THE BOWES MUSEUM

Registered charity 1079639 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register

The Bowes Museum has an attractive programme of permanent and temporary displays and exhibitions, interpretation and educational events, special events, family activities and outreach work.

Causes: General Charitable Purposes · Education/training · Arts/culture/heritage/science · Environment/conservation/heritage · website · Get email alerts

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity reported a net movement in funds of £269,769 for the year ended 31 March 2025, with total unrestricted funds of £6,912,608. The trustees maintain a reserves policy targeting a minimum of £770,000, against which free reserves of £286,604 were held at year-end. The trustees confirmed adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Clive Owen LLP. Discloses 3 of 6 completeness components.

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — The Bowes Museum (matched by registered charity number).

Property (HM Land Registry)

2 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (2 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 · instagram

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

Reported reserves equal ~1.0 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 4.8 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Other trading activities (53% 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: 31.2% of total income — in the top quarter for charities its size (median 5.2%) (benchmarks).

Register events

• Received assets from another charity (21/11/2025) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

• Alison Thain · trustee of 1 other charity
• Christina Pascoe
• Cllr Karen Allison · trustee of 2 other charities
• DEBBIE LEIGH
• Deborah Corbett
• Dr Ken Partington
• Dr Steve Howell
• Eliot Smith
• Gordon Morrison
• Jennie Collingwood
• Jennifer Frances
• Michelle Brown
• Peter Mothersill
• Rebecca Jane Blackwood

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

Operates in: Durham

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 BOWER TRUST.

• THE BOWER TRUST income £154k
• BRISTOL MUSEUMS DEVELOPMENT TRUST income £276k
• BOW ARTS TRUST income £5.1m
• LONDON TRANSPORT MUSEUM LIMITED income £19.9m
• THE HOLBURNE MUSEUM income £3.7m
• KING'S OWN ROYAL BORDER REGIMENT MUSEUM FUND income £218k

Side by side with its peers

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