WEST SOMERSET RAILWAY ASSOCIATION
Registered charity 1041901 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as W S R A
Our Association is established to promote education in the heritage of the railway from Taunton to Minehead by restoring, preserving and displaying railway locomotives, carriages, wagons and other artefacts (including documents, drawings, photographs, recordings and films) of historical interest and the buildings connected therewith.
Causes: Education/training · Environment/conservation/heritage · Grant history (this charity is a funder) · website · Get email alerts
Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts
The accounts state that total group income exceeded expenditure by £770,823, resulting in a significant increase in available current assets from £1.31m to £2.12m. The trustees report sufficient reserves to sustain current expenditure for at least three months and designate funds for major restoration projects. An independent auditor issued a qualified opinion due to insufficient evidence regarding the residual value of a heritage asset, but confirmed the going concern basis is appropriate.
Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.
What the accounts disclose
Reserves policy: three months of unrestricted expenditure (held: £1.7m)
“The Association has sufficient reserves to sustain its current expenditure for at least three months.” — page 7
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Audit opinion: qualified
“We were therefore unable to determine whether the carrying value of £391,670 is appropriate or whether any adjustments to this value is necessary.” — page 9
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Related-party transaction: WSRA Steam Rally Ltd distributed profits of £34,427 to the charity.
“WSRA Steam Rally distributed profits of £34,427 (2024: £26,956) to the charity.” — page 42
“At 31 March 2028, the trading subsidiary owed £33,203 (2024: £75,233) to the charity.”
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Related-party transaction: WSRA Steam Rally Ltd owed £33,203 to the charity at year end.
“WSRA Steam Rally distributed profits of £34,427 (2024: £26,956) to the charity.” — page 42
“At 31 March 2028, the trading subsidiary owed £33,203 (2024: £75,233) to the charity.”
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Related-party transaction: WSRA (Promotions) Ltd owed £Nil to the charity at year end.
“WSRA Steam Rally distributed profits of £34,427 (2024: £26,956) to the charity.” — page 42
“At 31 March 2028, the trading subsidiary owed £33,203 (2024: £75,233) to the charity.”
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Accounts audited by AC Mole LLP. Discloses 5 of 6 completeness components.
Corporate structure
Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — WSRA (matched by registered charity number).
Leadership, per the charity’s website
- Edward Martin — Chair of Trustees (source)
- Will Foster — Treasurer (source)
- Mike Lanning — Vice Chair (source)
Listed on the charity’s own website when we last crawled it; roles may have changed. Pay-band disclosures above are anonymous statutory disclosures and are not attributed to any named individual.
Company officers (Companies House)
Current officers of the charity’s own company per the Companies House register, cross-checked against the Charity Commission trustee list by name. A director not on the trustee list is usually a timing or naming difference between the two registers — check both records before drawing conclusions.
- CHILDS, Denise — director, appointed 26/09/2026not on trustee list
- COLEBY, Ian Kenneth — director, appointed 26/09/2026not on trustee list
- LANNING, Michael Keith — director, appointed 27/09/2025on trustee list
- MARTIN, Edward Alan Charles — director, appointed 24/09/2022on trustee list
- PARKER, Denise — director, appointed 04/09/2021on trustee list
- PRICE, Jeffrey Charles — director, appointed 26/09/2020on trustee list
Official officers record.
Property (HM Land Registry)
8 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (7 freehold). All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.
Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook
Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/03/2025)
Cost of raising funds
£154k
Reported reserves equal ~51.6 months of spending — in the top quarter for charities its size (median 4.8 months; benchmarks).
Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 11.0% of total income — above the median for charities its size (5.2%) (benchmarks).
- Edward Alan Charles Martinchair
- Craig Allen Cox
- Denise Parker
- Diana Lynne Ricketts-Tanner
- Francis William Houlding
- Jeffery Charles Price
- John Stanley David Glover
- Michael Keith Lanning
Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).
Operates in: Somerset
Income and spending
Common questions
Is WEST SOMERSET RAILWAY ASSOCIATION financially healthy?
Per its FY2025 accounts: The accounts state that total group income exceeded expenditure by £770,823, resulting in a significant increase in available current assets from £1.31m to £2.12m. The trustees report sufficient reserves to sustain current expenditure for at least three months and designate funds for major restoration projects. An independent auditor issued a qualified opinion due to insufficient evidence regarding the residual value of a heritage asset, but confirmed the going concern basis is appropriate. Its FY2025 accounts were audited by AC Mole LLP.
Who funds WEST SOMERSET RAILWAY ASSOCIATION?
Funders whose own accounts filings name WEST SOMERSET RAILWAY ASSOCIATION as a grant recipient include THE MICHAEL UREN FOUNDATION, THE ANTHONY AND ELIZABETH MELLOWS CHARITABLE SETTLEMENT, CLARK FOUNDATION, THE FAIRFIELD CHARITABLE TRUST, The Patricia Routledge Foundation.
Known funders
Grants to this charity found in funders’ own accounts filings.
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 WEST SOMERSET RAILWAY HERITAGE TRUST LTD.
Side by side with its peers
Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.