## **Friends of Heptonstall Museum**
## **Trustees Annual Report**
## **1 April 2024 – 31st March 2025**
## **Charity number: 1200045**
The Museum Old Grammar School Church Yard Bottom Heptonstall Hebden Bridge HX7 7PL
heptonstallmuseumfriends.org.uk
## **Objectives and Activities**
The Friends of Heptonstall Museum exists to establish and maintain a museum in Heptonstall for the benefit of the public. It aims to pursue a community asset transfer to reopen Heptonstall Museum.
We want to create and sustain a community-run museum that:
- Provides a place where we can come together to explore our shared past and build a shared future.
- Embraces our collective creativity and sparks the imagination.
- Supports economic, social, and environmental sustainability in our museum and our village.
- Makes our village and our planet better places to live and a welcoming place for everyone.
1
## **Achievements and Performance**
Summary of our performance against our business plan, and our joint working agreement with Calderdale Council.
|Objective: To maintain or increase users or usage of the asset year on year.|Objective: To maintain or increase users or usage of the asset year on year.|Objective: To maintain or increase users or usage of the asset year on year.|
|---|---|---|
|_Milestone_|_Status 31 March 2025_|_Notes_
|
|Open four days a week all
year round.|**Achieved**
The museum has been
opening Thursday-Sunday.|Out of a possible 208 days 181 days were fully stafed by volunteers.|
|Museum visits - 10,000
visitors to the Museum by the
end of year 3
7 ad hoc Events delivered
8 History Talks Delivered
1 Heritage Open Day Event
(drop in)
5 Researching Heptonstall
Group meetings
1 Fundraiser quiz|3585 museum entrees
443 Event participants
150 participants
20 participants
8/10 participants per
meeting
40 participants|Visitor numbers were lower than expected in this period, however delays to
the set removal meant that the Gallows Pole exhibition has been prolonged
longer than anticipated, reducing return visits.
Open Studios (4-6 July), Elmet Event (17 Aug), Afordable Art Sales (Aug 31,
28 and 29th September) Christmas Fayre (29 Nov), Darkher acoustic gig (12
Jan)
Programme advertised May 2024 - January 2025
Held in Museum Undercroft to promote local research and objects
exhibition.
Meetings held at the local Bowling club (fnanced by the Museum). In person
meetings and walkabout historical information gathering. Commenced Oct
24
Held to raise money to support Researching Heptonstall Group Nov 24|
2
|Objective: To maintain or increase users or usage of the asset year on year.|Objective: To maintain or increase users or usage of the asset year on year.|Objective: To maintain or increase users or usage of the asset year on year.|
|---|---|---|
|_Milestone_|_Status 31 March 2025_|_Notes_|
|Membership – targeting 100
members by the end of year 1|**Below Target**|Membership scheme to be reviewed|
|Partnership projects|4|1 Walkabout and Poetry event delivered with Elmet ( August)
1 Open Studios event timed to correspond with Heptonstall Festival (July)
Heritage Open Day (Sept)
1 visit from Calderdale CultureDale Volunteer Programme
Collaborated with The Brutish Multitude on a Rotary Funded flm to support
our education programme.|
|Major exhibition/project
every year to 18 months|**ON TARGET**
|The Gallows Pole exhibition has been kept in situ due to delays in removing
the flm set (see above). However, we successfully bid for £8000 of
Culturedale funding to run a series of community arts workshops and
support local heritage research, to segue into the next exhibition.|
|Three specialist events
annually|2 in planning|Letter of support to Folklore Centre (March 25) for roving Pace Egg exhibition.
(subject to approval)
Letter of support to Arvon Foundation (March 25) for temporary literary
exhibition (subject to development)|
3
See Financial Review, below.
Objective: To maintain the building as is and attempt to renovate/refurbish the building.
interior of the building up to standard.
consent for a proposed scheme – the acceptable option is expensive and will require some fund raising.
Objective: To be open and inclusive to everyone whatever their race, gender, religion, physical and mental abilities, sexual orientation, economic wellbeing, political views and to ensure there is compliance with the Equality Act 2010 and any other relevant equalities legislation, codes of practice, policies and procedures.
|Objective: To be open and inclusive to everyone whatever their race, gender, religion, physical and mental abilities, sexual orientation,
economic wellbeing, political views and to ensure there is compliance with the Equality Act 2010 and any other relevant equalities
legislation, codes of practice, policies and procedures.|Objective: To be open and inclusive to everyone whatever their race, gender, religion, physical and mental abilities, sexual orientation,
economic wellbeing, political views and to ensure there is compliance with the Equality Act 2010 and any other relevant equalities
legislation, codes of practice, policies and procedures.|
|---|---|
|_Relevant Milestones_||
|Association model constitution|Friends of Heptonstall Museum was formally constituted as a charity in 2023.|
|Policies and procedures|We have a comprehensive range of policies.
|
|Achieve Museum Development Yorkshire
accreditation by the end of Year 2|We are aiming to begin this process in the next fnancial year.|
4
|Volunteers – increase volunteer pool from
current fgure to between 50-70 people by
end of Year 5|We currently have a pool of 23 volunteers.
