Annual Report 2025-2026 Pagel I
1. OVERVIEW
Ansley Village Gardening Group was constituted on 9[th] March 2022 as a Community Group and then became a charity on 22[nd] January 2025.
The charity oversees the following programmes of work:
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Ansley Village Gardening Group which meets ten times a year on the first Wednesday of the month from 7-9pm at the local church village hall. We do not meet in January and do a trip out in July. Our membership is around forty people who pay a small annual subscription to cover the costs of refreshments, speakers, room hire etc. This group aims to be self-sufficient.
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Ansley Open Gardens Programme (part of the National Gardening Scheme) has been running for 7 years and involves a range of 7-10 local gardens that open for one afternoon a year, during June/July. It works with other local groups – the church and the Morris Dancers and provides a great afternoon out. It aims to raise money for National Nursing Charities (through the NGS) from entrance fees and splits the surplus made from refreshments between a local charity and Ansley in Bloom.
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Ansley in Bloom – 2025 marks the second entry into the national competition and for both years Ansley has achieved a Gold Standard. In the first year, the re-treeing programme was recognised by an Outstanding Award and in the second year, Oldbury Care Farm was recognised with an Outstanding Award, and the village overall won the Best in Category. Monies are raised through grants, corporate sponsorship, and an annual plant sale to fund this programme.
The Trustees who have served during this year are:
Janet Lorraine Down MBE …………………………….. [for [4] years] - Chairperson Nikola McKiernan …………………………………….… [for [3] years] - Treasurer Pauline McAleese………………………………………...[for [3] years] - Secretary Adrian Edward Wells Norgrove………………………….[for [2] years] Andrew James Heritage……………………………….. .[for [2] years] – Vice-Chair Patricia Pamela Arrowsmith……………………………. [for [2] years]
All were appointed on 25[th] January, 2025 at the commencement of the charity, therefore, no one is due for re-election this year.
Two non-voting co-opted members have served during this period:
Andrew Down
Joanna McCarry (resigned on 25[th] January, 2026)
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2. GARDENING CLUB
Each year we set a programme for the year ahead and ensure that we consult with the members to ensure that they have an active input into the speakers/activities etc. Our aim is to get a balance between education and fun activities to ensure that they club is well supported and that our members are equipped to become better gardeners. We work hard to ensure that the speakers are both entertaining and informative. We also aim to build up community cohesion and always keep our members informed about any village wide initiative that we are involved in and encourage them to get involved.
Our visit, this year, was to a local dairy farm and the farmer and his wife provided a hugely informative and entertaining visit showing both the workings of the dairy farm as well as the work that they participate in to protect the local environment.
We widened our programme this year to include an interesting talk on beekeeping and an active workshop on willow weaving.
Each May session of the Gardening Group is dedicated to encouraging folk to plant up hanging baskets, run by one of the Ansley residents. We offer this out to all the village and run a competition for the best hanging basket which is judged in July. In 2025 we had almost thirty people take part, and the judging was hard as they looked so amazing.
Always keen on promoting a fun sense of competitiveness, in 2025 we ran both a Sweet Pea and Sunflower competition within the club with varying degrees of success.
In August, the Gardening Group supported the church’s Back in Time Event by helping to tidy the churchyard.
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In December we took part in the Christmas Tree Festival at the local church.
We had 48 members join in this year and our average attendance was around 30-35.
We kept our membership costs to £22.00 per individual and introduced a price of £38.00 for couples (anyone living at the same address). This includes refreshment costs to reduce the amount of cash that we have to process each month and with the aim to streamline our finances.
3. ANSLEY OPEN GARDENS
Just over two
hundred people flocked to Ansley on Sunday 29th June to see the nine gardens that were open to the public raising £1033 for Nursing Charities through the National Gardens Scheme. Most of the two hundred were from outside of the village and, at least, half of them had not visited before! There were so many positive comments about the gardens, the Morris Dancers, the Church, and the Village – the gardeners were all bursting with pride by the end of the event, and they raised over £1000 for local charities. One visitor was so impressed that she went straight onto Rightmove to see if there were any properties available in the village.
4. ANSLEY IN BLOOM
Over forty volunteers engaged in supporting the Ansley in Bloom 2025 entry this year. We ran a number of community action days where we invited residents to get involved in weeding, planting, watering, and tending the thirtytwo different planting pots, window boxes, fence planters, and planting areas.
