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Welcome to the Alde Valley Suffolk Family History Group Website

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Our aim is to promote the study of family history in East Suffolk in particular and to provide support and help for those wishing to trace their family history outside the area.

We cater not only for those who wish to research their local family history but also for those now living in Suffolk whose ancestors were from out of the county.

The Group was established in April 2008.

Meetings are normally held on the fourth Tuesday of each month (no meeting in August) in the United Reformed Church Hall, Chapel Road, Saxmundham, starting at 7:30 pm, but please confirm before traveling any distance.

Admission is £1.50 for members, £2.00 for visitors. Tea, coffee, and biscuits are included. Visitors are always most welcome.

Some speakers give out literature related to their talk or have books for sale.

Experienced family history researchers are at most meetings to help you with your family history research.

For further details contact: -

Barrie Skelcher (Chairman) 01728 830463

Nigel Turner (Secretary) 01502 718019

John Martin (Treasurer) 01473 727545

Terry Davis (Membership Secretary) 01728 830113

Drop-In Centre
The Group runs an informal family history "Drop-In Centre" in Leiston. This is housed in the Old Council Room of the Leiston Council Offices in Old Post Office Square, Main Street, opposite the Long Shop Museum. There is convenient public parking (including disabled parking) immediately outside.

The Drop-In Centre is open to the general public, and provides free access to a variety of family history advice and reference material. It is normally open on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of each month, from 10 am to 12 noon.

Would-be visitors are advised to check on availability of the room before making any special journeys.

Next Meeting
Our next event is on 28 July, when a talk on "Yoxford Yesterday" will be given by Janet Barnes. Meet in the United Reformed Church Hall, Chapel Road, Saxmundham, starting at 7:30 pm.

See our Programme page for details.

Looking Further Ahead to September ...
The Suffolk branch of CAMRA is running a project to research and document all of the county's former pubs. Nigel Smith is heading up the project and on 22 September is going to talk to us about the Old Pubs of Suffolk. His talk will place particular emphasis on the Alde Valley area.

Nigel says “In the course of the research we have come across many old pubs (or possible old pubs) which we cannot identify satisfactorily. In some cases we have found buildings which appear to have been pubs but we can't identify them because we have no record of a pub in that location. We also have a number of pubs which we have found on old maps but can't identify them. Where possible, we have published photographs and maps of putative pubs, to aid in identification.”

For instance it appears there used to be a pub in Westleton called the Royal Oak but its location is uncertain - can anyone tell us where it was?

Information is also sought on a number of other local Pubs including:

The “Fife & Drum” at Strickland Manor Hill, Yoxford
The “Three Tuns” at Yoxford
The “Marlborough Head” and “The George” at Slaughden, Aldeburgh

If you have any photos, information or memories about old Suffolk pubs please bring them along to the meeting and share them with Nigel. It would be good to make this a two way process and to help CAMRA to preserve as much information possible about our county's pub history and heritage.

The CAMRA website can be found at www.suffolkcamra.co.uk/pubs

As usual the meeting will be held at the Saxmundham URC Church Hall starting at 7.30pm.

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