Receipts & Payments Summary
CORSH – St Patricks, Corsham Year ending 31st December 2025
Summary of Income and Expenditure
Over the past year, the Parish has generously responded to our appeals for general funding and for the restoration fund to reverse the financial trend of recent years to result in a surplus of income over expenditure of £10,389 .
Income
I will now break down these figures and compare them with our results for previous years.
The table above shows our income for each of the past 5 years. For many years, our income has been relatively fixed at around £40 to 50,000 but these figures are distorted by a number of factors:
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- 2021 included lockdown when our income was very reduced
- 2022 was the start of our communion with the parish in Chippenham and brought with it cost sharing between the 2 parishes. Because of the way this is accounted for, St Mary’s contribution is shown as income in our accounts.
- 2024 included a very generous legacy of £64,000 which has made our restoration project possible.
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Our 2025 income has increased by around £15,000, mainly due to:
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- The Restoration project appeal.
- Increased rental income as the Priest’s Retirement Fund now makes a grant of £300 per month for the rent of the old school house.
- Parishioners have responded to our funding appeal and I have seen an increase in both standing order donations and cash offertory over the year by over £3,000.
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Expenditure
In contrast to our income, annual expenditure has not been static and has been steadily growing over recent years leading to a potential funding crisis at the start of 2025 and our funding appeal.
Expenditure in 2025 increased by around £10,000 compared to the previous year due to the urgent work on trees in the church grounds, including felling the very large horse chestnut by the A4.
Balance Sheet
Our balance sheet at the end of 2025, above, shows a net value, excluding property, of approximately £131,000. We have liabilities of £2,500 mainly for second collections and Christmas offertory which will be drawn down in January.
£100,000 of this worth is earmarked for our restoration project and, in addition to this, I will be asking the Finance Committee to approve allocating the £10,000 surplus from 2025 to the restoration project.
Restoration Project
We formally launched the Church Restoration Project in April and the results have been:
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- Fundraising for the church restoration project – £8.798
- Expenditure, architect fees etc. £3,423
- Balance of fund (including carry forward from previous years) £5620
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The results are therefore on track for our target to raise £10,000 a year though we need to be aware that this includes 3 large individual donations that are unlikely to be repeated.