Annual Report and Accounts 2015 · the investment portfolio at the year-end market value of £2,088,167 (2014: £2,173,619) and net current assets of £43,131 (2014: net current liabilities

Annual Report and Accounts 2015

The National Manuscripts Conservation Trust

PROJECT Staffordshire Hoard Exhibition DESIGN Simon Meddings

1

contents

Reference and Administrative Information 2Trustees’ Report 3Awards by the National Manuscripts Conservation Trust 2015 10Lasting Benefit of NMCT Grants 22Independent Examiner’s Report 26Statement of Financial Activities 27Balance Sheet 28Notes to the Accounts 29

Annual Report and Accounts 2015

Registered Charity: 802796


2 The National Manuscripts Conservation Trust

Reference and Administrative Information

Patron Sir Keith Thomas FBA Trustees The Lord Egremont DL FSA FRSLDr Bernard Naylor MA MCLIPCharles Sebag-Montefiore FSA FCACaroline Checkley-Scott ACRDr Norman James FRHistS Administrator to the Trustees Nell Hoare MBE FSA FMA FIICP.O. Box 4291, Reading, Berkshire RG8 9JA Independent ExaminersD. A. Clark & Co. LtdBailey House, 4-10 Barttelot Road, Horsham, West Sussex RH12 1DQ Solicitors Anderson Longmore & HighamWisteria House, Market Square, Petworth, West Sussex GU28 0AJ Fund Managers Cazenove Capital Management Ltd12 Moorgate, London EC2R 6DA Bankers Royal Bank of Scotland Plc127-128 High Holborn, London WC1V 6PQ

www.nmct.co.uk e: [email protected] t: 01491 598083Registered Charity: 802796

Annual Report and Accounts 2015 3

Structure, Governance and Management

ConstitutionThe National Manuscripts Conservation Trust (NMCT) was established on 9th January 1990 by a declaration of trust executed by three Trustees: John Ehrman, representing the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts (RCHM); Henry Heaney, representing the British Library board (BL) and Lewis Golden, the private benefactors. Since 1st April 2003, the RCHM has formed part of The National Archives (TNA), whose Chief Executive is the sole Historical Manuscripts Commissioner.

TrusteesBoth the RCHM (as a constituent body within TNA) and the BL each appoint one trustee, and the two Trustees so appointed are empowered to appoint up to four further trustees who shall not be a member or an officer of, or employed by, either the RCHM or the BL. All five Trustees served throughout the year: Lord Egremont (Chairman), Charles Sebag-Montefiore (Treasurer), Dr Bernard Naylor, Caroline Checkley-Scott and Dr Norman James. In the first full year of their Trusteeship, the NMCT has benefitted greatly from the input of Dr Norman James, with his deep knowledge of the UK’s archives sector, and Caroline Checkley-Scott, a leading book and paper conservator.

No formal procedures have been put in place for the induction or training of Trustees, as they are not considered necessary in view of the criteria exercised in selecting Trustees. Ad hoc measures will be taken whenever necessary.

AdministrationThe administration of the NMCT is provided by Mrs Nell Hoare, whose address, together with other administrative information, is given on the previous page.

Risk ManagementThe Trustees have identified the principal risks that might have an effect on the NMCT and believe that appropriate action has been taken to manage them. The Trustees continue to review the adequacy of the procedures in place.

The Trustees of the National Manuscripts Conservation Trust present their Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31st December 2015.

Trustees’ Report


Objectives and Activities

The objectives of the NMCT are to advance the education of the public by the provision of financial assistance towards the cost of conserving manuscripts, which, in the opinion of the Trustees, are of historic or educational value.

The Charity is a public benefit entity. Applications for grants can be accepted from all county record offices, non-national libraries and museums and other similar publicly funded institutions including local authority, university and specialist record repositories throughout the United Kingdom, and from owners of manuscript material exempt from capital taxation or owned by a charitable trust. Applications from national libraries and institutions directly funded by the government are not normally eligible for grants from the Charity.

Since the NMCT was founded in 1990 it has awarded grants of nearly £3m, which have helped to preserve important historical, literary, scientific and other documents. Many of the manuscripts conserved with our help are fragile and completely inaccessible; as a result of NMCT’s grants, these documents are preserved and can be made accessible to the public and to researchers.

The Trustees have had regard to Charity Commission guidance on public benefit.

Plans for Future Periods The Trust’s objectives for 2015 were to seek to maximise investment income and grants receivable and to award conservation grants totalling around £150,000, unless incoming resources turned out to be significantly greater than in 2014. In the event, aggregate income reached £192,890 and charitable grants were given amounting to £168,097.

The Trust’s objectives for 2016 are to continue to seek to maximise investment income and grants receivable and again to award conservation grants totalling around £150,000 unless incoming resources turn out to be significantly greater than in 2015. The Trust also aims to increase awareness of its activities and to stimulate further benefactions.

Achievements and Performance

GrantsGrants are awarded in June and December each year. In deciding whether an application should be awarded a grant, the Trustees take into account the significance of the manuscript or archive, the suitability of the storage conditions, the applicant’s commitment to continuing good preservation practice, and the requirement for reasonable public access.

In 2015 the Trustees received 21 applications (2014: 21). They awarded fifteen grants, giving university libraries, local record offices and other eligible applicants the aggregate sum of £168,097 (2014: £152,041). Further details of grants awarded in 2015 are given in the Review of the Year (page 6) and the pages that follow.

NMCT’s website (www.nmct.co.uk) was recently re-designed and is now even more accessible and informative. It provides full information for applicants on how to apply for a conservation grant, as well as case studies on supported projects, a full list of recent grants and further information about the Charity and its Trustees.

Financial ReviewIn 2015 the Charity’s aggregate income reached £192,890 (2014: £211,498). Grants awarded, which lie at the heart of the charitable activity of the Trust, were £168,097 (towards projects with a total value of over £1.3 million), compared with £152,041 in 2014.

Investment income rose to £97,940 (2014: £94,640) but for the fifth successive year, the Trust’s capacity to give a greater level of grants is explained by the level of donations received, which reached £94,950 (2014: £116,858).

Fifteen grants for conservation were approved in 2015 amounting to a net £168,097 (2014: £152,041). These are considered in more detail in the section of this report headed ‘Review of the Year’ under ‘Grants Awarded’.


