2024-04-01-accounts

CATHOLIC RECORD SOCIETY British Catholic History Reg’d Charity no. 313529

www.crs.org.uk

Annual Report 2022-2023

&

Notice of Annual General Meeting 2023

Secretarial Address (for general correspondence):

Dr Scholastica Jacob St Antony’s Priory, Durham [e-mail]

Membership Secretary

(for correspondence on subscriptions, changes of address &c):

Dr Carmen M. Mangion [e-mail]

1

From the Chair of Council

Looking back at last year’s Annual Report covering 2021–2022, the continuing experience of turbulence and change stands out clearly – disruption to our capacity to travel, to come together, and for researchers to access archives, and rapid changes in publishing and in communication. The current year just ending has been calmer on several of these fronts but the transformation in academic publishing and in digitisation continue apace.

There’s a good deal to learn from experimenting with new formats, whether for publications, the website, meetings, or conferences, as you will read below. There’s also much to be gained from simply meeting up in person and we hope everyone gathering at Hinsley Hall for the 2023 conference will enjoy that experience. It’s the first time the CRS Conference has been held at Hinsley Hall so feedback on the experience to our Conference Director, Dr Helen Kilburn, will help in making decisions for next year’s venue.

During the year CRS signed a new agreement with the publisher of its Record Series, Boydell & Brewer, which means that electronic and print-on-demand versions will be available for institutions and individuals to buy from them, in addition to the hardback texts printed for members with some for purchase. These additional modes of publication will increase accessibility and reduce costs: almost all university libraries are purchasing books in electronic format, and we plan to undertake a marketing exercise to universities in conjunction with Boydell.

As I reported last year, Cambridge University Press, publisher of British Catholic History , is continuing to move towards Open Access (OA) publishing. The Editorial Board of BCH met with a senior representative during July for a more detailed discussion of the implications for CRS, for authors, and readers. CUP continues to take a considerate approach to learned membership societies and to assist us in gradually moving to OA while retaining hard copies for members. We are grateful to the Board and to Dr Katy Gibbons, editor of BCH , for guiding us through this complex development.

Our own digitisation projects are making steady progress. In the autumn we plan to launch ‘Catholicism in Numbers’, the fruit of work undertaken by doctoral student, Tim Kinnear under the guidance of Dr Alana Harris at King’s College London and partially sponsored by CRS. Many scholars have extracted data from the Catholic Directories , such as the number of priests or missions/churches, over the years. Catholicism in Numbers aims to provide a permanent and accessible resource of data in the form of tables drawn from the English and Welsh, Scottish and Irish directories, with explanations about the statistical methodology used, accessed via the CRS website and freely available.

The intention is to follow this digital resource with a series of others. In the pipeline is a digital map of priest holes, in the process of being built by Paul Hodgetts from his father Michael’s work. It’s likely to be a popular resource and of particular use for schools and the wider public. Thanks to Dr Liam Temple for overseeing these and other digital projects at the planning stage.

CRS now has a new promotional flyer. Please contact Dr Carmen Mangion, Membership Secretary, if you would like some to hand out at an event. Use of the flyer has resulted in a number of new members and I’d like to take the opportunity of this Annual Report to welcome them.

You may remember that earlier this year the Newsletter noted our Treasurer for the past five years, Patrick Powell, was standing down and that we were searching among the membership for a new

2

Treasurer. It’s not an easy role to fill in most charitable bodies given the skills and experience needed. We have a happy, though temporary, outcome: Father Peter Harris, already on the Council, has kindly agreed to become Hon. Treasurer and Patrick has agreed to continue doing the book-keeping and financial work as previously, but without attending meetings, for which we are very grateful. We now have another year or two to find a new Treasurer, so, please, if you know anybody who might fit the bill and be interested, do contact me.

During the coming year Dr Scholastica Jacob will lead a review of the CRS Constitutions in her capacity as Secretary. Custodial Trustees support the review in principle and will be party to the process. The intention is to present a revised text to next year’s AGM.

Whether you are able to join the AGM in person, online, or simply through reading this Annual Report to catch up with the news, your continuing friendship and support of the Catholic Record Society is greatly valued.

Susan O’Brien [e-mail]

3

Annual Report 2022–23

1. Membership of Council

• a. The Society’s Honorary Officers were confirmed in their offices.

