About the organisation
The Historic Towns Trust is an educational charity that helps people understand, appreciate and protect the historic towns and cities of Great Britain. We work with local historians, geographers, archaeologists and communities to produce meticulously researched historical maps and atlases that reveal how places have developed over time.
Our maps are not reproductions of old maps. They are modern, professionally researched and designed maps that show the layers of a town’s history, helping residents, students, teachers, visitors and decision-makers see why towns and cities look as they do today. Recent and established examples include maps of places such as Oxford, York, Canterbury, Coventry, Bristol, Cambridge, Bath, Perth, Ripon, Bradford and Ipswich, alongside our British Historic Towns Atlas volumes covering towns and cities including Banbury, Caernarfon, Glasgow, Gloucester, Hereford, Nottingham, Reading and Salisbury.
This work gives people a stronger sense of belonging, place and custodianship, and supports more informed conversations about the future of the built environment. Alongside our publications, we use our research to develop teaching materials for schools and to engage the public through free talks, launches, local partnerships and outreach activities. Our work brings together academic scholarship, professional cartography and local knowledge, making complex urban history accessible to a broad audience.
The Trust has grown significantly in recent years. We are increasing the number of maps and atlases we produce and expanding our educational and community outreach so that each map has greater local impact. This growth has also increased the complexity of our finances, including project fundraising, map sales, grants, donations, VAT, Gift Aid, endowment income and the appointment of our first employee. We are therefore seeking a new volunteer Trustee Treasurer to help guide the Trust through its next stage of development.
About the role
We are seeking an experienced finance professional to join the Historic Towns Trust as a volunteer Trustee and Treasurer. This is an ongoing governance role at an important point in the Trust’s development, as we expand our map and atlas programme, grow our educational and community outreach, and review our operating structure for the future.
The Treasurer will be a member of the Board of Trustees and will sit on the Executive Sub-Committee, which reports to the Board. The Treasurer will be responsible for oversight of the Trust’s financial administration and reporting obligations, including reporting to HMRC and the Charity Commission. They will provide clear quarterly reports to the Board on the Trust’s financial position and will help trustees understand the financial implications of major decisions.
The Trust’s financial activities include income from an endowment, sales of maps and atlases through the website and third-party distributors, grants and donations for core activities, money held for individual map and atlas projects, administrative expenditure, quarterly VAT filing, Gift Aid collection and accounting, and the annual audit. These activities support both the Trust’s wider programme and individual place-based projects, such as recent and current maps and atlases developed with local partners and researchers.
The Trust currently operates through three sub-committees - Projects, Communications and Resources - which report to the Executive Sub-Committee. Committees meet quarterly. The Board meets four times a year, including two in-person meetings in June and December, usually in London. The Treasurer will attend relevant committee and Board meetings and may also help shape improvements to financial processes and controls as the Trust grows.
The role may include helping the Trust plan for a revised operating structure, potentially including a new education sub-committee, changes to the Resources function, and the recruitment of paid part-time bookkeeping and administrative support. This is therefore a practical and strategic Treasurer role, suited to someone who can combine sound financial oversight with the ability to help a small but ambitious charity professionalise its systems in a proportionate way.
As a Trustee, the Treasurer will also be able to engage more broadly with the Trust’s map and atlas activities, attend launches and events, and contribute to the future direction of the organisation.
Our ideal candidate
We are looking for an experienced finance professional, preferably a qualified accountant, who can provide confident and proportionate financial leadership for a growing educational charity.
Essential skills and experience include strong financial management, clear reporting, budgeting and forecasting, and an understanding of financial controls. The successful candidate should be comfortable reviewing management information, explaining financial issues to non-finance colleagues, and helping trustees make well-informed decisions. Experience of charity accounting, VAT, Gift Aid, audit processes, reserves, restricted funds or investment oversight would be especially helpful.
The Treasurer will need to be organised, collaborative and pragmatic. HTT is a small charity with trustees and volunteers spread across Britain, so we need someone who can work effectively remotely, attend regular committee meetings, and take a hands-on interest in improving financial processes. The ability to help us shape the role of future bookkeeping or administrative support would be valuable.
We would particularly welcome someone who understands the governance responsibilities of charity trustees and is willing to contribute to the wider life of the Trust, not only to its finances. Prior trustee experience is welcome but not essential if the candidate has the judgement, integrity and willingness to learn required for the role.
A passion for cartography, urban history, education, heritage or the built environment would be a strong advantage. The ideal candidate will be motivated by the opportunity to help a distinctive national charity make historical knowledge more accessible, useful and engaging for communities, schools and the wider public - whether through work on places such as York, Oxford, Bristol, Cambridge, Ipswich and Bradford, or future towns and cities yet to be mapped.
What’s in it for you
This is an opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to a distinctive educational and heritage charity at a time of growth and change.
The new Treasurer will help the Historic Towns Trust build the financial resilience, systems and governance needed to expand its work. Their contribution will support new maps and atlases, educational resources, public talks, local partnerships and community engagement across Britain’s historic towns and cities. By strengthening the Trust’s financial oversight, the Treasurer will help ensure that more people can understand the places they live in, feel a stronger sense of belonging, and take part in informed conversations about the future of their built environment.
The role offers the chance to work with leading academics, historians, archaeologists, geographers, cartographers, architects and heritage professionals. Trustees are encouraged to take part in the wider life of the Trust, including launches, events and discussions about new projects. The Trust’s publications provide a tangible connection between the Treasurer’s financial stewardship and public impact, from long-established atlas work on places such as Glasgow, Nottingham and Salisbury to more recent historical maps of towns and cities including Oxford, Canterbury, Coventry, Bath, Perth, Ripon, Bradford and Ipswich.
For a finance professional, the role provides valuable charity governance experience, including Board reporting, audit leadership, investment oversight, project funding, VAT, Gift Aid, sales income, grants and donations. It would suit someone who wants to use their professional skills in a purposeful voluntary role while also learning more about heritage, urban history and educational outreach.
The Treasurer will join a committed and friendly trustee body that shares a passion for maps, history and place. This is a chance to help shape the next chapter of an organisation with a long track record and a growing public role.
Apply for the role
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