Operating costs fell slightly to £18,021 (2014: £19,790). They comprise the costs of administration and fund-raising for the Trust (£10,895), printing and posting the annual report (£1,827), website hosting, investment management fees (£2,324) and the independent examination fee of £1,020. The previous year, 2014, carried non-recurring cost of re-designing the website (£1,176).

The balance sheet at 31st December 2015 recorded net assets of £2,131,298 (2014: £2,172,370), essentially comprising the investment portfolio at the year-end market value of £2,088,167 (2014: £2,173,619) and net current assets of £43,131 (2014: net current liabilities of £1,249). The net current assets at 31st December 2015 include cash balances of £223,902. Further details of the investment portfolio are given in note 9 to the accounts.

Policies on Investments and Reserves The Trustees have adopted a total return investment policy, intended to maximise total returns whilst accepting a medium degree of risk. To this end, the Trust’s investment portfolio comprises holdings in a diverse group of collective investment vehicles, respectively focussed on the generation of income and capital growth.

Other than the Unrestricted Fund, all the Trust’s reserves are regarded as endowment funds, which are normally represented by investments in order to produce a reasonably predictable and regular level of income. The Trustees regard this as necessary to maintain and support the Charity’s operation.

Any annual deficit on the Unrestricted Fund is made good by a transfer from unrestricted funds brought forward.

Statement of Trustees’ ResponsibilitiesThe Trustees are responsible for preparing the Trustees’ Annual Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and Charities SORP (FRS 102) “Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance

with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland” and with regulations made under the Charities Act 2011.

The law applicable to charities in England and Wales requires the Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year, which give a true and fair view of the charity’s financial activities during the year. In preparing financial statements, the Trustees are required to:

• selectsuitableaccountingpoliciesandapplythemconsistently;• observethemethodsandprinciplesintheCharitiesSORP;• makejudgementsandestimatesthatarereasonable

and prudent;• statewhetherapplicableaccountingstandardsand

statements of recommended practice have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements;

• preparethefinancialstatementsonthegoingconcernbasisunless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue in operation.

The Trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the Charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011, the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008, and the provisions of the trust deed. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the Charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

Independent ExaminerStoner Cottingham were reappointed as the Trust’s Independent Examiner during the year. In May 2015 Stoner Cottingham merged with D. A. Clark & Co. Ltd., which has expressed its willingness to continue in that capacity.


Review of the Year

Grants AwardedIn 2015 15 grants amounting to a net £168,097 were given to libraries and archives throughout the UK, including the record offices of Denbighshire, Glamorgan, Sheffield, Staffordshire, Worcestershire, Wrexham and London Metropolitan Archives; the university libraries of Bangor and Newcastle and the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Other recipients included Argyll Estates, the Yorkshire Archaeological Society, Winchester Cathedral and the library of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. The smallest grant was £1,604 (Denbighshire) for the conservation of Denbigh Borough Charters and the largest was £24,000 (Staffordshire) for the conservation of the Minton archives.

Details of all grants awarded during 2015 are given on pages 10-21. The NMCT Annual Report usually focuses only on grants awarded during the year under review, but in this report we show the long-term benefit of NMCT’s grants, in terms of preservation and access, by giving some examples of projects supported in previous years (pages 22-25).

During 2015 the Trustees requested the repayment of a grant that was made to the D’Oyly Carte Opera Trust Ltd. following the sale of their archive to the British Library. This is in line with NMCT’s grant conditions, which require the return of a grant in the event of a sale of the items conserved with NMCT’s support. The repayment was made in January 2016.

Trustees held their summer meeting in 2015 at the Bodleian’s Weston Library, after which they visited the new conservation studios and were briefed on several past and current conservation projects made possible by NMCT’s support. The Trustees then visited the Oxford Conservation Consortium (OCC) where, after touring the studio, they enjoyed a number of joint presentations by Oxford librarians and conservators on conservation projects supported by NMCT in the past. The Trustees are immensely grateful to Dr Chris Fletcher and Virginia Llado-Buisan from the Bodleian and Jane Eagan from OCC, as well as all of their colleagues, for a fascinating day and for their generous hospitality.

Partnerships and FundraisingSince its foundation the NMCT has worked in partnership with many organisations, with the result that its capacity to support manuscript conservation has been vastly enhanced.

The most long-standing and important partnership is with The National Archives (TNA). TNA’s curators and conservators provide expert advice on all applications to NMCT; this input is provided freely by them, for which the Trustees are most grateful. Trustees can also ask TNA staff to visit applicant institutions to give advice. These free advisory visits may focus on, for example, archival strategy or storage and institutions always find them most helpful, often enabling them to submit a stronger re-application to NMCT.

In Wales, expert reports are received from advisers appointed by Museums, Archives and Libraries Division of Wales (MALD), to whom the Trustees are also grateful.

The advice of TNA, and of colleagues in Wales, is freely given and is immensely valuable in informing the Trustees’ discussions, and ensuring that all grant decisions are uniquely well-informed. The Trustees also benefit greatly from the attendance at each meeting of a senior member of TNA staff, James Travers, whose contribution is most valuable.

NMCT has benefitted from the generous support of the Pilgrim Trust for many years. Given the expertise available to the NMCT when considering applications for funding, the Pilgrim Trust has, for the last five years, funded manuscript conservation only via the NMCT. During 2015, their funding enabled grants to be made to Sheffield Archives, Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Archives and Newcastle University.

The Pilgrim Trust’s support (£40,000 in 2015 and in each of the four previous years) not only enables NMCT to fund substantially more projects, but it has also helped us to leverage significant support from many other funders.


As a result, in the period since 2011 we have raised £575,000 from external funders all of which has been used to increase the number and size of grants that NMCT can award. In 2010 NMCT’s net grant giving was less than £70,000 and in 2015 it was nearly £170,000, an increase of more than 250%.

NMCT’s partnership with the Museums, Archives and Libraries Division (MALD) of the Welsh Government has been similarly successful. MALD has supported NMCT with grants of £20,000 in 2015 and in the four previous years. NMCT has allocated £10,000 of its own funds to grants for Wales and has also secured additional funding from the Colwinston Trust (£10,700 in 2015). As a result NMCT has given support to projects in Wales totalling nearly £170,000 over five years.

The Trustees are also most grateful to the Garfield Weston Foundation for their grant of £20,000 awarded during 2015, which will be spent over three years. The Dulverton Trust grant, awarded in 2014, continued to be used during 2015 to benefit those projects that include a training element. The NMCT Trustees are keen to encourage training for conservators through, for example, internships and the acquisition of advanced skills, so are particularly grateful to the Dulverton for their support for such projects.

