## **St James the Less, Lower Tatham**
## **Annual Churchwardens’ Report for the Parochial Church Council**
## **for the year ending 31[st] December 2024**
St James the Less is located on Monk’s Gate, Lower Tatham, Lancaster LA2 8NH and is one of six churches within East Lonsdale Benefice in the Diocese of Blackburn.
The incumbent of the East Lonsdale Benefice is Rev Jane Lee, appointed in February 2022, .
The Parochial Church Council is exempted from registration with the Charity Commission. The Parochial Church Council is a Trustee of a small, registered charity: Tatham Charity – registered number 224735.
The following parishioners served as members of the PCC during 2024:
**John Parkinson** , **Linda Kirkby** (churchwarden and bellringer), **Paul Whatmough** (treasurer and bell ringer), **Elizabeth Atkinson** (sidesperson), **Dennis Lund, Lucy Leather, Helen Bramley, Stephen Robson** (churchwarden and Deanery Synod representative), **Margaret Wilson** (secretary) and **Kate Warburton** (Vice Chair and sidesperson). **Dennis Lund** resigned from the PCC during the year due to ill-health.
## **Structure, Governance and Management**
The method of appointment of PCC members is set out in the Church Representation Rules. The PCC have complied with the duty with regards to the Guidance on Safeguarding.
## **Objectives and Activities**
The PCC supports the incumbent of the East Lonsdale Benefice (Reverend Jane Lee). The responsibility for the maintenance of the Church building, churchyard and car park remains with the PCC.
## **Achievements, performance, and attendance**
There are 36 names on the Electoral Roll. Average attendance at the 11.15 am fortnightly services is 14.
During 2024, services have been held regularly. Special services were held for Plough Sunday, Mothering Sunday, Harvest Festival and Remembrance Sunday. There was one baptism, and two funerals. A packed church enjoyed Wenning Voices’ summer open evening and a Christmas concert.
## **Review of the year**
In February the Friends held their sold-out 10 Year Anniversary Afternoon Tea in Church, with entertainment from The Ossie Sisters. In May, the PCC provided catering on the first Sunday of Wray Festival week, generously supported by many of the Friends of St James the Less with soups, baking and help on the day. The PCC stall on Wray Fair Field day, with bric-a-brac and games was also very successful raising a total of £1,841. In June, the Friends held their first Plant Sale and Coffee Morning in the church and churchyard. The large number of visitors kept helpers very busy and will be repeated. These events, together with the annual Grand Jumble Sale held in September at Hornby (raising £1,287) provide significant financial support to Church funds. The Friends’ 100 Club continues to raise valued funds to maintain and enhance the Church facilities. The Benefice Service in June was followed by a picnic and games in the Old Rectory garden, by kind permission of Mrs Phyllis Holt. A sell-out Jazz and Fizz event was held at Station Farm in July hosted by Jackie and Willis Harrison with entertainment from High society Jazz Band. Our Church participated in the Lune Valley Church Mouse Trail in November and the year closed with the Friends’ organising a sold out Christmas Sparkle event at Wennington Hall.
1
## **St James the Less, Lower Tatham**
## **Annual Churchwardens’ Report for the Parochial Church Council**
## **for the year ending 31[st] December 2024**
The PCC thanks the Fiends of St James the Less and the wider community for support across all these very successful events. Sadly, Colin Burford one of the Friends’ founder members, passed away in April and his funeral was held on 22 April. His support contributed to making the Friends the success we see today through his chairmanship and leadership.
The PCC held 3 meetings in 2024 (January May and September) and in addition an extraordinary meeting was held in January to report on the tender received for the roofing works. The churchwardens provide regular input and photos to the quarterly Bell magazine – distributed to many in the parish and Wennington. The St James the Less website also includes regular updates.
During 2024, Ann Dawson retired from the Benefice’s clergy and lay ministry team. We owe great thanks to Ann and her late husband Norman for leading services at St James over many years.
## During 2024, the following actons have taken place:
The boiler and boiler house monitoring required attention to replace circuitry. There was regular mowing, strimming, and tidying in the churchyard. Dead wood on the Pine tree in the car park was attended to and the overhanging yew tree branches from the Old Rectory garden cut back. The trimmed churchyard yews were re-shaped and the bird feeders regularly refilled. A small area of meadow has been established against the southern churchyard wall to encourage wild flowers.
