for the Period Ended 31 January 2025
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| Community Interest Report |
Directors' report period ended
The directors present their report with the financial statements of the company for the period ended 31 January 2025
Directors
The director shown below has held office during the period of
16 January 2024
to
31 January 2025
The directors shown below have held office during the whole of the period from
4 January 2024
to
31 January 2025
The above report has been prepared in accordance with the special provisions in part 15 of the Companies Act 2006
This report was approved by the board of directors on
And signed on behalf of the board by:
Name:
Status: Director
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The notes form part of these financial statements
This report was approved by the board of directors on
and signed on behalf of the board by:
Name:
Status: Director
The notes form part of these financial statements
for the Period Ended 31 January 2025
Basis of measurement and preparation
Turnover policy
Valuation information and policy
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The company puts on an annual weekend festival to celebrate the arts, our landscape and the natural world, with the aim of encouraging imaginative, creative, practical and mutually beneficial engagement with nature and the landscape as well as supporting literacy in all age groups locally. During the financial year 2024-2025 the festival was held from 4th - 6th October and benefited the community in the following ways: - We invited 16 significant authors and artists to take part, which in turn encouraged members of the community to come along for an enjoyable day of conversations, readings and discussions in order to re-engage with reading and the visual arts. One event sold out, another very nearly did and the remainder sold on average more than half of the available seats; all contributors were properly paid and looked after and many spoke of a desire to come back another year - As part of the above we hosted a discussion with key national and local players (Tony Juniper, Joe Crowley and Jake Fiennes) to stimulate exploratory debate about positive solutions to the biodiversity crisis, encouraging interest and discussion around an issue which is relevant to the businesses and pastimes of many in the immediate community - We offered three guided walks with excellent speakers who were experts in nature conservation, which enabled us to show off local wildlife habitats, and inspire and inform people about the ground-breaking work taking place for nature recovery in our area, while giving community members unique access to places they don’t normally get to see. All three walks sold out rapidly - We provided workshops in poetry writing and observational drawing, to encourage creativity and the long-term development of local views and voices to tell the story of their landscape - We joined with the Norfolk Rivers Trust to provide hands-on nature-based riverfly survey workshops for three local schools and for members of the general public in order to foster a positive practical connection to the natural world and help inform and develop local citizen science for the longer-term benefit of cleaner rivers and healthier freshwater ecosystems - We provided free author talks with free books to 3 local schools, free river-fly surveying sessions to 5 schools, a free schools’ poetry competition judged by a famous writer in which 7 schools took part and heavily subsidised transport to the festival for 15 university students - supporting teachers and lecturers in fostering literacy, creativity and hands-on outdoor engagement with nature - Our local bookshop, Holt Books, supplied a book stall for the festival, which generated a good turnover for a local business and also extended their networks with both writers and readers / customers. The bookshop also supplied our poetry prize books and the books we gave to schoolchildren for free - We worked with Wells Maltings to bring fresh audiences into the space and enhance their connection with their local cultural hub.
The stakeholders were local schools (teachers and pupils); contributing writers and artists; the local book shop who supplied books to the festival; the Norfolk Rivers Trust who provided the instructor for the riverfly survey; the arts centre where we held the festival (registered charity Wells Maltings) and our audiences and supporters. Most of this feedback was submitted unsolicited by email. - Joanna Doyle, Head of English at Alderman Peel High School wrote that 'KS3 students at APHS thoroughly enjoyed their involvement with the Literature and Landscape festival. Many were enthusiastic to contribute creatively to the river poetry competition and our Year 8s had the honour of a visit to the Maltings for a workshop with Richard Lambert in October. The students were inspired by his writing workshop and it was a huge boost for all of those Year 8 students to receive a copy of his novel. One young man shared that his parents had bought him Richard’s second book for his birthday last week and he shared a paragraph of writing with me. Another wrote: "Richard Lambert's talk about the books was great. I had fun listening to the author about the idea of how to write books. He is great at writing books. I really want to meet him again because when reading Shadow Town, I felt like I was one of the characters. I was happy I got the book. Thank you. I want to write my own story and Richard made it sound so easy." - Mrs Polly Kossowicz, Head Teacher of Langham Village School, which took part in all the available activities for schools wrote that: "The Literature and Landscape project at Langham Village School was an inspiring and enriching experience. The poetry competition provided an excellent opportunity for the children to express their creativity and explore the theme of rivers in depth. Having their work judged by the esteemed writer Robert Macfarlane added a sense of excitement and prestige. We were thrilled that one of our pupils received a "Highly Commended" award, which was a proud moment for our school community. The