Our other benefactors during the year were Trinity College, Cambridge, and the Golden Bottle Trust, whose support is much appreciated.

Since its foundation in 1990 the NMCT has been immensely fortunate in the number and range of trusts, institutions and individuals that have given generous financial support for its work; a list of all NMCT’s funders since 1990 can be found on the website, www.nmct.co.uk. The Trustees are profoundly grateful to all of the NMCT’s current and past donors.

Approved by the Trustees and signed on their behalf by:

Lord Egremont Chairman 9 June 2016

The Trustees are indebted to these partners and funders for their support of NMCT’s work in 2015.


Above: Argyll Estates. Plan of the Island of Tiree, 1768-9.Top right: Woodhorn Museum & Northumberland Archives. Royal Letters Patent. Alexander, King of the Scots, 12 March 1253.Middle right: Bodleian Library. MS. Laud Lat. 102, 9th century.Bottom right: Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Conservation of the Fulman manuscripts at the Oxford Conservation Consortium.


Above: London Metropolitan Archives. Diocese of London Consistory Court records, volumes before conservation. Left: Wrexham Archives and Local Studies. Conservation of the papers of chemists Rowland & Son Ltd.

Top left: Bangor University. A map from the Penrhyn Estate collection before conservation.Top right: Denbighshire Archives. Digitisation of the borough charters after conservation.Above: London Metropolitan Archives. Diocese of London Consistory Court records, detail of damage.


Argyll Estates£15,000 towards the conservation of the collection of maps and plans at Inveraray Castle

The Argyll Maps and Plans Collection comprises around 1,500 manuscript and printed items dating from the 17th to 20th centuries, which reflect the historically extensive landholding, political and public responsibilities of the Campbell family, Dukes of Argyll. The Collection is of national significance owing to its wide-ranging subject matter, chronological coverage and the importance of the architects, surveyors and cartographers represented.

With generous support from the NMCT, 374 pre-1900 manuscript maps have been prioritised for conservation and the rest of the collection will be cleaned and re-packaged by volunteers, working under the guidance of a professional archivist and accredited conservator. All of the conserved items will be digitised and made freely available to researchers online and Argyll Estates hope to digitise the rest of the collection as future resources permit.

The conservation and repackaging programme will run for two years from January 2016. The first batch of plans is currently being conserved by High Life Highland and includes some lovely maps of the Island of Tiree, illustrating the development of planned crofting communities throughout the 19th century and the earlier, pre-improvement landscape which they replaced.

This conservation project sits at the heart of a larger HLF-funded project called Written in the Landscape, which will catalogue, preserve and promote all of the publicly available family and estate archives in Argyll, including the written records of the Dukes of Argyll. Written in the Landscape will work closely with communities and local heritage centres across Argyll and the conserved maps and plans will support a variety of research activities exploring local landscapes, settlements and buildings.

Awards by The National Manuscripts Conservation Trust 2015

Above: Argyll Estates All plans in this volume of Inverary Estate farms are unusable due to severe damage.

All images are courtesy of the grantee institution unless otherwise indicated.


Bangor University Library£6,694 towards the conservation of the manuscript maps of the Penrhyn Estate

The grant is enabling much needed conservation work to be undertaken on valuable maps belonging to the Penrhyn Estate Collection held within the University Library.

The maps in question form an important part of the area’s heritage, being significant historical sources for local and landscape history, providing detailed mapping of the local area from the mid-18th to the early 20th century. As a research and teaching resource, their potential is immense; providing rich evidence for analysing issues such as estate management, land use and tenure, ownership patterns, building history, landscape studies and cartography on one of the most prominent estates in north Wales.

Some of the maps are important for documenting the social history of the city of Bangor and evidencing the historic issues of the nineteenth century that were a nationwide problem. One map which will undergo conservation treatment is Penrhyn/2219, which was produced as a consequence of the cholera epidemic in the cathedral city of Bangor, north Wales, in the 1850s and is thus a valuable research tool in understanding this important aspect of the city’s social history.

The aim of the project is to conserve a number of maps from this collection that are severely damaged and in need of conservation work, a consequence of which is the Library can no longer allow access to them due to their fragility and deteriorating condition. It is essential to the mission of Bangor University Library to preserve these records and make them as widely available as possible to all.

As with all of the awards to Welsh institutions that are listed here, this grant was funded by a combination of NMCT funds and funds from the Welsh Government, and was made as part of NMCT’s partnership with Wales’ Museums Archives and Libraries Division.

Left: Bangor University Before conservation image of a plan charting Bangor’s cholera epidemic in the 1850s


Denbighshire Archives£1,604 towards the conservation of Denbigh Borough Charters

A grant awarded by NMCT to Denbighshire Archive Service has enabled the conservation, repackaging and digitisation of five Charters issued to the Borough of Denbigh between c.1290 and 1662. The Charters granted to the Borough of Denbigh are the oldest that survive in North Wales. Many others have been lost or destroyed, with the result that they provide a rare evidence of Wales during the early-mid medieval period. These documents form a comprehensive record of an important medieval town’s development from a post-conquest Edwardian settlement to a sophisticated structure of administration under Charles II.

Borough Charters are impressive documents, designed to look visually attractive and this group represents the finest illuminations in Denbighshire’s collections. They include fine illustrations of Henry VII and Henry VIII and a royal seal was applied to the document to confirm authenticity, which is evident on four of the Denbigh Charters.

The Charters were stored in a box that, though custom built, did not offer adequate protection to the documents or attached seals. This packaging was unsuitable for manoeuvring the documents in and out of storage and would sometimes mean that researchers would need to wait a long time for access. These documents were too large to scan in-house, therefore access was restricted to those who could visit the office in person.

The project involved parchment cleaning; repairing as appropriate; humidifying and flattening of undulating surfaces; seal cleaning; repackaging into bespoke archival boxes and digitising each page. The new packaging will considerably reduce handling when the documents are consulted and the production of digital images will enable wider and remote access.

Denbighshire Archives Left: Conservation of borough charters. Charter granted by Charles II, 14 May 1662, before conservation. Below: Mark Allen, Flintshire Record Office, conserving the charter of Henry VIII, 26 March 1510, and a detail of the same charter (bottom right).


London Metropolitan Archives £15,000 towards the conservation of selected Diocese of London Consistory Court Books before 1660

The Diocese of London Consistory or Bishop’s Court records include over 600 volumes recording its activities from the 15th to 19th centuries.

