MARKET HARBOROUGH AND THE BOWDENS CHARITY
Registered charity 1157787 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register
FROM 1 JUNE 17, THE CHARITY MAKES, WITHIN A SPECIFIED AREA OF BENEFIT, CHARITABLE DONATIONS FOR THE GENERAL BENEFIT OF THE COMMUNITY AND DONATIONS TO INDIVIDUALS TO ASSIST WITH FURTHER EDUCATION, AND TO RELIEVE NEED, HARDSHIP & DISTRESS. IT ALSO PROVIDES ALLOTMENTS AND FUNDS FOR THE MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR OF THE OLD GRAMMAR SCHOOL AND THE FABRIC OF THE PARISH CHURCH OF GREAT BOWDEN.
Causes: General Charitable Purposes · Education/training · The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty · Accommodation/housing · Arts/culture/heritage/science · Amateur Sport · Grant history (this charity is a funder) · website · Get email alerts
Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts
The accounts state that unrestricted reserves of £728,783 were held at year-end, with net free reserves of £536,283 falling towards the lower end of the trustees' ideal range of £500,000 to £750,000. Per the trustees' report, investment income fell significantly compared to the previous year, and the charity adopted a Total Return investment approach from January 2026 to provide greater flexibility and protect endowment value amid market volatility.
Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.
What the accounts disclose
Reserves position: below the charity's own stated reserves policy (held: £536k; policy: twelve to eighteen months of the typical outgoing resources of the Charity (excluding amounts specifically covered by designated reserves) which approximately equates to between £500,000 and £750,000)
“Therefore, the net free reserves are £536,283 which lies towards the lower end of the ideal range” — page 9
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Accounts audited by Edward Thomas Peirson & Sons as a trading name of Cottons Accountants LLP. Discloses 5 of 6 completeness components.
Property (HM Land Registry)
16 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (16 freehold). All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.
Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/12/2023)
Cost of raising funds
£29k
Reported reserves equal ~21.8 months of spending — above the median for charities its size (median 7.0 months; benchmarks).
Per its annual return, largest income source: Investments (82% 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: 5.3% of total income — above the median for charities its size (2.9%) (benchmarks).
Register events
- Received assets from another charity (23/08/2019) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
- Received assets from another charity (11/09/2017) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
- Dr Sarah Hillchair · trustee of 2 other charities
- Antony Walters · trustee of 1 other charity
- Chris Davies · trustee of 2 other charities
- Daniel ASHFORD
- Edmund Green
- Emma KLIMOWICZ
- GEOFF BUXTON
- GORDON KELLIE
- Iain MILLER
- JENNIFER ANN BALME
- John Richardson
- KERRY MERRYWEATHER
- Mark Merryweather · trustee of 1 other charity
- Rohini Corfield
- Susan Berridge · trustee of 1 other charity
Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).
Operates in: Leicestershire
Income and spending
Common questions
Is MARKET HARBOROUGH AND THE BOWDENS CHARITY financially healthy?
Per its FY2025 accounts: The accounts state that unrestricted reserves of £728,783 were held at year-end, with net free reserves of £536,283 falling towards the lower end of the trustees' ideal range of £500,000 to £750,000. Per the trustees' report, investment income fell significantly compared to the previous year, and the charity adopted a Total Return investment approach from January 2026 to provide greater flexibility and protect endowment value amid market volatility. Its FY2025 accounts were audited by Edward Thomas Peirson & Sons as a trading name of Cottons Accountants LLP.
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 CHRISTCHURCH MARKET HARBOROUGH.
Side by side with its peers
Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.