THE STORY MUSEUM

Registered charity 1107809 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · Wikidata: Q7766718 · Wikipedia

The Story Museum has three core charitable aims: a) to establish and maintain a museum dedicated to children's literature and the City of Oxford; b) to conserve, interpret and develop collections and heritage assets relevant to these subjects; c) to provide learning opportunities for and promote literacy and creativity among children, young people and families.

Objects

TO ADVANCE THE EDUCATION OF THE PUBLIC IN RELATION TO CHILDREN'S LITERATURE AND THE HISTORY OF THE CITY OF OXFORD, IN PARTICULAR BY:A) ESTABLISHING AND MAINTAINING A MUSEUM DEDICATED TO THESE SUBJECTS;B) CONSERVING, INTERPRETING AND DEVELOPING COLLECTIONS AND HERITAGE ASSETS RELEVANT TO CHILDREN'S LITERATURE AND THE CITY OR OXFORD;C) PROVIDING LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES FOR AND PROMOTING LITERACY AND CREATIVITY AMONGST CHILDREN, YOUNG PEOPLE AND FAMILIES.

Area of benefit: NATIONAL

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

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

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

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity ended the year with a negative general fund balance of £319,783 and total unrestricted designated funds of £5,857,295 held in fixed assets. The auditor has reported a material uncertainty regarding the charity's ability to continue as a going concern due to worsening deficits and rising costs, although the trustees remain confident in the 12-month cash flow position.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Wenn Townsend. 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.

• Bullying and harassment policy and procedures
• Campaigns and political activity policy and procedures
• Complaints handling
• Complaints policy and procedures
• Conflicting interests
• Financial reserves policy and procedures
• Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
• Internal risk management policy and procedures
• Paying staff
• Risk management
• Safeguarding policy and procedures
• Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
• Serious incident reporting policy and procedures
• Social media policy and procedures
• Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures
• Trustee expenses policy and procedures
• Volunteer management

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.

In the news

Recent coverage mentioning this charity by name (automated match; headlines belong to their publishers).

• LCT 7074 at D-Day Story Museum royalnavymuseums.org.uk · 05/05/2026

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — The Story 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 (0 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 ~0.0 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 4.7 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Donations and legacies (54% 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: 5.9% of total income — above the median for charities its size (5.3%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• Andrew Ryan
• Conrad Philip William Bodman
• Dr Gabrielle Heffernan
• Guy Gadney
• Heather Carter
• James Catchpole
• John Palmer
• Katherine Howard-Cairns
• Patricia Jane Townsend
• Perri Evans
• Sarah Love
• Shirin Welham

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.

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 MUSEUM OF BRANDS.

• MUSEUM OF BRANDS income £851k
• WALLINGFORD MUSEUM income £31k
• SEVEN STORIES, THE NATIONAL CENTRE FOR CHILDREN'S BOOKS income £1.6m
• QUEER BRITAIN MUSEUM LTD income £589k
• SADDLEWORTH MUSEUM income £130k
• Bexhill Museum income £322k

Side by side with its peers

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