Early 2025 saw a large reduction of regular volunteers (10) for difering reasons. We
have worked hard to induct new volunteers, but this impacted our ability to cover all
shifts particularly Jan - March 2025.|
|---|---|
|Events/visits/local groups to increase
incrementally year on year as set out in the
table in point one.|See above|
|To reach out through the creation of links with other groups and businesses within the community.||
|_Milestone_||
|Memberships|See above|
|Use of the building evidenced by
management accounts (room
hire/event/partnership events)|See above|
|Museum visits|See above|
|Bookings for local groups|We have developed a workshop package for young people and will be rolling this out
in the 25/26 reporting period.|
5
## **Financial Review**
There are no concerns about the charity’s ability to continue as a going concern.
No Funds are held as Custodian Trustee on Behalf of Others
||**Charity Name**|**Charity Name**|**Charity Name**|**Charity Name**|**Charity Name**|**No (if any)**|**No (if any)**||**CC16a**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**Friends of Heptonstall Museum**|||||**1200045**||||
||**Receipts andpayments accounts**|||||||||
||**For the period**
**from**||Period start date||**To**||Period end date|||
||||01-Apr-24||||31-Mar-25|||
|||||||||||
|**Section A Receipts and payments**||||||||||
||**Unrestricted**
**funds**||**Restricted**
**funds**||**Endowment**
**funds**||**Total funds**||**Last year**|
||**to the nearest**
**£**||**to the nearest £**||**to the nearest £**||**to the nearest £**||**to the nearest £**|
|**A1 Receipts**||||||||||
|Entrance and Shop|**18,288**||**-**||**-**||**18,288**||**22,544**|
|Donations and Subscription|**3,265**||**-**||**-**||**3,265**||**1,857**|
|Grants|**5,800**||**-**||**-**||**5,800**||**1,820**|
|Sundry Income|**291**||**-**||**-**||**291**||**638**|
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|
|**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for_
_AR)_|
**27,644**||**-**||**-**||**27,644**||**26,859**|
|||||||||||
|**A2 Asset and investment sales,**
**(see table).**||||||||||
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|||
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|
|**_Sub total_**|**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|
|||||||||||
|**_Total receipts_ **|**27,644**||**-**||**-**||**27,644**||**26,859**|
|||||||||||
|**A3 Payments**||||||||||
|
Insurance|**2,637**||**-**||**-**||**2,637**||**2,387**|
|Purchases(Shopand Events)|**4,051**||**-**||**-**||**4,051**||**4,269**|
|IT and Comms|**513**||**-**||**-**||**513**||**106**|
|Building|**9,487**||**-**||**-**||**9,487**||**4,250**|
|Business Rates|**58**||**-**||**-**||**58**||**41**|
|Fees|**30**||**-**||**-**||**30**||**4,209**|
|Marketing|**675**||**-**||**-**||**675**||**499**|
|Service Charges|**127**||**-**||**-**||**127**||**114**|
|Exhibition Production|**70**||**-**||**-**||**70**||**4,240**|
|Unspent grant|**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**415**|
|
**_Sub total_ **|**17,648**||**-**||**-**||**17,648**||**20,528**|
|||||||||||
|**A4 Asset and investment**
**purchases, (see table)**||||||||||
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|||
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|||
|**_Sub total_ **|**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|
|||||||||||
|**_Totalpayments_ **|**17,648**||**-**||**-**||**17,648**||**20,528**|
|||||||||||
|**_Net of receipts/(payments)_**|**9,996**||**-**||**-**||**9,996**||**6,331 **|
|**A5 Transfers between funds**|**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|
|**A6 Cash funds last year end**|**10,646**||**-**||**-**||**10,646**||**-**|
|**_Cash funds thisyear end_**|**20,642**||**-**||**-**||**20,642**||**6,331**|
|||||||||||
|||||||||||
6
**Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**
|**Categories**|**Details**|**Details**|**Details**||**Unrestricted**
**funds**||**Restricted**
**funds**||**Endowment**
**funds**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||||||**to nearest £**||**to nearest £**||**to nearest £**|
|**B1 Cash funds**|Account Balance||||**20,642**||**-**||**-**|
|||||||||||
|||||||||||
||||||||**-**||**-**|
|||||||||||
||||||**-**||**-**||**-**|
||**_Total cash funds_**||||**20,642**||**-**||**-**|
|||||||||||
||(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))||||OK||OK||OK|
||||||**Utitd**||**Rtitd**||**Edt**|
||||||**nresrce**
||**esrce**
||**nowmen**
|
||||||**funds**||**funds**||**funds**|
||**Details**||||**to nearest £**||**to nearest £**||**to nearest £**|
|**B2 Other monetary assets**|||||**-**||**-**||**-**|
|||||||||||
||||||**-**||**-**||**-**|
|||||||||||
||||||**-**||**-**||**-**|
||||||**-**||**-**||**-**|
|||||||||||
|||||||||||
||||||**-**||**-**||**-**|
||||||**-**||**-**||**-**|
|||||||||||
|||||||||||
||**Details**||||**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**||**Cost (optional)**||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
|**B3 Investment assets**|||||||**-**||**-**|
|||||||||||
||||||||**-**||**-**|
|||||||||||
|||||||||||
||||||||**-**||**-**|
||||||||**-**||**-**|
|||||||||||
||||||||**-**||**-**|
|||||||||||