hands-on river survey was a highlight for our Year 5 and 6 pupils. They were fully engaged in discovering the biodiversity of the River Stiffkey, fostering curiosity and a deeper connection with the local environment. It was wonderful to see their enthusiasm and sense of discovery during this activity. Jess French's author visit was truly inspiring. Her passion for the natural world and her storytelling about her experiences in the rainforest captivated the children. She shared invaluable insights about her career as a writer, motivating our students to think about their own aspirations. The generous gift of a copy each of Beastlands was very much appreciated. The children have enjoyed reading the book, and it has sparked meaningful discussions in class. It has also encouraged a love for reading and further exploration of nature themes. Overall, the combination of creative, educational, and inspirational activities made this project a resounding success." - Fergus Hardy, Head of English at Gresham’s School emailed: "I just wanted to say a big thank you for arranging Friday’s poetry workshop. Our Sixth Form pupils really enjoyed their session with the poet Richard Lambert. It was fantastic to hear a group of 16 year olds discussing poetry in the minibus on the way back to school. The big positive of the festival in my eyes is in getting them to hear a different voice and consider English in a non-classroom setting. One of our pupils wrote 'It was interesting to be challenged to write about something that I don't often write about, whether that be an orange or a landscape. This resulted in finding a new voice within my poetry which I'm looking forward to exploring in more depth.' Similarly, our Year 9 pupils embraced the poetry competition and wrote some excellent poems inspired by the landscape of North Norfolk. Thank you for the organisation and the invitation to take part in the festival – it is a wonderful thing to add to the cultural landscape of this part of the world. We look forward to being involved again in 2025." - Another local private school that heard too late about the poetry competition invited one of our contributing authors to address them and told him they had run their own version and hope to be involved in ours next year. Participating writers emailed the following feedback: 'It was a special day, it really was - properly inspiring to see change happening on the ground at Holkham. You all set in motion something which now has tremendous energy and goodwill surging towards it. Congratulations!' - Robert Macfarlane, author. 'I felt beautifully looked after and had a wonderful time. I can't actually think of a fault. The virtues are all in the conversations before and after, since they filled me with new ideas and hope' - Alice Oswald, poet. 'It was the best literary festival by far that I've ever attended. What a triumph!' - Jane Lovell, poet. ‘I certainly had a great time and thought all of the events I attended simply fantastic’ - Matt Howard, poet. 'We loved it and enjoyed every part of it. We thought it was a massive success, with some truly stellar events' - Mark Cocker, author. 'What a complete star-spangled corker of an event all that was - I had an absolutely lovely time' - Adam Nicolson, author. 'Wonderful festival. Absolutely brilliant and I was honoured to be asked to take part in it' - Joe Crowley, TV presenter. 'Hugely enjoyable, very distinctive and everyone was so hospitable. Some very important topics were discussed by some wonderful speakers. I think that it will do very well because of its distinctiveness.' - Rachel Hore, author. From Keith Britten, our book supplier and owner/manager of local bookshop, Holt Books: 'Great weekend. Congratulations for pulling together such an amazing event. Really good talks, great atmosphere, and I got to meet Robert Macfarlane' From Tim Fisher of the Norfolk Rivers Trust, who provided our riverfly-survey nature workshops for school children: 'Being part of the festival's first year provided Norfolk Rivers Trust with a valuable opportunity to engage with local schools and communities and demonstrate the value of citizen science in helping river corridors become better places for nature and people to a wider audience.' Simon Daykin, director of the festival and of Wells Maltings who provided the venue commented: 'The partnership with Wells Maltings provides a top class venue of renown for our activities, but also worked in a complementary way with their (Wells Maltings) aims for artistic and cultural development. As a charity dedicated to extend reach across cultural and local sociological boundaries, the Festival in 2024 brought in considerable new audiences, that demonstrated the appetite amongst local communities to engage with the strands of activity offered, but also to galvanise the links between built environment - represented by Wells Maltings - and natural environment, through the power of written works.' And the following remarks came in via emails from members of the audience: 'We had a great time!' 'It was fabulous!' 'Thank you for the enrichment. Sunday was Mount Olympus for me. Moving, informative hours with the most creative.' 'The four talks I attended were all so engaging and interesting. Most of all though, it was so great to see the Maltings full of people and buzzing with anticipation and positive energy.' 'I simply wanted to congratulate you on the incredible achievement of last weekend. It was probably the best festival of its kind I have attended since the Cheltenham Festival in 1992 when it was a proper event rather than a commercial bean feast The writers you invited were so integrated and committed to your vision. That they gave their full attention and engaged in a generous way with the audience. The atmosphere there and throughout the weekend was a tribute to your amazing vision and practical ability to get it all together. It was a transformative weekend!'
No remuneration was received
No transfer of assets other than for full consideration
This report was approved by the board of directors on
22 June 2025
And signed on behalf of the board by:
Name: Victoria Rangeley-Wilson
Status: Director