The Thoroton Society at 125

The Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire was founded in June 1897 with the intention of promoting the study of the local history, archaeology and antiquities of the county. The Society is named in honour of Dr Robert Thoroton who published the first history of Nottinghamshire in 1677. The Society’s aims are simple: to promote knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the history, archaeology and antiquities of the county and to support local research and conservation. The Society was a latecomer to a familiar Victorian format. Almost every county in the Midlands had, by the 1890s, promoted a Society, which, in turn, organised excursions and published the results of their work in annual volumes of Proceedings or in the case of the Thoroton Society, Transactions. Although the county gentry turned out for the initial meeting of the Society, the actual work of setting it up was left to local business and professional people. The two key figures were W. P. W. Phillimore and Rev. John Standish. Phillimore was a local man, born and bred in Nottingham, but he subsequently set himself up as a solicitor with rooms in Chancery Lane. His name came to be associated nationally with the publication of parish registers. Standish, joint secretary with Phillimore, was a clergyman, one of the several who were prominent in directing the affairs of the Society in its early years. The modern Thoroton Society has winter lectures from October to March and summer excursions (a programme rather disrupted by the pandemic). Social events include an annual lunch in November and a Spring Meeting (which includes the Annual Meeting) in late April. The Spring Meeting is held in a different venue within the county each year and is usually held in the village hall prior to afternoon tea and a guided walk around the village. The Society also has a Response Group, which is proactive in protecting buildings and the local environment. Unlike some counties, the Record Section (which publishes editions of original texts) is part of the main Society and has now produced more than 50 volumes. Research is also fostered through an informal Research Group, meeting twice a year, as well as by the Society’s online Heritage Gateway, which includes articles on a range of people, places and subjects. The Society published the first major bibliography of the county more than twenty years ago; today, it is maintained and updated digitally by the Society’s webmaster and contains over 15,000 items. Although, as in other counties, there are often challenges in recruiting members to take on officer roles and to sit on the Society’s Council, there are more than 400 members, including institutional members, from across the globe. During lockdown