THE WORDSWORTH TRUST

Registered charity 1066184 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register

Our charitable activities fall into two categories.(1) Custodianship: of Dove Cottage; of our collection of manuscripts, books & fine art; and of the historic environment of Town End, Grasmere(2) Access and learning: visitor operations; exhibitions and publications; education; and contemporary literature.

Causes: Education/training · Arts/culture/heritage/science · website · Get email alerts

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity ended the year with a surplus of £130,000, a significant improvement from the previous year's deficit. Per the trustees' report, total funds stood at £21,451,000, with unrestricted reserves of £12,112,000, providing a buffer against the challenging trading conditions and reduced visitor numbers noted in the filing.

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

What the accounts disclose

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

Year-over-year changes

• Top pay band moved from more than £60,000 (FY2024) to £60,001 - £70,000 (FY2025).

Comparing this charity’s FY2024 and FY2025 accounts as analysed by this site.

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — Wordsworth Grasmere (matched by registered charity number).

Property (HM Land Registry)

20 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (20 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 ~4.2 months of spending — below the median for charities its size (median 4.8 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Donations and legacies (64% of income) — components as reported reconcile to the return’s total income; not from the accounts narrative.

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 14.5% of total income — above the median for charities its size (5.2%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• Anne Elizabeth Young · trustee of 1 other charity
• Clare Adams
• Donna Chambers · trustee of 1 other charity
• Dr Alexandra Whitfield
• Dr Amy Elizabeth Concannon
• Dr Paul John Davies · trustee of 2 other charities
• Gesa Renate Blackmore
• Jonathan Bate
• PROFESSOR DAVID JOHN MCKITTERICK · trustee of 4 other charities
• Professor Simon John Julian Bainbridge
• Rishi Dastidar · trustee of 1 other charity
• Timothy John Robertson

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

Operates in: Throughout England And Wales

Income and spending

Common questions

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 THE GREGYNOG TRUST.

• THE GREGYNOG TRUST income £1.1m
• BRANTWOOD (JOHN RUSKIN MEMORIAL TRUST) income £832k
• THE NOSTELL TRUST income £156k
• HAREWOOD HOUSE TRUST LIMITED income £6.0m
• NORTH CRAVEN BUILDING PRESERVATION TRUST income £1.1m
• THE DUNCAN WORDSWORTH FOUNDATION income £384k

Side by side with its peers

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