The Society was founded in January 1972 and became a Registered Charity two years later. Its aims are to research, record, collect, publish and exhibit all things relating to the history and development of the parish of Langton Matravers. In January 1974 the Parish Museum first opened and acquired Full Registration status in 2003.
The Society has produced many booklets, mostly with photographic illustrations, about the history of the parish, its Church, its Schools, its Cemeteries, its Smugglers, and transcripts of its Parish Registers up to 1837 and of other local documents. An illustrated Journal is published in January of each year. These are all on sale at the Museum or by post. For full details click 'Books & CDs' button.
It has produced some 120 Genealogical Charts of local families, some of which go back to the Sixteenth Century. Three of the books which list the monumental inscriptions in the Anglican Churchyard, the Anglican Cemetery and the Non-Conformist Cemetery give genealogical information about the families concerned. Transcripts of the 1841 and 1851 Census Returns for the Parish are published by the Society. Click 'Books & CDs' or 'Genealogy' buttons for more details.
Membership of the Society is open to anyone paying a minimum subscription of £5 per annum for personal membership or £7.50 for families. For this members obtain free access to the museum, reduced admission charge to the lectures run by the Society during winter months, and a free News Bulletin twice each year (in August and December). Current membership totals some 160.
NEW MEMBERS: The Society welcomes members from outside the Purbeck area who may have links with it through family ties or ancestry and a membership application may be downloaded from here.