Charlbury Museum & Heritage Centre Annual Report 2024 - 25 ## **Charity Number: 1200994** Address: Charlbury Museum & Heritage Centre The Corner House Market Street Charlbury OX7 3PN ## Trust Structure & Management On January 1, 2026, the Charlbury Museum and Heritage Centre had 5 Trustees: |**Name**|**Date of Appointment**| |---|---| |Anthony Graeme|07.01.2024| |John Campbell|07.01.2024| |Susan Rangeley|14.11.2022| |Stephen Bartlett (Treasurer)|19.03.2023| |Annabel Potter|08.08.2025| All Trustees are volunteers and local residents. Trustees are recruited from our community. We do not have a chair, and decisions are made through consensus at our monthly meetings – which are chaired on a rotation. The Museum is also supported by a team of 30 local volunteers who act as stewards when the museum is open and support the museum’s fund-raising efforts. ## Activities, Achievements and Performance The Charlbury Museum and Heritage Centre collects, displays, and maintains artefacts, archives, and photographs relating to the town of Charlbury, and assists research into its history, for the benefit of local people and the wider public in general. In 2024 - 25 a program of museum work involved specialist volunteers and helpers from the community: - Digitizing the museum photographic archive - Cataloguing the museum collection, updating the records and labelling - Specialist conservation cleaning sessions prior to opening - Exhibitions The Museum has a permanent collection tracing the Town’s history. Each year there is a special exhibition, for the 2024 season (April – September) the museum curated ‘ **Tradition and Tragedy’** an exhibition to commemorate the Beating of the Bounds tragedy of 1924, when 3 children drowned when their punt capsized while crossing the River Evenlode. The tradition of beating the bounds continues each year, attracting the interest of the community. The 2024 exhibition was supported by Charlbury Town Council with a grant for the photographic displays. ## Partnership Project The exhibition **‘Tradition and Tragedy’** inspired a film in 2024, a collaboration between a local filmmaker, a writer/presenter and a songwriter. Two presentations of the film **‘Beating the Bounds’** were shown in Charlbury attracting audiences of around 130 people. ## Outreach work in the Community Charlbury Museum was pleased to accept an invitation from the Lunch Club to talk to some older residents in the community. Trustees Ann Lovett and Sue Rangeley inspired conversations and memories with objects from the museum’s collection. In August the museum led a guided walk on **‘The History of the Playing Close’** for the Charlbury Festival attended by around 45 people. The talk was a launch for the next museum exhibition in 2025. ## Educational work January 2025 saw the start of another outreach project when three schoolgirls who were undertaking their Silver Duke of Edinburgh Award made their first visit to the museum to discuss volunteer work in the museum. This project was initiated by museum trustee Stephen Barlett. The focus of their volunteer work for the months ahead was to assist with cataloguing a collection of 100 books written by Charlbury author Bessie Marchant, in the late 19[th] and early 20th centuries. ## New Acquisitions In 2024-25 the museum received several important donations to its permanent collection from local people and organizations including the **Bessie Marchant Collection** . Over 100 books written by Bessie Marchant given to the museum by Andrew & Briony Lawson in January 2025, this collection of late 19[th] / early 20th century girls adventure stories are first editions once owned by the Charlbury author. ## Engaging with Oxfordshire Museums & Oxford University As one of the smaller museums in the county, Charlbury Museum & Heritage Centre values the interaction with other local museums and is a Member of the Oxfordshire Museums Council. One trustee regularly attends the monthly meeting of the Heritage Collections Group in Burford, Oxon. Charlbury Museum also joined AIM, the Association of Independent Museums in February 2025 Visit to St. John’s College Oxford by four researchers to view archives relating to Charlbury. Fundraising The museum is not currently grant aided, so fundraising initiatives are important. Two annual fundraisers for the museum took place in the summer of 2024, organised by the Trustees and a volunteer team, they were well supported by the community. Accreditation The CM&HC is now registered with the Arts Council and commenced work towards accreditation in 2023. The museum is being guided by Philip Claris, Accreditation Advisor, and Southeast Museum Development, in October 2023 he visited the museum to meet with trustees and a volunteer who is helping with the process. In February 2024 a Mentor, Victoria Stevens was appointed, she made her first visit to Charlbury Museum in September 2024 to meet all the trustees and look around the museum. In February 2025 Victoria Stevens gave a training course on Conservation Care to nine museum volunteers, this specialist course was a valuable session for Accreditation work. ## Public Benefit For over 75 years Charlbury Museum has been at the heart of the community. It continues to offer visitors an inspiring glimpse into the history of the town and offers specialist archive research on family history to local visitors and from abroad too, plus historic information on the buildings and land in the Charlbury area. Outreach work seeks to involve the local primary school, plus clubs and societies. Financial Review: These are the accounts of the CM&HC for 2024-25 ## **CHARLBURY MUSEUM & HERITAGE CENTRE** ## **INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31ST MARCH 2025** |**INCOM**
**E**
Visitors
Sales - booklets
Sales -books
Sales Quiz &
Postcards
Fundraising
( Note 1)
Donations and Bequests
(Note 2)
Barclays Bank
Compensation
Town Trail & Parish Maps
Miscellaneous
**EXPENDITURE**
Ofce
Electric
ity
Buildin
g|**2025**
2024
**£**
£
563
298
71
42
99
171
33
43
1605
1373
597
239
150
15
9
267
3133
2443
£
£
312
184
450
311
85
1608| |---|---| |Internet etc
Exhibition
Expenses
Garden
Rents
Book Purchases & printing
Gifts and
donations
Legal Costs
Miscellaneous
**LOSS**
**Balanc**
**es**
Bank account
Petty
Cash
Float
Balance B/f
Defcit
NOTE 1
Plant
Sale
Vintage sale
Photos
Talk
Note 2
Charlbury Garden Society
Charlbury Town Council (for
photos)
Visitor donations
Other Donations|484
313
94
71
513
125
3943
329|6719
-
£3,58
6
£11,5
36
£11,5
36
1605
597|215
272
61
99
60
354
0
92
3259
-£816
at
31.3.24
15083
9
30
£15,12
2
15938
-816
£15,12
1| |---|---|---|---| ||at
31.3.2
5
11448
58
30||| ||15122
-
£3,586||| ||801
759
15
30
100
128
194
175||| Tom Bartlett Treasurer January 29 2026