CATHEDRAL AND ABBEY CHURCH OF ST ALBAN

Registered charity 1207312 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as ST ALBANS CATHEDRAL

St Albans Cathedral is the cathedral church of the Diocese of St Albans and the parish church for the ecclesiastical parish of St Albans Abbey. Its objects are to advance the Christian religion in accordance with the faith and practice of the Church of England, in particular by furthering the mission of the Church of England, and to care for and conserve the fabric and structure of the cathedral.

Objects

THE OBJECTS OF THE CHAPTER ARE (A) TO ADVANCE THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE FAITH AND PRACTICE OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, IN PARTICULAR BY FURTHERING THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND;(B) TO CARE FOR AND CONSERVE THE FABRIC AND STRUCTURE OF THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH BUILDING;(C) TO ADVANCE ANY OTHER CHARITABLE PURPOSES WHICH ARE ANCILLARY TO THE FURTHERANCE OF THE PURPOSE REFERRED TO IN SUB-PARAGRAPH (A) OR (B).THE CHAPTER MUST ACT FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT WITHIN THE MEANING OF SECTION 4(3) OF THE CHARITIES ACT 2011.

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

Causes: Religious Activities · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: St Albans, East of England, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the Cathedral achieved a significantly improved financial outcome in 2025, reducing its total net expenditure from a £436k deficit in 2024 to a £150k deficit in 2025. However, the filing notes that unrestricted reserves of £2.3m are below the stated targets for the Cathedral Fund (£3.8m) and the General Reserve (£425k-£678k), and that a backlog of essential conservation work is developing due to a lack of funds for anything beyond emergency repairs.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Mercer & Hole LLP. Discloses 5 of 6 completeness components.

Year-over-year changes

• Employees paid over £60,000: 0 (FY2024) → 2 (FY2025).

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

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
• 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
• Investing charity funds policy and procedures
• Investment
• 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.

Property (HM Land Registry)

1 registered title in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (1 freehold). All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 30/11/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~7.8 months of spending — above the median for charities its size (median 4.7 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 1.5% of total income — below the median for charities its size (5.3%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• Very Revd JOANNE KELLY-MOOREchair · trustee of 1 other charity
• Anthea Jane Cecil
• Delbert Harold Sandiford · trustee of 1 other charity
• HELEN ELIZABETH GRAY
• JUDITH EVELYN RELF
• Jennifer Cooper
• Margaret Catherine Chapman
• Revd Canon TIMOTHY MARTIN BULL
• Revd Canon TIMOTHY MICHAEL LOMAX · trustee of 1 other charity
• Revd Canon WILLIAM JOHN MORRIS GIBBS

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

Operates in: Bedford · Central Bedfordshire · Hertfordshire · Luton

Income and spending

Common questions

Shared trustees with funders

Register facts shown side by side: a person serves as trustee of both this charity and a funder whose accounts record grants to it. Shared trusteeship is lawful and common; well-run charities manage it through declared-interest procedures.

• Very Revd JOANNE KELLY-MOORE — trustee here and at ST ALBANS CATHEDRAL MUSIC TRUST

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 ST ALBANS CATHEDRAL MUSIC TRUST.

• ST ALBANS CATHEDRAL MUSIC TRUST income £145k
• THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY SALISBURY income £6.9m
• THE ST ALBANS CATHEDRAL EDUCATION TRUST income £48k
• THE CATHEDRAL AND COLLEGIATE CHURCH OF ST MARY, ST DENYS AND ST GEORGE IN MANCHESTER income £1.9m
• FRATERNITY OF THE FRIENDS OF SAINT ALBANS ABBEY income £65k
• THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST ANDREW IN WELLS income £5.7m

Side by side with its peers

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