Local Recorders Scheme

The Suffolk Local History Council administers a Local Recorders Scheme throughout Suffolk. We maintain a network of people in the county to ensure the survival of valuable material for future local historians by:

• Seeing that the present is adequately recorded at local level, and
• Being on the look-out for items of historical interest which might be overlooked or lost for ever.

To do this Recorders are asked to note significant happenings in their area, especially the changes going on around them, and also to be on the look-out for older records and to record reminiscences of their area in the past.

Recorders are asked to send in a short report at the end of each calendar year, giving an account of activities in their community and the changes that have taken place. The reports are kept with the parish records in the nearest branch of the Suffolk Record Offices. When Recorders resign, the material they have collected is deposited for safe keeping with the Record Office in the name of the Suffolk Local History Council.

The SLHC provides new Recorders with a Recorders Pack containing guide-lines on various aspects of the job, and are encouraged to become members of the SLHC. Recorders also receive two Newsletters a year, and have the opportunity of attending an annual Recorders Day in April. The Honorary Recorders’ Secretary can be contacted by email (recorders@slhc.org.uk) and would be happy to hear from anyone requesting further information, or interested in becoming a Recorder or Assistant Recorder where a vacancy exists. Here’s a list of parishes currently without a Recorder.