Friends - how you can help

Reports for the year ending 31 July 2011


Item 5.     Committee report (PDF, 14Kb)
Item 6.     Treasurer's report (PDF, 12Kb)
Item 7.     Record Office report (PDF, 88Kb)



The Friends are people who use the Record Office, or who wish to help in its work of preserving Suffolk's incomparable archival heritage. We are a Registered Charity No 288042. Formed in 1983, we promote the service and lobby on its behalf, providing details of archives which may be in danger of loss or dispersal. Our AGM is held every September and we also publish a newsletter and lists of the new accessions.

How can I become a member of the Friends of the Record Office? Please complete the application form and send it to the Secretary, or hand it in at any of the Record Office branches. Membership: minimum subscription £12 per year (although many members contribute more).  Anyone can become a Friend of the Suffolk Record Office, you do not have to live in Suffolk 

Are you a Friend and a regular eBay user? The Suffolk Record Office is notified of auction lots by The National Archives but material is also sold on auction sites such as eBay.  As a result we are looking for any Friends who could help us to monitor eBay. Please contact Judith Stephenson for more information.

How have the Friends helped? We have purchased for the Record Office many fine collections of archives, which might otherwise have been lost to the county or lost completely. Below is an example:
Grant of land to Campsea Ash Priory. HD1538_174_1 held at Ipswich Record Office
Grant of land to Campsea Ash Priory purchased by the County Council in 1987 with financial assistance from the Friends. William de Saham gives his land in Bredfield to the nuns of Campsea Priory, ‘for the salvation of his soul and those of his ancestors'. The deed is not dated, but was written around 1200, making it one of the oldest documents in the Record Office. It forms part of the extensive Iveagh collection of medieval manuscripts.  

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