Our membership is our lifeblood

Our first Bury Free Press feature of 2024 was about the social side of The Bury Society. By Terry O’Donoghue & Alan Baxter

The lifeblood of the Bury St Edmunds Society is our membership. We are a charity run by volunteers and we encourage membership from all who care about our growing town, its heritage, environment and want to have a say in its future.

We rely on our members, but we also understand the importance of the social side of the charity and activities allowing interaction between members. From almost day one of its existence the society has provided a social calendar of events, some free of charge and all subsidised to some extent.

The new year heralds the very popular Winter lunch. We strive to provide something different every year by way of entertainment, or a guest speaker. In 2021, Charlie Haylock provided a lively insight into his work as a Suffolk dialect coach to Ralph Fiennes in the film ‘The Dig’. Last year Charles Garland regaled the guests with tales from his years working as a production assistant on the popular and timeless ‘Dad’s Army’ TV comedy. This event is always oversubscribed, and February 2023 saw the largest gathering so far with around 90 of our members and guests at the Southgate Community Centre.

Sprinkled throughout the year are a number of coffee and cake mornings at venues within the town. These are free of charge and volunteers from within the society not only provide the help on the day but also produce some magnificent baked offerings. Stephen Moody’s baking skills are legendary.

Two or three times a year we also organise excursions within and just outside of East Anglia. We strive to provide something a little different and arrange for our members and guests to visit places that are not always open to the general public. A prime example was a tour of the historical Earsham Hall hosted by the owner and followed by a cream tea in the house. This coming summer we have negotiated with the National Trust for us to visit their Textile Conservation Workshop adjacent to Blickling Hall in Norfolk. The National Trust only allow one or two groups a year to visit as obviously it is a distraction from their vital conservation work.

Apart from our varied social calendar we interact with our membership via The Bury Society Review. This is a colour magazine that is distributed three times a year to our membership. It keeps them up to date with what is going on in the town; even those things that are ‘behind the scenes’ or at the planning stage. We also invite contributions from our own Bury in Bloom and other active groups in the town, all making a positive difference to town life. The Review contains a host of short articles, and back issues are available on our website.

Website and social media activities keep members and the wider public informed, often featuring some of those articles which would normally remain unseen due to lack of print space.

We try to reflect all age groups, societal changes, and needs in an ever changing Bury St Edmunds.

If you would like to comment upon local issues, to meet other people, to be kept up to date about changes, to receive The Bury Society Review and to take part in our events programme then you should consider joining us.

For details of the society and membership, see elsewhere on this website www. burysociety.com