Records of ecclesiastical courts are invaluable sources for exploring social, legal, economic and ecclesiastical history. In early modern England, ecclesiastical courts dealt with a wide variety of cases including church discipline, defamation, matrimony, testament and tithes. The London records are especially rich as the Consistory Court handled cases from a wide range of social classes across the diocese, which covered the City of London, Middlesex, Essex and most of Hertfordshire.

At a time when London was undergoing enormous growth and change, the Consistory Court books provide information about class, social, household and community relations, economic conditions, social and spiritual roles of the church, contemporary attitudes, events, legal matters, social and geographic mobility, marriage and inheritance, gender and relationships between the sexes. The books represent a largely untapped resource and making more books accessible will benefit a wide range of researchers.

The project prioritises the most badly damaged pre-1660 books of the greatest historical interest. The books were selected after an extensive conservation survey. 73 volumes were assessed against six types of treatment options, from a minimal in situ repair to a more interventive approach.

The aim of the final selection of 14 books was to enable public access to as many unfit volumes as possible; to represent all six types of conservation treatment; and to pick the most interesting volumes for a conservator. It is hoped that the knowledge gained during the project will inform the treatment of similar volumes at LMA and beyond.

Newcastle University Library£9,715 towards Cold Comfort: the conservation of the papers of the British North Greenland Expedition

The British North Greenland Expedition (1952-54) was the first scientific exploration of its kind. It both examined the Greenland Ice Sheet and polar logistics as a benchmark for future endeavours. An alumnus included prominent glaciologist Hal Lister, who participated in the Vivian Fuchs-Edmund Hilary crossing of Antarctica (the ‘Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition’) in 1955-58, and who later became a lecturer at Newcastle University.

Written from a rare unofficial perspective, the archive of hand-written radio transcripts offers a valuable insight into the day-to-day life of scientific and Royal Navy personnel. However the tightly curled rolls these were stored in, and their exposure to damp environments before deposit, left the archive fragile, prone to tearing and, as a result, unusable.

Through this NMCT grant, the Cold Comfort project has enabled a two-stage process to realise the research potential of the archive and reassessment of this expedition. Conservators at Tyne and Wear Archives will clean, dehumidify, flatten, and repackage each individual document. Northumberland Archives’ Reprographics Unit will then digitise the archive in its entirety to further reduce over-handling and preservation and enable remote access.

Above: Newcastle University Library Papers from the British North Greenland Expedition before conservation.


Oxford, Bodleian Library £5,000 towards the conservation of The Four Gospels in Latin, MS. Laud Lat. 102

This manuscript contains the four Gospels, written in Latin, in the 9th century, at the Abbey of Fulda in Germany, founded in the 8th century by Anglo-Saxon missionaries. It is written on a heavy parchment with brightly illuminated canon tables and elaborate calligraphic initials. It came to the Bodleian Library in 1637 from the Cathedral Library of Würzburg as part of the collection of Archbishop Laud, Chancellor of Oxford University. The manuscript has been included in a new catalogue describing the exchanges between England and Germany from the 8th to the 21st centuries.

The first part of the manuscript is written in an Anglo-Saxon script, but after a few quires it changes mid-sentence to a Carolingian miniscule script, reflecting the mixed cultural heritage that existed at Fulda in the 9th century. This manuscript is in great demand by scholars and students alike on account of its mixture of scripts.

After three centuries and more of scholarly use, the sewing-structure has deteriorated, and the binding has broken down to the point where it had to be withdrawn from use to prevent further damage. Though the text-block is in good condition, the state of the binding puts it at high risk of damage from further use. The conservation treatment will re-sew the text-block, replacing the 17th-century structure with a new binding using flexible linen cords, oak wooden boards and an alum-tawed covering, allowing safe access for readers for many years to come.

The project will be undertaken by a Senior Book Conservator, whose role will be back-filled for the duration of the project. As a result, an important manuscript will be conserved, a Senior Conservator will further refine her skills in the complex conservation of medieval manuscripts, and a less experienced conservator will benefit from the nine-month backfill contract, allowing them to gain valuable experience. The practice of this type of manuscript conservation work is r are so this opportunity to refine treatments and skills is crucial, as is sharing the skills and knowledge with colleagues at the Bodleian and in the wider profession.

Oxford, Corpus Christi College£7,129 towards the conservation of the Fulman manuscripts

The 26 volumes of seventeenth-century Collectanea compiled by William Fulman (1632-1688) contain antiquarian and historical material (much of it in Fulman’s own clear hand) together with original documents and correspondence. The subjects range through history, theology and biography. Indicative of their significance is the recent request by the Bodleian Library to include CCC MS 304 in their 2016 summer exhibition, Shakespeare’s Dead. This volume includes the copy by Fulman of a letter from Henry Jackson (another Corpus man) giving a unique account of seeing Othello performed in Oxford in 1610.

This collection of 26 bindings contains manuscripts written on 17th-century laid paper and bound in two styles. The items are of different sizes bound together which has meant that damage and dirt to projecting edges is widespread; there are edge tears, losses, folds, and curling which jeopardise areas of text. The volumes show damage in keeping with their age, use and materials of construction with frequent liquid stains, mould staining and softening, pest damage (rodents), iron-gall ink corrosion, and old repairs.

The majority of the work has comprised surface cleaning, edge tear repair and consolidation of paper damaged by iron gall ink corrosion and mould. Many of the volumes have interesting large, folded folios that have suffered as a result of their format and these have been repaired to allow for safe handling and use. The books have been measured for boxing and will be safely housed in Kasemake boxes before being returned to Corpus Christi College.


Sheffield Archives£10,964 towards the conservation of Sheffield City Building Plans, 1864-1918

Sheffield was one of the country’s major Victorian cities. During the latter half of the 19th century many of its civic buildings were built as well as significant buildings that served the city’s economic heart and its population’s housing, spiritual and leisure needs. During the First World War, Sheffield was the nation’s principal armaments and armour-plate manufacturer – this is documented by the plans of the National Projectile Factory, which was built in Sheffield in 1915.

In 1864 the town issued its own building byelaws, after which a plan had to be approved by the Council before any building could be erected. There are over 550 surviving building plans dating from 1864 to the end of the First World War. Each has been inspected by an accredited conservator and its condition graded 1, 2 or 3 (grade 1 being extensively damaged and grade 3 being undamaged).