One of the local farmers supplied us with a huge amount of good quality cows manure which definitely helped the growth of the flowers during the year which were exceptional. We were also successful in funding tubs for the two new housing estates in the village and enlisted local residents to plant and water them.
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This year we provided a planting service to both the local pub and the post office giving them a wonderful display of window boxes, bench tubs and hanging baskets. We have encouraged residents to adopt and ‘own’ tubs that are local to them on the two new estates and this has worked well – not only did they plant them up, but they now water and maintain them.
5. PARTNERSHIP WORKING
We have worked with the Parish Council this year and provided information about the Gardening Group, Britain in Bloom and the Open Gardens at their stand in a community event called the ‘Party in the Park.’ This is an ideal opportunity for us to engage with the wider community and connect with those who are not aware of our work in the village.
We continue to collaborate with People in Action Bedworth (A local charity who work with people with a learning disability) who grow out bedding plants for us, and we have negotiated a discounted rate with a local independent nursery for perennials, compost etc.
We started a new partnership with Oldbury Care Farm (A CIC who work with people with a learning disability) and they were active in planting up our churchyard tyres (supplied by a local farmer)
Re-treeing has actively supported us by the provision of watering across the village, using the farmer’s bowser (which is fed from rainwater), and we are incredibly grateful to his wife who has provided this watering service every week during the dry season.
The church has been supportive, providing us with use of the village hall (at either a reduced rate or free) for our community action days and plant sale.
Both the parish council and the borough council have been very supportive with providing us with funding and allowing us to plant on local ground.
We also committed to help with the general clearance around the churchyard and provide some planting in the tubs do enhance the area.
We continued our partnership with the Village News magazine, which publishes quarterly to around 3,000 households across Ansley, Arley and the surrounding area. We have maintained a regular presence, with an article in every quarterly edition. The magazine provides an important way for us to update residents on our Britain in Bloom work, community action days, and activities such as the village sunflower competition.
6. PUBLIC BENEFIT
The 1500 residents of the local village have benefitted from our charitable activities in the following way:
- Opportunities for volunteering across the village – either in administration capacity as trustees of our charity, active members at the club (helping with refreshments, raffle etc.) or working within the village in planting, clearing, weeding, and watering.
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An improved knowledge of horticulture through access to knowledgeable speakers, regular information sheets, and the ability to access knowledge through monthly meetings.
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Increased social opportunities, reducing isolation through monthly meetings, community action days and community events (such as the Open Gardens and the judging day)
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An improved environment with beautiful tubs and flowering areas most of the year and a reduction in littering, graffiti, anti-social behaviour etc.
7. ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY
We use self-watering tubs and water them, in the main, with rainwater.
We have also researched the most drought tolerant plants and have used, where possible and practicable plants such as pelargoniums, begonias as well as osteospermums.
We have been fortunate to be supported by another farmer who is providing us with mature cow manure for composting and, as he is local, this has cut out any travel requirements. Equally, this has ensured that we are not using peat in our composting. Any shortfall in compost is being provided by the allotment society.
One of our residents who has access to a large greenhouse and outhouses has overwintered over one hundred pelargoniums, as well as taking cuttings from them to replenish them for the future.
We have encouraged our gardening community within the local area to donate plants when they are splitting their perennials and have been able to use many of these donated plants to support our planting programme.
We encourage the use of peat free alternatives to composting wherever possible and educate our members in this practise.
This year we trialled wild flowering with mixed success but have used the learning for future programmes.
8. FUNDING
We received two grants from Local Authorities during the year. Warwickshire County Council awarded £300, which funded compost and wildflower seed planting across the village. Ansley Parish Council provided £500, contributing significantly to a range of activities within our 2025 Britain in Bloom programme.
We have also been successful in securing wider funding support from the following:
National Gardens Scheme provided us with a grant of £2062 which funded wildflower planting, new self-watering tubs, and planting.
Develop Warwickshire provided us with a grant of £1928 to fund the purchase of new self-watering tubs, bulbs, compost etc. We also received support from the Parish Council and the Local Council in the form of grants.
