How BHRS celebrated its centenary in 2012

One hundred years ago in November 1912 BHRS was founded by Dr Fowler and others to research and publish Bedfordshire’s rich history. Except for the years of the two world wars, the Society has published a volume every year, covering all manner of subjects and periods of Bedfordshire’s history from Domesday to the late twentieth century.

The first event to mark the Society’s centenary took place in early June 2012 with a garden party at the home of the Society’s President, Sir Sam Whitbread.  About one hundred Society members and their friends gathered and renewed friendships, chatted, took tea on the lawn and listened to a jazz group which included BHRS secretary, Richard Smart.

BHRS and the County Record Office

There were speeches – not many. They emphasised the immense amount of research and publishing that the Society has undertaken and the prospects for future work. They also highlighted the close relationship between the Society and Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service (opens in a new window).  In 1913, the year following the establishment of BHRS, Dr Fowler set up the county record office – the first in the country – and was its first archivist. Succeeding county archivists and their staff have contributed to, and have often been general editors of, the Society’s volumes. Today the relationship is as strong as ever.

Centenary events

Other events during the year to mark the centenary included joint posters with Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service (opens in a new window) displayed around the county; the completion of cataloguing Dr Fowler’s library in its new home at the University of Northampton Library (opens in a new window) and a lecture following the AGM at Stockwood Park in Luton in September.

Revised from the original post on BHRS’s old blog site on 17 June 2012.