The July meeting of Wickhambrook WI found us at the Suffolk Archives in Bury St Edmunds where we spent a fascinating two hours looking at documents relating to the village of Wickhambrook and records of the WI. Arriving at the Archive building we were given an introductory talk explaining how the Archives are gathered and stored before being divided into two groups. As one group browsed information which had been brought out especially for our visit, the other group were taken into the storage area where fragile documents and maps were stored under temperature controlled conditions. There were maps of the village from times gone by together with records of WI meeting which included notes of minutes, photos, old copies of WI programs and old scrap books. It was interesting to see photos of past members and members who still attend today. In the storage room there were rows of maps many of which were in a fragile state and needed conserving. There were also boxes and boxes of documents and records which all have to be carefully categorised and stored.
It was explained that the collecting of archive material is very much an ongoing task with work being done alongside community groups covering such diverse topics as BLGT, Black Lives Matter and even the Windrush story. The present building, grade II listed , is no longer fit for purpose as its status means little can be altered. There are plans to move to a purpose-built building in the near future.