||**Details**||||**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**||**Cost (optional)**||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
|**B4 Assets retained for the**
**charity’s own use**|Museum Building||||
N/A||**-**||**-**|
||||||||**-**||**-**|
||||||||**-**||**-**|
||||||||**-**||**-**|
|||||||||||
||||||||**-**||**-**|
|||||||||||
||||||||**-**||**-**|
|||||||||||
||||||||**-**||**-**|
|||||||||||
||||||||**-**||**-**|
||||||||**-**||**-**|
|||||||||||
||**Details**||||**Fund to which**
**liability relates**||**Amount due**
**(optional)**||**When due**
**(optional)**|
|**B5 Liabilities**|||||||**-**|||
||||||||**-**|||
||||||||**-**|||
||||||||**-**|||
||||||||**-**|||
|||||||||||
|Signed by one or two trustees on
behalf of all the trustees|Signature||||Print Name||||Date of
approval|
||||||Timothy Machin||||02-Feb-26|
||||||Nicola Jones||||02-Feb-26|
7
## **Reserves Policy**
The Friends of Heptonstall Museum is committed to forward planning to protect the charity from unexpected events such as an unplanned significant repair cost, a sudden change in visitor numbers or being able to develop the museum in the future to improve the visitor experience. Reserves are the funds which we set aside to cover those possible future events. In addition, there are occasions when a donor will provide funds for a specific purpose only. That can mean that the funds are held and spent over a number of years on that intended purpose so need to be carried forward in the accounts.
To be clear in all our reporting we distinguish all funds as either ‘restricted’ or ‘unrestricted’ in terms of showing how the funds can and will be spent. Any funds given for a restricted reason will have that reason detailed and it will be made clear when the funds have been spent. For unrestricted funds, monies that can be used for any purpose, it will be made clear whether the trustees are moving any amounts to one side to potentially fund specific future events. Any funds so set aside with be marked as ‘designated’ and the reasons for the earmarking will be given. The reporting will also show when funds are taken from this designated fund and why.
This process of considering future need etc is part of a risk-based approach which aims to protect the museum from sudden and unplanned changes. The trustees monitor and review the need for reserves each year and then plan how they can build up sufficient reserve to mitigate any risk. This Reserves Policy may be revised as the needs of the museum change.
## **Structure, Governance and Management**
The Friends of Heptonstall Museum is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation, governed by a constitution. New trustees are selected by the charity’s existing trustees with regard to the skills, knowledge and experience needed for the effective administration of the CIO. No other body is entitled to appoint trustees.
Trustees of the Charity at the end of the year were:
Tim Machin (Chair) Rebecca Boden (Treasurer) Christopher Hancox Nicola Jones Jules McGonigle Rebecca Land Nat Edwards
During the period the following trustees stood down:
Sam Gould
Bankers: Unity Trust Bank PLC
Trustees have met monthly. All trustees have had regard to the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit. The charity is sometimes referred to as ‘Heptonstall Museum’.
8
## **Independent Examiners Report to the Chairman on the Preparation of the Unauditored Financial Information of**
## **Friends of Heptonstall Museum**
## **For the Year Ended 31 March 2025**
I report on the accounts of the Friends of Heptonstall Museum for the year ended 31 March 2025 set out on the separate pages.
**Respective responsibilities of the Friends of Heptonstall Museum and Examiner** The Friends of Heptonstall Museum is responsible for the preparation of the accounts and is aware that an independent examination is required. An audit is not required.
It is my responsibility to :
- examine the accounts in relation to requirements and
- state whether any matters have come to my attention throughout the examination.
**Basis of independent examination statement** My examination was carried out in accordance with the general directions prescribed for performing such an assignment. An independent examination includes a review of the accounting records kept and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It includes the consideration of any unusual items or disclosures shown within the accounts, seeking explanation as required. The procedure undertaken throughout the independent examination do not provide evidence as required by an audit and as such do not provide an opinion as to whether the accounts present a true and fair view. My report is limited to those matters set out in my independent examiners statement set out below.
**Independent Examiners statement** In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention:
1. gives me reasonable cause to believe that in any material respect the requirements to:
- a. keep accounting records in accordance and
- b. prepare accounts which accord to the accounting records have not been met or
2. to which in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached
Roger M Greenwood HMIT (ret’d) FSLCC
The Mallards, Underbank, Hebden Bridge HX7 6PP
9