SOMERSET WILDLIFE TRUST

Registered charity 238372 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · Wikidata: Q7559917 · Wikipedia · also known as THE SOMERSET TRUST FOR NATURE CONSERVATION

Managing nature reserves, protecting rare and threatened species, monitoring plans and developments, standing up for wildlife conservation, working with landowners, local business and government for the benefit of wildlife and promoting sustainable living.

Objects

(1) FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE PUBLIC, TO ADVANCE, PROMOTE AND FURTHER THE CONSERVATION, MAINTENANCE, PROTECTION AND ENJOYMENT OF: (I) WILDLIFE AND ITS HABITATS; (II) PLACES OF ZOOLOGICAL, BOTANICAL, GEOGRAPHICAL, ARCHAEOLOGICAL OR SCIENTIFIC INTEREST; (III) FEATURES OF LANDSCAPE WITH GEOLOGICAL OR PHYSIOGRAPHICAL VALUE; (IV) PLACES OF NATURAL BEAUTY IN PARTICULAR, BUT NOT EXCLUSIVELY, BY PROMOTING BIODIVERSITY.(2) TO ADVANCE THE EDUCATION OF THE PUBLIC IN: (I) THE PRINCIPLES OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT; (II) THE PRINCIPLES OF BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION. (3) TO PROMOTE RESEARCH IN ALL BRANCHES OF NATURE STUDY, IN ECOLOGY AND GEOLOGY.

Area of benefit: NOT DEFINED. IN PRACTICE SOMERSET

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

Causes: Environment/conservation/heritage · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Somerset, South West, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that total funds fell to £10.3 million from £10.7 million in the prior year as expenditure exceeded income by £467,000. Despite this deficit, the charity maintains a positive financial position with free financial reserves of £1.63 million, which the trustees report are at the upper end of their target range of three to six months' core operating costs.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Albert Goodman LLP. Discloses 4 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
• 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.

In the news

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

• Somerset Rivers Riparian Woodland Project: Somerset Wildlife Trust wildlifetrusts.org · 14/10/2026
• Somerset Wildlife Trust needs help tackling invasive plant species somersetcountygazette.co.uk · 03/12/2024
• Somerset Wildlife Trust invites residents in Burnham area to join Great Somerset Wildlife Count - Burnham-On-Sea.com burnham-on-sea.com · 15/06/2024
• Somerset Wildlife Trust calls on Government to seize final chance to ban peat sales wsfp.co.uk · 16/04/2024
• Somerset Wildlife Trust to hold nature walk along Highbridge’s River Brue - Burnham-On-Sea.com burnham-on-sea.com · 11/04/2024
• Somerset Wildlife Trust secures £60k funding from Blue Influencers Scheme somersetcountygazette.co.uk · 24/01/2024
• Somerset Wildlife Trust invites residents in Burnham area to join frog and toad spawn count - Burnham-On-Sea.com burnham-on-sea.com · 07/01/2024
• Somerset Wildlife Trust wants help to record New Year frog and toad spawn wsfp.co.uk · 10/12/2023

Corporate structure

• Registered company of the charity Companies House 00818162 · Financial health read from its filings

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — Somerset Wildlife Trust (matched by registered charity number).

Company officers (Companies House)

Current officers of the charity’s own company per the Companies House register, cross-checked against the Charity Commission trustee list by name. A director not on the trustee list is usually a timing or naming difference between the two registers — check both records before drawing conclusions.

• FATTORINI, Charles Sebastian — director, appointed 15/11/2025on trustee list
• BRIGGS, Barnaby Daniel — director, appointed 15/11/2025on trustee list
• TAYLOR, Rupert Charles Uttermare — director, appointed 18/11/2023on trustee list
• ROGERS, Stephen — director, appointed 01/08/2023on trustee list
• SCARLETT, Richard David — director, appointed 22/11/2022on trustee list
• SKINNER, Daniel James Christopher, Dr — director, appointed 22/11/2022on trustee list
• COULTHARD, Amy Rebecca — director, appointed 22/11/2022on trustee list
• PURDEY, Holly Meredith Brewer — director, appointed 19/01/2021on trustee list
• MCBRIDE, Stuart Ashley Royden — director, appointed 19/01/2021on trustee list
• STEER, Mark Daniel — director, appointed 10/06/2019on trustee list

Official officers record.

Property (HM Land Registry)

135 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (124 freehold); recorded price paid £977k. 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 ~3.7 months of spending — below the median for charities its size (median 4.7 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 29.4% of total income — in the top quarter for charities its size (median 5.3%) (benchmarks).

Register events

• Received assets from another charity (24/07/2024) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

• Rupert Taylorchair
• Amy Rebecca Coulthard
• Barnaby Briggs
• Charles Fattorini
• Dr Daniel James Christopher Skinner
• Dr Mark Steer
• Holly Purdey
• Richard David Scarlett
• Stephen Rogers
• Stuart McBride

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

Operates in: Somerset

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 SHROPSHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST.

• SHROPSHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST income £3.4m
• DORSET WILDLIFE TRUST income £7.3m
• SUSSEX WILDLIFE TRUST income £7.2m
• HAMPSHIRE AND ISLE OF WIGHT WILDLIFE TRUST income £9.9m
• DURHAM WILDLIFE TRUST income £2.8m
• THE SURREY WILDLIFE TRUST LIMITED income £7.5m

Side by side with its peers

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