The grant from the NMCT will allow the conservation and preservation-packaging of 170 plans that are graded 1 and 2. Their current condition means that many of these plans cannot be consulted by members of the public due to the risk of further damage being caused by handling. The plans are tightly packed in original envelopes, the size of which means the plans are folded many times, so even the process of extracting them from the envelope and unfolding them risks further significant damage.

The project will extract the plans from the envelopes, flatten, clean and repair them. As a result of the project the plans be available to researchers and will be in a fit state to be digitised and added to Sheffield Archives’ online image library www.picturesheffield.com.

Sheffield Archives Some of the building plans before conservation; many cannot be consulted due to their poor condition.


Staffordshire & Stoke-on-Trent Archives£24,000 towards the conservation of the Minton Pottery archive

The Minton Archive is a pre-eminent business and design archive, which comprises over 33 cubic metres of material. It was saved for the nation in March 2015 as a result of a public campaign led by the Art Fund and is now in the collections of Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Archives Service.

The Minton Archive includes hundreds of thousands of items – including original designs, drawings and pattern books – covering more than two centuries of groundbreaking pottery design, manufacture and production. Many celebrated artists and designers feature in the Archive, including Augustus Pugin, Christopher Dresser, Thomas Allen, John Bell and Marc-Louis Solon. It also includes the comprehensive records of Minton, Royal Doulton (the two companies merged in 1968) and a number of other firms taken over by Royal Doulton in the 20th century.

“ Quite simply the greatest 19th century industrial archive in Britain”.

Ceramic historian Paul Atterbury

Staffordshire & Stoke-on-Trent Archives Left: Before conservation images of MSS 1583, Ornament and Shape Book, post-1827, and MSS1588 Ornaments book, post-1839 (below).


The 14 volumes and one box of designs being conserved in this NMCT-funded project include Early Pattern Books and the Ornament Books that are in demand from researchers from around the world. The box of design drawings is typical of over 100 such boxes. There is substantial public interest in the archive and it offers nationally important research potential in a number of fields. Conservation work to these fragile, unique volumes and drawings will allow the original material to be accessed in person by visitors to the Archive Service with the addition of online digital images for remote users.

This conservation project will inform the development of an accurate programme for the conservation and presentation of the entire collection, for which further external funding will be sought.

In view of the importance of this collection, NMCT Trusteesawarded a major grant towards this £33,000 project. This grantwas made possible thanks to the support both of the Pilgrim Trust,which had also awarded a grant towards the acquisition ofthe collection, and the Dulverton Trust.

West Glamorgan Archive Service£16,600 towards the conservation of the mine engineering drawings of the Neath Abbey Ironworks collection

In 2014 the Neath Abbey Ironworks collection held by West Glamorgan Archive Service became only the fourth archive collection in Wales to be inscribed on the UNESCO UK Memory of the World register, and the first to be held outside the National Library of Wales. The inscription recognises the unique survival of a collection of engineering drawings recording the contribution of South Wales to Britain’s industrial revolution and to the spread of British mining technology to the rest of the world.

Although almost all of the Neath Abbey Iron Company’s financial and administrative records were lost after the works’ final closure in 1886, a collection of approximately 8,000 engineering drawings survived, ranging in date from 1792 to 1882. They are detailed and finely drawn, reflecting the high standards of work for which the foundry was famous.

A long time prior to their deposit in the archives (and their subsequent purchase with the help of the PRISM Fund and Friends of the National Libraries), the plans were stored in the successor foundry in the expectation of repeat orders. They were subject there to immense variations in temperature and they acquired layers of surface dirt from smoke and soot. The NMCT grant will be used to repair the approximately 300 plans in the collection of mine pumping engines which are currently unfit for production due to their fragility or – in many cases – tears. The work is being carried out by Gwynedd Archives Conservation Unit.

West Glamorgan Archive Service Neath Abbey Ironworks’ design for Stamping Engine Houses for the Mexican silver mines.


Winchester Cathedral £10,000 towards the conservation of the 12th century Winchester Bible

The Winchester Bible is considered to be one of the greatest works of English medieval art still in existence. The largest and finest of the great Romanesque Bibles, it is believed to have been commissioned in 1160 by Henry of Blois. The manuscript is of enormous significance both in the history of English Christianity and in the history of the development of the book.

The condition of the four Bible volumes, though relatively stable, showed signs of surface damage throughout. The binding did not adequately support the leaves, causing them to arch, and parchment used by conservators in previous generations had contracted, causing some pages to ‘cockle’. Many of the historiated initials needed consolidation and many pages needed to have dirt and grime removed.

Thanks to a grant from the NMCT and other donors, conservation of the first volume of the Bible started in January 2014 at the Bodleian Library led by Dr Christopher Clarkson. This current NMCT grant is towards conservation of the second volume, which is now nearing completion with the remaining two volumes yet to be conserved. As part of the project a digital photograph is being taken of each leaf once it has been conserved.

During the conservation work a temporary exhibition of the third volume has been installed in the Cathedral’s North Transept pending the completion of the construction of the new, permanent gallery. Central to the interpretative displays in the new gallery will be ‘turning pages’ technology using the digital images taken. The digital record will not only provide the best possible facsimile of the Bible, it will also create wider opportunities for the Bible to be seen and appreciated by an almost unlimited global audience through electronic media.

Winchester Cathedral Trust The conservation of the four volumes of the 12th century Winchester Bible is being undertaken by Chris Clarkson (right).


Woodhorn Museum and Northumberland Archives£14,850 towards the conservation of early deeds and charters of the Swinburne family

The Swinburne charters, 1172-1714, are a collection of 758 early deeds, charters and papers of the Swinburne family of Capheaton, Northumberland. The Swinburnes were an important border family that played a significant role in public affairs in Northumberland, the wider border region and Wales. The family were Roman Catholic and the papers provide an insight into some of the difficulties that they faced after the Reformation. Much of the collection is significant in charting the history of the English/Scottish border area up to and beyond the Union of the Crowns in 1603. The family were important players in the economic and political life of the area and the governance of the Border Marches – the tempestuous buffer zone area created in 1249 in an attempt to control the border.

Items are currently mounted in seven bound volumes. The Victorian bindings have resulted in damage to some of the contents, particularly the larger items, some of which have been folded to allow accommodation within the bindings. The volumes will be dis-bound, surface cleaned and residues removed. Parchment documents will be dry pressed, humidified where necessary with paper and parchment repair undertaken and seals repaired and cleaned. The grant will also support the provision of boxes and folders for the collection.

The conservation work is part of a larger project to increase access to this important collection. Once conserved the items will be digitised, and images of each item added to the online catalogue.

