Treasurer and Company Secretary

Essex Gardens Trust was set up in 1996 with the aim of protecting the special and historic gardens and landscapes in our county.  We do this through: i) research, ii) conservation and iii) education.

Our charity provides our members and friends with a regular programme of talks and garden visits (both in and outside the County).  The current programme for 2023 is shown on our website. We also hope to continue our collaboration with our appointed Artist in Residence and look for other opportunities to extend our influence.

Our research team has recently completed a funded project to identify and record historic gardens and landscapes in the district of Thurrock.  The results of this research has been given to both the County planning authority and the Essex Records Office where it will join our existing inventories covering other Districts and Boroughs of Essex and will be freely available to all.

 In 2023 we started a similar project to cover the City of Southend.

Our research team in Thurrock also identified a number of important sites that had been lost to development. The results of the investigations carried out on these are covered in The Lost Gardens of Thurrock which was published in 2022.

Essex Gardens Trust is entirely volunteer-run.  There are currently eight trustees and three co-opted members of the Management Committee. The Committee is supported by a number of sub-groups covering different aspects of the Trust’s activities.

The Committee meets bi-monthly: at present mainly by Zoom.

The responsibilities of the Treasurer and Company Secretary are to:-

• Meet statutory requirements;
• Ensure all appropriate policies and procedures are in place and up-to-date;
• Make payments, pay in receipts;
• Maintain accounts;
• Prepare budgets and report against them;
• Prepare annual Trustees’ Report and Financial Statements and co-ordinate the preparation of the Annual Trustees’ Report;
• Prepare AGM notice and supporting documents;
• Advise on basic legal issues;
• Maintain appropriate insurance policies.

You should be a qualified accountant with:-

• Experience of the charity sector;  Good, independent judgement and integrity;  The ability to work effectively as a member of a team. 

Experience of making funding applications would be helpful but not necessary.