About The Society:
The Society was founded to encourage the study and preservation of Norfolk records and to publish editions of documents relating to the history of the county. Since 1930 it has published annually a transcript of a significant and sometimes unusual manuscript or collection of manuscripts. This series now covers a time-span ranging from the twelfth to the twentieth centuries.All volumes are carefully edited, comprehensively indexed and include introductions explaining the background to the documents they present. They are attractively produced and uniformly bound in hard covers.
Since the Society is a non-profit-making body it maintains a level of subscription substantially below the commercial value of the volumes supplied to subscribers. Its purpose is not, however, to produce bargains for members, but to enable them to assist, through their annual subscriptions, in making more accessible the documentation that is fundamental to the study of all aspects of the county’s history and heritage.
In its early years the Society played a key role in the rescue of records and in the establishment of the Norfolk Record Office where its collection of manuscripts remains the largest single holding. The Society played a significant part in representing the views of record holders and users in the development of Norfolk's new purpose built repository, which opened in 2003. The Society continues to assist in adding to the Record Office's holdings. For example a rare fifteenth-century swan roll was purchased following an appeal actively supported by the Society, and a more direct and practical part was taken in helping to secure for the Norfolk Record Office the very substantial archive of the Reverend William Gunn (1750-1841) of Irstead and Smallburgh, which was in danger of being purchased by an American University and taken out of the country.
Members are invited to an annual lecture, where they receive their latest volume (which otherwise is sent by post) and meet the officers of the Society. A general meeting is held every three years at which the Honorary Officers and Council members are elected and a report is given on current and future publication plans.
Suggestions for possible volumes are always welcomed.