Worcestershire Archives£20,561 towards the conservation of the archives of the West Mercia Police Authority

Conservation work has begun on a series of volumes relating to Police Records of Worcestershire. Thanks to the NMCT grant, conservation work will be undertaken on approximately 70 volumes that are currently in a ‘Poor’ or ‘Unusable’ condition.

The West Mercia Police Authority archive includes the administrative and operational records from Police Stations and Divisions around Worcestershire, from 1833 until 1996. Worcestershire Constabulary and Worcester City Police were formed in the 1830s and merged with Shropshire and Herefordshire Constabularies in 1967 into West Mercia Police Authority.

In association with a 12-month cataloguing grant awarded by The National Archives it was decided to focus conservation work on the Descriptive Registers, Charge Books and Petty Sessions Case Books, which give a good overview of the history of policing within Worcestershire from both sides of the fence, referring to those individuals involved in crime and combatting it.

The volumes tend to be spring-back ledgers, used as ‘working volumes’ in which information was recorded on a daily basis. As a result, many of the volumes have suffered from considerable damage over the years with wear to the bindings, and spines detaching.

This conservation work represents a real leap forward. Cataloguing the material is a crucial step to making the material more accessible to the public and researchers, but the condition of many of the documents would prevent access even to catalogued material. Therefore the two projects are working symbiotically to improve care of, and access to, this significant historical collection.


Wrexham Archives and Local Studies£3,779 towards the conservation of the papers of Rowland and Son Ltd (Numark)

The L. Rowland and Son Ltd (Numark) Collection is significant as it reflects the growth of a local pharmacy business and the increasing influence and prominence of the Rowland family in Wrexham over the period 1759-1997. The archive evidences the growth of the business from a small beginning to becoming one of the most important and respected in the town. The Rowland family became highly respected members of the Town Council after Borough Incorporation in 1857 and provided the town with several mayors and magistrates. The collection enables the researcher to track the building of a thriving business alongside the development of the town from its former parochial administration to the formation of a Borough and Town Council.

More broadly, the collection documents the early development of a business that has become a recognised national brand (Numark). In the context of Wales, the collection is important as a detailed record of the development of medicinal recipes and their prescriptive uses. It is possibly the most significant collection of its type in Wales and, uniquely perhaps, sits alongside a collection of objects from the business that are held as part of Wrexham’s Museum collections.

The volumes will be conserved using a minimal intervention approach and, after conservation, the collection will be displayed as part of a new exhibition in Wrexham Museum. Discussions are also underway with Glyndwr University regarding the collection being used for wider academic study.

Wrexham Archives & Local Studies The Rowland and Son Ltd. collection is in poor condition, with staining, dirt, tears and much sellotape.


Yorkshire Archaeological Society£7,200 towards the conservation of Wakefield Manorial Rolls

The Yorkshire Archaeological Society has owned and cared for the Wakefield manor court rolls at its Leeds headquarters since 1943, but its present 18th-century building does not lend itself to improvement to modern standards for archive storage. The Society has therefore agreed to transfer its archive collections on long-term loan to the University of Leeds, Brotherton Library Special Collections.

Before the transfer could happen it was necessary for all the material to be treated by deep-freezing to remove potential pests, followed by vacuum drying. This has now been carried out by Harwell Document Restoration Service, and the material delivered to Leeds University.

The 670 court rolls of the manor of Wakefield represent possibly the most extensive surviving series of court rolls in the country. The parchment rolls, beginning in 1274, were conserved thanks to NMCT grants in the 1990s. From 1738 onwards the rolls are all written on paper, and these 262 rolls, continuing to 1925, together with 158 paper drafts from 1439 to 1737 and 72 volumes of indexes, were the subject of this grant.

By the 18th century the rolls contain mainly records of property transactions within the manor, but in recording manor court business they also touch upon many historical themes at a period of transition from a predominantly agricultural to an industrial economy, shedding incidental light on topics such as social structure and attitudes, landscape and urban development.

The Wakefield court rolls are recorded on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register.

Yorkshire Archaeological Society The collection prior to its deposit in the Brotherton Library. NMCT’s grant funded the treatment of the Wakefield Manorial Rolls, previously conserved with NMCT support.


Norfolk Record OfficeGrant of £15,340 awarded in 2012 towards the conservation of the Aylsham Lancaster Manor Court Roll, 1509-46

The roll is one of a long series of records from the court of the manor, which extend from 1446 to 1846; prior to its conservation it was the only record of the court which was unavailable because of its condition – which denied researchers access to information about Aylsham during the whole of Henry VIII’s reign.

It consists of 131 parchment rotulets and was in very poor condition: most rotulets had suffered severe dehydration and were delaminating. The main challenge of this conservation project was to develop a treatment that was minimally interventive, yet which improved the stability of the document. Conservation took 24 months, was completed in 2014 and the roll is now available to researchers for the first time.

Norfolk Record Office was an Archives and Records Association (ARA) Training Centre for parchment conservation at the time of the project. Trainees in parchment conservation, as well as two visiting conservators from the University of Melbourne Australia, had the opportunity to undertake research and investigation into the conservation work carried out on the parchment roll. The analysis of the parchment by BioArCh revealed historical aspects of the original format and use of the roll, which is an area of particular research interest to local historians.

Information about the conservation treatment and analysis of the parchment roll has created an invaluable resource and has become an archive in its own right. The knowledge gained through this project has since informed the conservation of other parchment rolls in NRO’s collections.

The majority of the funding for this project came from an NMCT grant awarded in 2012; this grant was made possible thanks to funding awarded to NMCT by the Pilgrim Trust.

The NMCT Annual Report usually focuses only on grants awarded during the year under review, but in this report we show the long-term benefit of NMCT’s grants, in terms of preservation and access, by giving three examples of projects supported in previous years.

The Lasting Benefit of NMCT Grants

“ The project was one of the best archive conservation projects ever undertaken - not just for learning from the text but the additional understanding of the physical nature of the materials used [which] has opened up so many avenues of scientific research. Many congratulations to all involved and to the NMCT for their support of such vital work.”

Local researchers Maggie and William Vaughan-Lewis


Above: University of Southampton The Wellington papers were featured in exhibitions and conferences, events marking the 2015 bicentenary of Waterloo.

Left: Norfolk Record Office The Aylsham Lancaster Manor Court Roll being consulted following conservation.


Left: University of Southampton An example of the condition of the collection before conservation.

