in respect of the charity as required by Section 130 of the Act; or

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.

M R Heaton FCCA FCIE DChA KM 1st Floor, Block C, The Wharf Burnley Lancashire BB11 1JG

30th October 2023

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Approval of the trustees

This report was approved by the trustees on 30[th] October 2023 and signed on their behalf by:

David Nelson Chair

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