GREAT WESTERN SOCIETY LIMITED

• ◆

  4 officer resignations in last 12 months

  Multiple officers have left the board recently — see the People section for who.

Values shown as filed in the company's annual accounts. — indicates the figure wasn't present under that line item in that period. About these numbers

Margins divide P&L lines by turnover. Gearing is liabilities over total assets. Current ratio is current assets over creditors falling due within one year. Interest cover is operating profit over absolute finance costs. Sector-distribution context coming next.

Accounting basis

FRS 102

Reporting scope

Consolidated group

Auditor

Wellers

Audit opinion

Unqualified (clean)

Going concern

Affirmed

“The Directors have reviewed the financial forecasts for the year ahead as part of the 2025-26 budget setting process. With designated capital development and general funds standing at £1,528,878 as at 1 February 2025 and with further legacy income expected in 2025 and, as noted in item b. below, the Directors have a reasonable expectation that the company and group have adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. Accordingly they continue to adopt the going concern basis in preparing the financial statements.”

Group structure

1. GREAT WESTERN SOCIETY LIMITED · parent
   1. Great Western Retail Sales Limited 100% · UK · Trading, catering and operation of a shop
   2. Didcot Railway Centre Limited 100% · UK · Dormant
   3. Great Western Restaurants Limited 100% · UK · Dormant

Significant events

• “Our own locomotive Pendennis Castle celebrated its 100-year anniversary during the year and this was marked by a special event to recognise the hard work put in by the volunteers to return her to working order after several years out of service. The ongoing delays to restoration and return to use of loco 1466 meant the launch event was postponed and the loco is not expected to be operational until late 2025.”
• “The Access Ramp was completed and formally opened in April 2024. Various snagging issues were overcome and so the final cost was marginally over budget but this improved access to Didcot Railway Centre will enable us to explore ways to increase our visitor numbers over the next five years, aiming for financial sustainability.”
• “A new commercial arrangement was entered into with First Great Western Railway that saw some of their IET train sets stored at Didcot during Christmas 2024 as HS2 construction works at Old Oak Common severely limited access to their main storage and maintenance site at North Pole Depot. We are hopeful this will continue for 2025 and beyond.”
• “We were very grateful to receive a large seven figure legacy during the year and the majority of this is being retained to help with the engine shed restoration in future years.”
• “Over the next five years, we intend to invest in our visitor facilities with an ambitious programme of works to fund and complete. To this end we submitted a bid to the National Lottery Heritage Fund in November 2024 to help us restore the engine shed and in February 2025 we were pleased to receive notification that a development grant of £184,000 has been awarded to help us apply for a full Heritage Fund grant in due course.”
• “An Extraordinary General Meeting was held on 7 June 2025 to pass a resolution to approve a new edition of the Articles of Association. The revision was carried out with professional legal advice and mainly relates to changes to Company and Charity legislation and good practice since the original document was adopted in 1967. A number of articles were clarified.”

Auditor, going-concern and subsidiary information is drawn from the narrative of the latest annual accounts. About these numbers

Filings

10

last 12 months

Capital events

0

last 24 months

Officers appointed

2

last 12 months

Officers resigned

4

last 12 months

Direct counts from the register. No score, no rating — see the Filing timeline for the underlying events.

• Turnover

  —

  Not reported

• Cash

  +8.2%

  £1,208,796 → £1,308,012

• Net assets

  +58.2%

  £2,948,603 → £4,664,194

• Employees

  -6.1%

  33 → 31

• Operating profit

  +260.6%

  £446,161 → £1,608,642

• Profit before tax

  +260.6%

  £446,161 → £1,608,642

• Wages

  +4.1%

  £441,617 → £459,865

Each % is (latest − prior) ÷ |prior| for the line item as filed. The comparison is only shown when the latest and prior accounts cover broadly equal-length periods — short or long stubs (typical around incorporation or a year-end change) are suppressed rather than misrepresented. Lines a company doesn't report are omitted. About these numbers