Below: Norfolk Record OfficeThe Aylsham Lancaster Manor Court Roll was completely inaccessible to researchers before its conservation.

Wolverhampton Volunteers receiving the ARA 2012 Volunteering Award from Martin Taylor, ARA Chair (2012-2014) and Caroline Williams, ARA President Richard. Image courtesy of the Archives and Records Association.


Wolverhampton Archives and Local Studies Grant of £1,450 awarded in 2011 towards Taking Account of our Past

The NMCT Trustees are keen to encourage projects that include a training element, which might include early career internships, projects where NMCT grants provide backfill to allow a senior conservator to tackle a particularly challenging project (as in the 2015 grant to the Bodleian on page 14), or the training and involvement of volunteers in support roles.

A good example of the latter was Taking Account of our Past, a project to conserve and catalogue the large archive of Smith Son and Wilkie, chartered accountants in the city. The archive, which covers the 19th and 20th centuries, contains records of most of the major firms in the area and also charts the growth of the city as an industrial centre with global reach.

The project was supported with a NMCT grant in 2011; it involved volunteers at every stage, researching the background histories of the businesses and families, sorting, organising and repackaging the collection, and (after training) assisting in basic conservation work. The research work conducted by the volunteers, both at Wolverhampton Archives and further afield, provides a wealth of information for researchers.

The volunteers also helped to promote the project, attending local history events, presenting their research, and preparing an exhibition to showcase the wide range of significant material within the collection. This project won the Archives and Records Association Volunteering Award 2012. It also allowed Wolverhampton Archives and Local Studies Service to extend their volunteering programme dramatically, with the addition of about 20 new volunteers.

Conservation of the Wellington papersGrants to the University of Southampton Library over three years (2011 to 2013) totalling £35,000

The Wellington Papers, in the Special Collections section of the University of Southampton Library, are the principal collection of the military, official, political and diplomatic papers of the first Duke of Wellington. The archive contains some 100,000 items, covering the Duke’s life from 1790 until 1852. It contains crucial materials for the role of Britain in the world, from Wellington’s military career in India, the Peninsular War, the Waterloo campaign, the occupation of France after the Napoleonic Wars, through to the Duke’s tenure of the command in chief of the British army.

Many of these documents were completely inaccessible because of their poor condition and the University received three grants totalling £35,000 towards the enormous task of conserving the collection. Conservation was completed in time for the Waterloo bicentenary in 2015.

Items from the collection featured in an exhibition in the Library’s Special Collections Gallery, Wellington and Waterloo: “The tale is in every Englishman’s mouth”, and were also the focus of much interest among the more than 100 delegates at a Wellington Congress, held in April 2015. The University also drew upon the collection for a MOOC (a free massive, open online course), Wellington and the Battle of Waterloo, in the Summer of 2015, which had nearly 6,000 participants. The collection is also the focus of ongoing undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and of staff and student research.

Much of the archive was in such a fragile and fragmentary state that it could not be handled safely, much less studied by researchers or put on display. Without conservation this archive, with its unique insight into a crucial period of British history, would have remained inaccessible.

The final NMCT grant to this project, of £10,000 in 2013, was made possible thanks to funding awarded to NMCT by the Pilgrim Trust.


I report on the accounts of the trust for the year ended 31st December 2015, which are set out on pages 27-32●.

Respective responsibilities of Trustees and ExaminerThe charity’s Trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. The charity’s Trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year (under Section 144 of the Charities Act 2011 (the 2011 Act)) and that an independent examination is needed.

It is my responsibility to:• examinetheaccounts(underSection145the2011Act);• tofollowtheprocedureslaiddownintheGeneral

Directions given by the Charity Commissioners (under Section 145(5)(b) of the 2011 Act); and

• tostatewhetherparticularmattershavecometo my attention.

Basis of independent Examiner’s reportMy examination was carried out in accordance with the General Directions given by the Charity Commissioners. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts, and seeking explanations from you as Trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently I do not express an audit opinion on the view given by the accounts.

Independent Examiner’s statementIn connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention:

(1) which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in any material respect the requirements

• tokeepaccountingrecordsinaccordancewithSection130 the 2011 Act; and

• toprepareaccountswhichaccordwiththeaccountingrecordsand comply with the accounting requirements of the 2011 Act

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.

Stephen R Cottingham FCA Chartered Accountant Bailey House, 4-10 Barttelot Road, Horsham, West Sussex RH12 1DQ

10 June 2016

To the Trustees of The National Manuscripts Conservation Trust

Independent Examiner’s Report


Endowment Unrestricted Total Funds Total Funds Fund 2015 Fund 2015 2015 2014 Notes £ £ £ £

Income from Investments 2 – 97,940 97,940 94,640 Donations 3 – 94,950 94,950 116,858

Total income – 192,890 192,890 211,498 Expenditure on Charitable activities 4 – 164,497 164,497 152,041 Raising funds and support 5/6 – 18,021 18,021 19,790

Total expenditure – 182,518 182,518 171,831 Gains/(losses) on investments Realised 9 (20,282) – (20,282) – Unrealised 9 (31,162) – (31,162) (15,076) Net income/(expenditure) (51,444) 10,372 (41,072) 24,591 Transfers between funds – – – – Net movement in funds (51,444) 10,372 (41,072) 24,591 Reconciliation of funds Total funds bought forward 1,980,546 191,824 2,172,370 2,147,779

Total funds carried forward 1,929,102 202,196 2,131,298 2,172,370

For the year ended 31 December 2015

Statement of Financial Activities


As at 31 December 2015

Balance Sheet

2015 2014 Notes £ £

Fixed Assets Investments 9 2,088,167 2,173,619

Current assets Debtors 10 3,602 – Cash at bank and deposits 223,902 181,745 227,504 181,745

Creditors: falling due within one year 11 (184,373) (182,994)

Net current assets/(liabilities) 43,131 (1,249)Net assets 2,131,298 2,172,370

Representing Endowment fund 1,929,102 1,980,546

Unrestricted income funds 202,196 191,824

2,131,298 2,172,370

Approved by the Trustees on 9 June 2016 and signed on their behalf by:

Lord EgremontChairman


1. Accounting policies

a. Basis of accountingThe accounts have been prepared in accordance with the Charities SORP (FRS 102) “Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland” and with regulations made under the Charities Act 2011. A summary of the more important accounting policies is set out below.

