The Group was formed in January 2018 by a few village residents passionate about local history. There was already a small archive stored in the Village Hall, it is believed collected by Eileen English, village postmistress for some 25 years. In 2020 we were given many items from the Horner family re three generations of the village shop, family history and their involvement in village life. The Group aims to continue adding to the village Archive with a view to founding a Museum in the future. If anyone has any photographs, documents or artefacts relating to Yoxford’s history we should love to hear from you. These can be donated to the collection, or loaned for scanning, or we can visit or meet you to scan them. The collection will be securely housed and stored in acid-free materials, the initial supply of which was partly funded by the Parish Council. We hope to make a photo gallery available to view from the village website in the future.
In addition we should like to collect memories of growing up in the village. Again we can meet you or visit you to interview you for your story. This can then be put on the village website.
We put on two exhibitions in 2018, ‘Shopping in Yoxford in the 20thC’ and another on WWI relating to the Centenary of the 1918 Armistice. We held one on ‘Schooldays and Health’ in 2019. None were held in 2020, 2021 or 2022 due to Covid-19. In July 2023 we put on ‘Horners – Three Generations of a Village Shop’ and over the August Bank Holiday week-end we are mounting a display ‘Yoxford’s Social Life in the 20thC’ at St Peter’s church. In 2024 we are planning ‘Trades & Occupations’, including servants. These were employed by the three Estates of Cockfield Hall, Grove Park and Rookery Park as well as local gentry and the middle classes. We endeavour to raise funds at these exhibitions by offering tea and cakes and also accepting general donations. This is in order to cover our own printing costs.
In 2019 we produced a historic walking trail leaflet, with sponsorship from all the village businesses. As supplies are now very low we are in the process of producing a revised edition, again with sponsorship.
The Group normally meets roughly monthly on a weekday afternoon. We are a very friendly, informal group of nine members currently. If you are interested in joining us in any capacity or coming to the next meeting, please contact us by email to