The Proceedings of the Society first appeared for the year 1947, a 20-page publication reporting the activities of each of the six study groups established at the end of 1946, covering historical documents, buildings, photography/cartography, archaeology, natural history, and miscellaneous subjects such as folklore and local crafts and traditions. There was an overlap with the Newsletter as the Proceedings included news of the Society’s other activities too, plus listed officers and background on the Society’s origins. However its first three purely academic articles concerned excavations at The Mounts, Pachesham Park; a talk on feudal tenures; and a look at Little Bookham parish registers.
Additional numbers of Volume 1 of the Proceedings then appeared every year for the next decade. Secretarial notes and AGM reports were among the additional items included. By the tenth number in 1956 the publication was a few pages longer and included a series of maps and illustrations. Volume 1 was now offered in bound form for shelf archives.
The study groups had gone by 1959 and Volumes 2, 3 and 4, published in ten numbers each up to 1966, 1976 and 1986 respectively, concentrated on more specific articles with a fixed format starting with Occasional Notes. Article numbers increased over the years. The last number of Volume 5 for 1996 celebrated the Society’s Golden Jubilee with photos of all the chairmen and a history of the Society itself, whose membership had more than doubled since the start. Ten years on and Volume 6, No 10 celebrated the Diamond Jubilee in a similar vein.
Since 2009 the Proceedings has continued to appear with fewer articles in each number as the Society membership has reduced but has continued to maintain the same quality of well researched content. Volume 7 No 10 appeared at the end of 2016 as the last in the traditional series. Volume 8 No 1 is currently being compiled and is scheduled to appear on-line as individual articles are completed. Printed and bound copies will also be available at a cost.
Most browsers have a pdf reader to view the files. Otherwise you may need Acrobat Reader or other pdf reader applications which can be downloaded from the Internet. It is recommended that you use the latest versions to facilitate easy opening of the documents.
All pdf copies are searchable in Acrobat Reader or your browser using the search/find facility provided (CTL F or Shift CTL F on your keyboard). For help on how to find words in pdf documents click here.
Proceedings Search Help:
To find archived Proceedings use Search feature below by entering the title in the manner shown in the list below, or parts of the title e.g. “year”, (without quotes). You can also expand the list from 5 to 50 by clicking the little arrow 0n box labelled “Show” . Left click on chosen Proceedings to download and view.