A fire extinguisher check was undertaken in August and an electrical inspection in November gave a satisfactory report (five yearly interval). A lightning conductor check has been instructed for 2025 (five yearly interval) .
Two members of the PCC continued training as bellringers; and in February our Church participated in the Over Kellet Open Day, celebrating the re-dedication of their bells.
A PCC sub-committee has overseen the major repair works to the roof, in conjunction with HPA architects. Following tendering in December 2023, the contract was awarded to Ducketts Ltd of Clawthorpe in February 2024. Following various delays regarding securing Faculty approval agreement of internal decoration details, work began in October 2024. The Church roof was covered by tented scaffolding to protect access to the northern roof slope. Unfortunately the slates when removed were found to be in too poor condition for re-use, with buying replacements increasing the cost of the work. Fortunately, the roof timbers were found to be in satisfactory condition. Despite the need to board over some windows for protection and to cover the font and rood screen, services and community use of the church was able to continue. The re-slating of the north roof commenced in January 2025.
Proposals to carry out similar works to the south roof would be considered in early 2025.
Community groups continue to meet in Church – Wenning Voices rehearse weekly, and Stitch and Chatter meet monthly, Wennington Parish Council meets bi-monthly and Tatham Parish Council alternates their meetings between St James and the Church of the Good Shepherd at Tatham Fells. The Church is opened every day. Volunteers organise regular cleaning days and together with the PCC and the Friends, combine to ensure the church is well-decorated with flowers and foliage for special services including Easter, Harvest Festival and Christmas.
The end of year accounts are attached to this report.
2
|**Income 2024**||||
|---|---|---|---|
||**Detail**|||
|||**As 31/12**||
||Planned giving, Standing Order|3,075.00||
||Collections at Services|3,749.68||
||All othergiving|976.44||
||Gift Aid recovered|1,740.11||
||Legacies|0.00||
||Grants: RHI, PC, Friends, DBF,LPW|4,964.54||
||Fundraising|8,228.09||
||Fees retained byPCC|1,016.00||
||Repayment of Float|450.00||
||Tradingactivities, Venue Hire|819.00||
||Collections at Services, Not Gift Aided|380.00||
||Otherreceipts (not already listed)|0.00||
||||**25,398.86**|
|||||
|**Other Income**||||
||Sale of CCLA Assets||84,162
|
||||~~18~~|
||||**109,561.0**|
|**Expenditure**
**2024**||||
|---|---|---|---|
|||||
||**Detail**|**As 31/12**||
||Costs of Fundraising|||
||Missiongivingand donations|1,140.00||
||Diocesan Parish Share|7,499.04||
||Salaries, Wages|90.46||
||Clergy, Staff expenses, Benefice|1,200.00||
||Church runningexpenses|6,810.44||
||Church Utility Bills|6,144.33||
||Major repairs to church building|86,076.60||
||New building work to church|0.00||
||Other expenditure not already listed|2,011.28||
||||**110,972.1**|
|||||
||Opening Balance||57,571.73|
||Income||109,561.0|
||||167,132.7|
||Less Expenditure||110,972.1
|
||**Surplus(Income less Expenditure)**||~~5~~
**56,160.6**|
|**BALANCE SHEET**|**As at 31st December**|**As at 31st December**|**As at 31st December**|
|---|---|---|---|
|**Capital Account:**||||
|||||
|**Balance brought forward**||||
|Nat West||57,571.73||
|CCLA||214,962.92||
||||272,534.65|
|||||
|Entwistle House Schl sale|||0.00|
|||||
|**Annual Surplus/(Deficit) for the**||||
|Nat West||(1,411.11)||
|CCLA||27,763.40||
|Investment||(84,162||
||||(57,809.89)|
||||214,724.76|
|||||
|**Represented by:-**||||
|Nat West current account||56,160.6||
|Cash||0.00||
|CB3020495||23,341.33||
|CBF5choolaccount603037002D||0.00||
|CBFFabricaccount603037003D||0.00||
||No. of
Shares|Mid-Mkt
Value||
|CBF Investments CB3020496|21,392.63|135,222.81||
||||**214,724.76**|
|There were no debtors or creditors
at 31 December 2024||||
## To members of the Parochial Church Council of St. James the Less,
## **Tatham .**
## **Independent Examiner' s Report for the year ended 2024.**
I have verified all documents submitted to me and am satisfied that they give a true and fair view of the activities carried out during the calendar year 2024.
