THE HISTORIC CHAPELS TRUST

Registered charity 1017321 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as HCT, HISTORIC CHAPELS TRUST

To own for the benefit of the public generally redundant churches chapels meeting houses and non-Anglican places of worship in England of outstanding architectural and historic interest. To secure for public benefit the preservation, repair and maintenance of its buildings including and contents, burial grounds and curtilages..

Objects

TO SECURE FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE PUBLIC GENERALLY THE PRESERVATION REPAIR AND MAINTENANCE OF CHAPELS CHURCHES MEETING HOUSES OR OTHER RELIGIOUS BUILDINGS SITUATED IN ENGLAND TOGETHER WITH THEIR CONTENTS BURIAL GROUNDS AND CURTILAGES WHERE THE BUILDINGS ARE OF OUTSTANDING ARCHITECTURAL INTEREST

Area of benefit: ENGLAND

The charity’s charitable objects and area of benefit, quoted from its governing document as held on the Charity Commission register.

Causes: Arts/culture/heritage/science · Environment/conservation/heritage · Economic/community Development/employment · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: South Cambridgeshire, East of England, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity reported a surplus of £58,459 for the year ended 31 March 2025, with total incoming resources of £2,158,419 and total expenditure of £2,099,960. The trustees confirm that the charity has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future, with unrestricted funds of £391,805 held at year-end. The charity is currently undertaking a managed dispersal of its assets, a process supported by significant grant funding from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and Historic England.

Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Xeinadin Audit Limited. Discloses 5 of 6 completeness components.

Policies the charity declares

In its annual return the charity told the Commission that it has the policies listed below. This is self-declared: it is not verified by the Commission or by this site, and it is not evidence of how a policy works in practice.

• Financial reserves policy and procedures
• Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
• Internal risk management policy and procedures
• Risk management
• Safeguarding policy and procedures
• Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries

From the charity’s annual return (Part A, self-declared)

Answers and figures the charity gave in Part A of its annual return to the Charity Commission. They are self-declared: not verified by the Commission or by this site. Only positive answers and figures are listed; items not listed are simply not shown.

Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

Annual return filing dates (Charity Commission record)

Of its last 5 annual returns with a recorded received date, 1 was received after the due date: year ending 31/03/2023 (received 31/03/2024, 60 days after the 31/01/2024 due date).

Due and received dates as recorded in the Commission’s annual-return data; the data does not say whether an extension was agreed. Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

Property (HM Land Registry)

10 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (10 freehold). All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/03/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~2.2 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 4.7 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 0.5% of total income — below the median for charities its size (5.3%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• Christopher Gordon Smithchair
• Dr William Mungo Jacob · trustee of 5 other charities
• Jean Margaret Stevenson · trustee of 1 other charity
• Joanna Davidson
• Paul Emery
• Petra Green
• Rev Martin Wellings · trustee of 6 other charities
• Sophie Bell

Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).

Operates in: Throughout England

Income and spending

Common questions

Known funders

Grants to this charity found in funders’ own accounts filings.

Grants marked “Unverified read” were flagged by automated checks as possibly misread from the funder’s filed accounts. They are listed, but left out of the totals, counts and funder relationships this site computes.

Government & lottery funding

Grants to this charity published as open data by government and lottery funders (360Giving).

Funders of similar charities

Funders whose accounts show grants to charities similar to this one (and no recorded grant to this charity) — a starting list for fundraisers.

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with CHURCHES CONSERVATION.

• CHURCHES CONSERVATION income £408k
• THE SUFFOLK HISTORIC CHURCHES TRUST income £276k
• LEICESTER AND LEICESTERSHIRE HISTORIC CHURCHES PRESERVATION TRUST income £42k
• EXETER HISTORIC BUILDINGS TRUST income £131k
• HAMPSHIRE AND THE ISLANDS HISTORIC CHURCHES TRUST income £105k
• BERKSHIRE HISTORIC CHURCHES TRUST income £30k

Side by side with its peers

Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.