GREAT WESTERN SOCIETY LIMITED

Registered charity 272616 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as DIDCOT RAILWAY CENTRE

1) To preserve, restore and operate as a permanent public exhibition and museum, steam and other railway locomotives, rolling stock and equipment, both for historical and educational purposes, and2) To make available for public reference the history, equipment and operation all with reference to both the former Great Western Railway and its successors since nationalisation on 1 January 1948

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

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that unrestricted funds increased to £3,912,379, with free reserves of £276,442 meeting the policy target of three to six months' expenditure. The charity received a significant seven-figure legacy, resulting in a large surplus, though the Directors note that future multi-million pound projects require diligent financial management.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Wellers. Discloses 4 of 6 completeness components.

Corporate structure

• Registered company of the charity Companies House 00899248

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.

• FISHER, Hayley — director, appointed 25/04/2026on trustee list
• HERON, Robert Jeremy — director, appointed 25/11/2023on trustee list
• PLANT, John — director, appointed 14/10/2023on trustee list
• CROUCH, John Bertram — director, appointed 21/05/2022on trustee list
• KHAN, Mokbul — director, appointed 31/01/2021on trustee list
• DONALDSON, Laura Suzanne — director, appointed 14/09/2019on trustee list
• VARLEY, Richard John — director, appointed 16/04/2016on trustee list
• MIDDLETON, Marita Ann — secretary, appointed 22/11/2025

Official officers record.

Property (HM Land Registry)

3 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): instagram

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/01/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~8.6 months of spending — above the median for charities its size (median 4.8 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 7.5% of total income — above the median for charities its size (5.2%) (benchmarks).

Register events

• Received assets from another charity (03/08/2026) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

• Richard John Varleychair
• Hayley Fisher
• John Bertram Crouch
• John Plant
• Laura Suzanne Donaldson · trustee of 1 other charity
• Marita Ann Middleton · trustee of 2 other charities
• Mokbul Khan · trustee of 2 other charities
• RICHARD ALAN PRESTON
• Robert Heron

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

Operates in: Bristol City · Devon · Oxfordshire · Slough · Somerset · West Berkshire · Wiltshire · Windsor And Maidenhead

Income and spending

Common questions

Government & lottery funding

Grants to this charity published as open data by government and lottery funders (360Giving).

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with THE GREAT WESTERN TRUST.

• THE GREAT WESTERN TRUST income £413k
• WESTERN LOCOMOTIVE ASSOCIATION LIMITED income £191k
• CHINNOR AND PRINCES RISBOROUGH RAILWAY ASSOCIATION LIMITED income £200k
• WELSHPOOL AND LLANFAIR LIGHT RAILWAY PRESERVATION CO. LIMITED income £1.2m
• GLOUCESTERSHIRE WARWICKSHIRE RAILWAY TRUST income £733k
• WEST SOMERSET RAILWAY HERITAGE TRUST LTD income £88k

Side by side with its peers

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