The Trustees consider that there are no material uncertainties about the Charity’s ability to continue as a going concern nor any significant risk that that uncertainty over estimates made for the purpose of these financial statements may cause a material adjustment to the carrying value of assets and liabilities.

The Charity is a public benefit entity.

b. Reconciliation with previous Generally Accepted Accounting Practice

In preparing the accounts, the Trustees have considered whether in applying the accounting policies required by FRS 102 and the Charities SORP FRS 102 a restatement of comparative items was needed. No restatements were required.

c. Fund accountingUnrestricted funds are available for use at the discretion of the Trustees in furtherance of the general objectives of the charity.

d. IncomeDividends are recognised in the period in which the dividend becomes payable.

Donations and legacies are recognised in the period in which they are received or when there is otherwise certainty of receipt. Other income is recognised in the period to which it relates.

e. ExpenditureExpenditure is allocated between charitable activities, raising funds and support costs.

Expenditure on charitable activities comprises grants made for the conservation of manuscripts that, in the opinion of the Trustees, are of historic or educational value. These costs are charged to the unrestricted fund when they have been committed.

Expenditure on raising funds comprises the costs of the fund-raising and administration consultant and the investment manager’s charges.

Support costs are those costs which are not attributable to a single activity but provide the necessary organisational support for all the Charity’s activities. They include the independent examiner’s fee, the cost of printing the annual report, the expenses of the website and of holding trustee meetings. They are allocated to the cost of raising funds.

f. Fixed assetsInvestments held as fixed assets are re-valued at mid-market value at the balance sheet date and the gain or loss credited to or deducted from the Endowment Fund.

For the year ended 31 December 2015

Notes to the Accounts


2 Investment income 2015 2014 £ £

Dividends received from investments 96,789 94,331Interest received on deposits 1,151 309 97,940 94,640

3. Voluntary income Donations (restricted, see note 4 below) 19,119 20,000Donations (unrestricted) 75,831 96,858 94,950 116,858

4. Direct charitable expenditure Grants from unrestricted funds 148,978 132,468Grants from restricted funds (see note 3 above) 19,119 20,000Grants approved in year 168,097 152,468Under/(over)-provision in previous years (3,600) (427)Net cost of grants 164,497 152,041

Grants for the restricted purpose of stimulating conservation projects in Wales (in co-operation with MALD) amounted to £28,677, of which MALD contributed £19,119.

5. Expenditure on raising funds Consultant’s fees for fund-raising 4,350 4,500Investment management fees 2,324 2,350Subtotal 6,674 6,850Support costs 11,347 12,940Total expenditure 18,021 19,790

6. Support costs Consultant’s fees for administration 6,545 7,413Printing and posting annual report 1,827 1,902Independent examination fee 1,020 960Meeting costs and sundry expenses 629 412Website expense 396 1,176Travel and sundry expenses 930 1,077Total support costs 11,347 12,940


7. Transactions with Trustees

No Trustees received any remuneration, but two Trustees were reimbursed the cost of travelling to meetings amounting to £329.

8. Taxation

As a charity, The National Manuscripts Conservation Trust is exempt from tax on income and gains falling within Part 10 of the Taxes Act 2007 to the extent that these are applied to its charitable objects. No tax charges have arisen in the charity.

9. Investments

As at 31 December 2015 the Trust’s investment portfolio comprises holdings in a diverse group of collective investment vehicles, respectively focussed on income and capital growth. The portfolio is summarised in the following table:

Cost Market Annual Yield on Value income market (prospective) value £ £ £ %

UK Equity Funds 642,903 894,113 41,912 4.69%International Equity Funds 328,693 317,166 9,842 3.10%UK Bond Funds 347,652 335,881 14,617 4.35%Multi-Asset Funds 318,792 323,042 7,555 2.34%Property Funds 200,000 217,965 11,595 5.32%

1,838,040 2,088,167 85,521 4.09%

An additional analysis is given below: 2015 2014 £ £

Market value at 1 January 2,173,619 2,188,695

Subsequent proceeds of sale (404,558) –Cost of purchases 370,550 –Realised gains/(losses) (20,282) –Unrealised (losses) (31,162) (15,076)

Movement in year (85,452) (15,076)Market value at 31 December 2,088,167 2,173,619

Cost at 31 December 1,838,040 1,872,234


10. Debtors

2015 2014 £ £Other debtors and prepayments 3,602 –

3,602 –

11. Creditors: Amounts falling due within one year

2015 2014 £ £Grants payable 183,353 182,034Sundry creditors 1,020 960

184,373 182,994

12. Funds

Other than the Unrestricted Income Fund, all the Trust’s reserves are regarded as an Endowment Fund, which is normally represented by investments in order to produce a reasonably predictable and regular level of income, and it is not the policy of the Trustees to apply any part of the endowment fund for the payment of grants. The Trustees regard the maintenance and growth of the Endowment Fund as necessary to maintain and support the Trust’s operation.

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Over the years, Conservation by Design Ltd has been providing the highest quality conservation materials for projects approved by the National Manuscripts Conservation Trust. Armour Systems and Museum Workshop, brands of Conservation by Design Ltd, consist of a team of dedicated designers, engineers, conservators and manufacturing specialists who work with you to develop the best display solutions for your museum and gallery. The balance between aesthetics, protection of the objects and cost will be carefully considered for each project however large or small. We have been helping to display items following careful conservation programmes, whether designing bespoke book cradles for illuminated manuscripts, controlling the humidity inside a showcase for a rare illuminated parchment scroll, or specialist drawers for rare maps.

Please let us know if Conservation By Design can help you to achieve your goals.

Contact: Caroline Checkley-Scott E: [email protected] M: +44 (0)7557 389022 T: +44 (0)1908 377333

W: www.armour-systems.com Blog: www.armoursystems-museumworkshop.com/

Armour-Systems-Museum-Workshop

Conservation By Design Ltd. is delighted to sponsor the report for 2015. Caroline Checkley-Scott, Business Development Director of Armour Systems and Museum Workshop and Trustee of the NMCT says ‘We are proud to be part of the tremendous effort made by UK conservators and specialists to ensure the continued preservation and enjoyment of collections in all the libraries, archives and collections up and down the country’.


PO Box 4291, Reading, Berkshire RG8 9JA

www.nmct.co.uk e: [email protected] t: 01491 598083

Registered Charity: 802796


Documents

Annual Report and Accounts 2015 · the investment portfolio at the year-end market value of £2,088,167 (2014: £2,173,619) and net current assets of £43,131 (2014: net current liabilities