• b. Dr Liam Temple was elected for a three-year term.

c. Dr Scholastica Jacob replaced Dr Serenhedd James as Honorary Secretary. Dr James continues to sit on the awards committee.

2. Financial Report

The Treasurer is pleased to report that the Society’s finances remain sound as demonstrated by the figures set out below. Accounts for the year ended March 31, 2023, have been drawn up by King Hope Chartered Accountants and independently examined.

Information/comments on incomings/outgoings (with prior year comparatives):

(a) Income was made up as follows:

Donations Subscriptions Investment income Conference income Sales, royalties Other Income (see below) (b) Expenditure Grants Publications Conferences Management and admin Governance	2022	2022	2023	2023
	1000		1000
	8488		8168
	18384		19281
	-		3289
	1673		2938
	-		26648
	**29545 **		61324
	2703		1700
	4906		28445
		-	5746
		2923	7658
		3116		-
		13648		43549
Net income		15897		17775

Total net resources were £17775 compared to £15897 for 2022.

4

The value of investments at 31 March 2023 was £711656 a decrease of £6394 compared to 2022. Cash held at 31 March 2023 was £62598 an increase of £17058 compared to 2022.

Members should note that the net income for the year of £17775 is supported by a one-off distribution totalling £26648 received from the Andrew Duncan trust which was wound up during the year. Without this the Society would be showing a loss for the year of £8873 arising from the catch up cost of publications post Covid and the poor investment returns which were disappointing after a much better performance in our previous year (profit of £74808). Accounts to March 2023 also recognise a debt to Cambridge University Press of over £13000 resulting from their late - but correct - supply of their invoices. This debt is being paid off over several years.

Peter Harris, Honorary Treasurer [e-mail]

3. Membership Report

a. The membership of the Society at 31 March 2023 comprised 153 individual members in Britain and Ireland, 16 international individual members, and 21 religious houses and small libraries.

b. The following have joined (or rejoined) the Society: Dr Lucas Volksman (UK); Mrs Mel Eyeons (UK); Dr Eilish Gregory (UK); Brian Kelly (UK); Mr Richard Freeman-Wallace (UK); Tim Guile (UK):

c. The Society has noted with sadness the deaths of Mr Michael Hodgetts, Canon Tony Harding, Mr George Sutton and Mrs Martha McDade. Jesu mercy; Mary pray .

Carmen Mangion, Membership Secretary [e-mail]

4. Editorial Reports

a Volumes

Dr Jade Scott’s completed volume The Life and Letters of Lady Anne Percy is now with the publishers for publication in early Spring 2024.

Michael Hodgett’s second volume of Little Malvern Letters will be published posthumously with the agreement of Michael’s son Paul and the generous offer of additional support from Professor Bill Sheils. Date of publication is yet to be confirmed.

b. Journal

The usual two issues have been published during the year.

CUP proposed and BCH has accepted price changes for the coming year which reflect the increasing cost of print copies.

We are in consultation with CUP about a ‘special issue’ of BCH to mark Michael Hodgett’s work by gathering together a selection of Michael’s articles published in Recusant History/BCH to be published on the BCH home page.

More detailed discussions have been held about transition to Open Access.

5

5. Research Awards 2023

a. Thanks to the generosity of the late Dr David Rogers and the late Mgr Michael E. Williams, former members of the Society, the Society is able to offer small annual research grants.

Grants for 2023 have been awarded to:

Jeanne Michelle Datiles for an archival research visit to the Borthwick Institute for Archives in York and to the British Library and National Archives in London for doctoral research (Catholic University of America) for a dissertation entitled “Sisters of the North: Kinship, Religion and Memory and the women of Catholic Yorkshire, 1553-1642’. Amount awarded £800.