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9. FINANCE REPORT
| RT | RT | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ANSLEY VILLAGE GARDENING GROUP | 1212420 | CC1 | ||
| 6a | ||||
| Receipts andpayments accounts | ||||
| 01/04/2025 | 31/03/202 | |||
| For the period from |
To | 6 |
| Section A Receipts and payments Unrestricted funds to the nearest £ A1 Receipts Fundraising Events 1,256 Members Subscriptions 1,066 Grants andDonations - Other Receipts 61 Sub total(Gross income for AR) 2,383 A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). - - Sub total - Total receipts 2,383 A3 Payments Operating Costs 1,135 Cost of Fundraising Events 903 Activity Costs 36 Donations Paid - |
Section A Receipts and payments Unrestricted funds to the nearest £ A1 Receipts Fundraising Events 1,256 Members Subscriptions 1,066 Grants andDonations - Other Receipts 61 Sub total(Gross income for AR) 2,383 A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). - - Sub total - Total receipts 2,383 A3 Payments Operating Costs 1,135 Cost of Fundraising Events 903 Activity Costs 36 Donations Paid - |
Restricted funds to the nearest £ 3,124 - 4,494 - 7,618 - - - 7,618 264 1,466 5,273 206 |
Endowment funds to the nearest £ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
Total funds to the neares t £ 4,380 1,066 4,494 61 - - - - 10,001 - - - 10,001 1,399 2,369 5,309 206 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A1 Receipts | Last year to the nearest £ |
||||
| Fundraising Events | 1,256 | 5,314 | |||
| Members Subscriptions | 1,066 | 1,441 | |||
| Grants andDonations | - | 4,818 | |||
| Other Receipts | 61 | - | |||
| - | |||||
| - | |||||
| - | |||||
| - | |||||
| Sub total(Gross income for AR) |
2,383 | 11,573 | |||
| A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). |
|||||
| - | |||||
| - | - | ||||
| Sub total | - |
- | |||
| Total receipts A3 Payments |
|||||
| 11,573 | |||||
| Operating Costs | 1,135 | 264 | - | 1,399 | 1,308 |
| Cost of Fundraising Events | 903 | 1,466 | - | 2,369 | 1,172 |
| Activity Costs | 36 | 5,273 | - | 5,309 | 8,312 |
| Donations Paid | - | 206 | - | 206 | 500 |
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| - | - | - | - | - | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | - | - | - | - | |||||
| - | - | - | - | - | |||||
| - | - | - | - | - | |||||
| - | - | - | - | - | |||||
| Sub total | |||||||||
| 2,074 | 7,209 | - | 9,283 | 11,292 | |||||
| A4 Asset and investment | |||||||||
| purchases,(see table) | |||||||||
| - | - | - | - | ||||||
| - | - | - | - | ||||||
| Sub total | |||||||||
| - | - | - | - | - | |||||
| Total payments | 2,074 | 7,209 | - | 9,283 | 11,292 | ||||
| Net of receipts/(payments) | 309 | 409 | - | 718 | 281 | ||||
| A5 Transfers between funds | |||||||||
| - | - | - | - | ||||||
| A6 Cash funds last year end | |||||||||
| 2,232 | 2,196 | - | 4,428 | 4,141 | |||||
| Cash funds this year end | 2,541 | 2,605 | - | 5,146 | 4,422 |
Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
| Categories B1 Cash funds |
Details Bank Account Cash Balance Total cash funds (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) Details |
Unrestricte d funds to nearest £ 1,998 544 - 2,541 OK Unrestricte d funds to nearest £ |
Restri cted funds to neares t £ 2,592 13 2,605 OK Restri cted funds to neares t £ |
Endow ment funds to nearest £ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| OK | ||||
| Endow ment funds to nearest £ |
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B2 Other monetary assets
B3 Investment assets
B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use
B5 Liabilities
Current Cost Fund to which value (option asset belongs (optiona al) Details l) - - - - - - - - - - Current Cost Fund to which value (option asset belongs (optiona al) Details l) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Fund to which Amoun When liability relates t due due (option (optiona Details al) l) Deferred Income - Grants Restricted 31 1,800 March 2027 - - - -
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Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees
Date of Signature Print Name approv al
Annual Report signed off by the Trustees at meeting on 22[nd] June, 2026
………………………………………………………………………..
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