In particular, the various schedules have been cross-checked against bank statements, cheque book stubs, paying-in counterfoils, electronic transfer sheets, invoices and receipts, together with CCLA Deposit, Withdrawal and Statement of Account forms.
Certain CCLA investments have been encashed / sold during the year, with the result that only two funds remain. These have been valued as at 30th June and 30[th] September, as itemised on the CCLA investment schedule, and included in the Balance Sheet, showing values as at those respective dates.
I have made working-paper copies of various schedules, as referred to above, and which are available for inspection, if required.
Accordingly, I am not aware of any irregularities to which attention should be drawn. If, however, there are any points to raise, please contact me at School House, School Lane, Wray, Lancaster, LA2 8QE tel: 01524 - 221660.
## **Derek Cookson**
## **Independent Examiner**
17 January 2025
|**Income 2024**||||
|---|---|---|---|
||**Detail**|||
|||**As 31/12**||
||Planned giving, Standing Order|3,075.00||
||Collections at Services|3,749.68||
||All othergiving|976.44||
||Gift Aid recovered|1,740.11||
||Legacies|0.00||
||Grants: RHI, PC, Friends, DBF,LPW|4,964.54||
||Fundraising|8,228.09||
||Fees retained byPCC|1,016.00||
||Repayment of Float|450.00||
||Tradingactivities, Venue Hire|819.00||
||Collections at Services, Not Gift Aided|380.00||
||Otherreceipts (not already listed)|0.00||
||||**25,398.86**|
|||||
|**Other Income**||||
||Sale of CCLA Assets||84,162
|
||||~~18~~|
||||**109,561.0**|
|**Expenditure**
**2024**||||
|---|---|---|---|
|||||
||**Detail**|**As 31/12**||
||Costs of Fundraising|||
||Missiongivingand donations|1,140.00||
||Diocesan Parish Share|7,499.04||
||Salaries, Wages|90.46||
||Clergy, Staff expenses, Benefice|1,200.00||
||Church runningexpenses|6,810.44||
||Church Utility Bills|6,144.33||
||Major repairs to church building|86,076.60||
||New building work to church|0.00||
||Other expenditure not already listed|2,011.28||
||||**110,972.1**|
|||||
||Opening Balance||57,571.73|
||Income||109,561.0|
||||167,132.7|
||Less Expenditure||110,972.1
|
||**Surplus(Income less Expenditure)**||~~5~~
**56,160.6**|
|**BALANCE SHEET**|**As at 31st December**|**As at 31st December**|**As at 31st December**|
|---|---|---|---|
|**Capital Account:**||||
|||||
|**Balance brought forward**||||
|Nat West||57,571.73||
|CCLA||214,962.92||
||||272,534.65|
|||||
|Entwistle House Schl sale|||0.00|
|||||
|**Annual Surplus/(Deficit) for the**||||
|Nat West||(1,411.11)||
|CCLA||27,763.40||
|Investment||(84,162||
||||(57,809.89)|
||||214,724.76|
|||||
|**Represented by:-**||||
|Nat West current account||56,160.6||
|Cash||0.00||
|CB3020495||23,341.33||
|CBF5choolaccount603037002D||0.00||
|CBFFabricaccount603037003D||0.00||
||No. of
Shares|Mid-Mkt
Value||
|CBF Investments CB3020496|21,392.63|135,222.81||
||||**214,724.76**|
|There were no debtors or creditors
at 31 December 2024||||
## To members of the Parochial Church Council of St. James the Less,
## **Tatham .**
## **Independent Examiner' s Report for the year ended 2024.**
I have verified all documents submitted to me and am satisfied that they give a true and fair view of the activities carried out during the calendar year 2024.
In particular, the various schedules have been cross-checked against bank statements, cheque book stubs, paying-in counterfoils, electronic transfer sheets, invoices and receipts, together with CCLA Deposit, Withdrawal and Statement of Account forms.
Certain CCLA investments have been encashed / sold during the year, with the result that only two funds remain. These have been valued as at 30th June and 30[th] September, as itemised on the CCLA investment schedule, and included in the Balance Sheet, showing values as at those respective dates.
I have made working-paper copies of various schedules, as referred to above, and which are available for inspection, if required.
Accordingly, I am not aware of any irregularities to which attention should be drawn. If, however, there are any points to raise, please contact me at School House, School Lane, Wray, Lancaster, LA2 8QE tel: 01524 - 221660.
## **Derek Cookson**
## **Independent Examiner**
17 January 2025