Dr Caroline Lesemann-Elliott for postdoctoral research in the Durham University Palace Green Library Special Collections in the summer of 2023 for an article on music and liturgy at English Poor Clare convents in exile during the long seventeenth century. This research is also towards a monograph about exiled English convent music 1600-1750. Amount awarded £634.

b. CRS Research Award Protocol

The timetable for reviewing applications for awards needs to be reconsidered. Many applications now come in for research support in the Autumn or Spring, for research to be undertaken during the summer. Waiting until proposals are ratified at the AGM effectively means that the award comes too late to carry out the research at the time originally proposed. Now we are online, researchers see this facility as part of a general search for funding, whereas previously a good number of applications came via word of mouth, often through the suggestion of a CRS member. Our present system is more open, as the website was intended to make us, and for the modest amounts of money being sought, it is unreasonable to expect candidates to apply more than a year in advance, as our present system strictly enforced requires. It is proposed that the sub-committee has delegated powers, through Council, to decide on these applications which will be ratified by Council either at a Spring meeting in April/May or by email circulation if no meeting is scheduled, and that the decisions are reported to the Society at the AGM. In effect this is what happens already. It is proposed that the Society protects its interest by fixing the annual budget each year at the AGM, advised by Council as to the sum.

Having listed the research awards and the documentation required, information on this process will be amended as follows:

‘applications for awards should normally be received by the Chair of the Sub-Committee before I April in the year for which the award is required. Council will make a decision about the awards in early May and applicants should receive confirmation of its decision by 20 May’. (I have put in ‘normally’ to permit consideration of good, if late applications, should funds still be available)

Professor Bill Sheils, Chair of Awards Sub-Committee

6. Archives

The CRS archives were transferred from Downside Abbey to The Bar Convent, York in March 2022, to facilitate access for the archivist we had engaged to list them. This work was carried out at the end of March and beginning of April 2022 and a first stage report of the contents of the archives has been received. Unfortunately, the archivist has suffered bouts of ill-health during the last few months and so the final report, which will include comments and recommendations relating to the

6

physical state of the material, has not yet been completed. Meanwhile, we are gathering additional material from past officers of council and the society is very grateful to Dr. Hannah Thomas, Collections Manager at the Bar Convent, for continuing to house the archives and additional papers, in the short term. If any members of the society have papers relating to the history of the society or any aspect of its work which they think should be included with the archives I would be pleased to hear from them. When we receive the final report from the archivist, we will be able to identify any gaps in the collection and will appeal to members for copies of specific material to fill them. At that point Council will also be able to decide where the archives should be located permanently and to make appropriate arrangements for further cataloguing and for any necessary conservation work.

Judith A. Smeaton

7. Thanks

The Society remains grateful all those whose generosity has ensured its smooth-running and ongoing success in the last year.

7

Minutes of the AGM of 2022

held online and at the Bar Convent on Tuesday 12 July at 11.45 a.m.

Present in person: Professor Judith Champ, Dr Aidan Enright; Dr Brian Casey; Dr Francis Freeman; Mrs Margaret Harcourt-Williams; Fr Peter Harris; Sr Patricia Harris CJ (representing the Bar Convent); Dr James Kelly; Dr Helen Kilburn; Professor Bill Sheils; Mrs Judith Smeaton; Dr Liam Temple; Dr Hannah Thomas.

1. Apologies had been received from Dr Arblaster, Dr Gibbons, Bp Hudson, Dr Mangion, Dr Nockles, Dr O’Brien, and Mr Powell.

2. Minutes of the 2021 AGM . These were agreed as a true record; there were no matters arising.

3. Annual Report 2021-22. This was adopted nem con , proposed by Fr Harris and seconded by Dr Thomas.

4. Annual Accounts 2021-22 . These were adopted nem con , proposed by Dr Doyle and seconded by Mrs Smeaton.

5. Council . Dr Liam Temple was elected for a three-year term, proposed by Dr Kelly and seconded by Mrs Smeaton.

6. Date and venue of AGM in 2023 . In Dr O’Brien’s absence this was deferred to a future meeting of Council.

7. AOB . Mrs Smeaton thanked Dr James for his service to the Society as its Honorary Secretary, from which office he retired at the end of the meeting.

8

The 2023 Annual General Meeting of the Catholic Record Society will held at the

AGENDA

1. Apologies for absence

2. Minutes of the 2022 AGM & Matters Arising

3. Adoption of the Annual Report 2022-23

4. Adoption of the Annual Accounts 2022-23

5. Council Election

Dr Mangion comes to the end of her first three-year term at the AGM, and is willing to stand again for re-election.

6. Date and venue of AGM in 2024

1. Any Other Business to be submitted to the Secretary in advance.

CRS Annual General Meeting 2023 Tuesday 25 July at 12.15 pm

9