Welcome to the Bury St Edmunds Past and Present Society website.
Welcome to the Bury St Edmunds Past & Present Society, and the wonderful Spanton Jarman Photographic Collection.
The Society was formed in 1960 to promote and encourage an interest in the history of our town and its surrounding area. To this end we hold a series of lectures each year from October through to March on topics of local history. Meetings are held in the newly restored Medieval Guildhall in Guildhall Street, Bury St Edmunds.
FORTHCOMING LECTURE
2024 – 2025 Lecture programme – The next lecture is on….
Monday 2nd December
Terry O’Donaghue
The Gathering Storm – How Bury prepared for and changed with war.
Even as early as 1935, the storm clouds of war were gathering over the town. This talk looks at Bury’s preparation for war in the months preceding the outbreak of hostilities in September 1939. The talk focuses on the impact on the town at the outset of war and the first 3 years of conflict. This includes Civil Defence, the widespread and realistic air raid exercises. The evacuees and refugees which the town welcomed at the start of the war, and also organisations such as the Women’s Land Army. The town was also classified as a ‘town of last defence’ which took detailed planning and could have resulted in severe hardships for both the town and surrounding villages.
Preparations in which the Guildhall itself was a hive of activity, and then played a central role in the protection of the town, and through the efforts of those townspeople manning the Royal Observer Corps Operations Room, the defence of the wider region throughout the six years of total war.
All meetings are held in
The Guildhall,
Guildhall Street,
Bury St Edmunds,
IP33 1QB
and begin at 7.30pm.
News
About The Society
The Society’s NAME is taken from the title of a book by Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), the eminent author, biographer and historian. Published in 1843, its title was Past and Present. Carlyle devoted the whole of Book II to a description of life in the Abbey of St Edmund. The earliest edition of the Jocelin of Brakelond’s Chronicle, edited by John Gage Rokewode (a member of the Gage family of Hengrave Hall) was published by the Camden Society in 1840. This, of course, gave only the Latin text, and Carlyle’s brilliant English version made it available to those who had not had a classical education.
A copy of our constitution can be downloaded here
Committee 2023/24
President: Margaret Statham
Chairman: Stephen Cook
Vice Chairman: tba
Secretary: Patricia Mackie
Treasurer: Stephen Cook
Website: Andrew Norburn
Membership Secretary: Patricia Mackie
Spanton Jarman Project: Betty Milburn
Programme Secretary: Jane Patton
Publicity: Martyn Taylor
SPANTON JARMAN COLLECTION
The collection includes images in and around Bury St Edmunds, from weddings, local events, property, villages.
How to Join the Society
Membership is open to everyone, we charge a minimum subscription fee of £16.00 per person, or £22 for two people living at the same address.
Visitors are welcome to attend our lectures for a fee of £5 per meeting.
If you wish to apply for membership, or want to see the benefits of becoming a member You can read more on our join us page.
