Frequently Asked Questions

Becoming a member is straightforward — simply come along to any of our monthly talks or events and introduce yourself. You can pay your annual subscription on the night, or contact our Secretary in advance.

You are also very welcome to attend as a non-member guest first to see whether the group is for you. See our Contact page for details of how to get in touch.

The annual membership subscription is very modest — £15 per year per person. Membership covers free entry to all our regular talks throughout the year, as well as priority booking for trips and visits.

Non-members are warmly welcome to attend individual talks for £5 per talk. If you are a non-member and would like to attend a trip or visit, please contact us first as places are limited.

Everyone is welcome, regardless of where they live. Whilst most of our members are from Martham and the surrounding Flegg area, we have members from across Norfolk and beyond who share an interest in the history of this part of East Anglia. You do not need any specialist knowledge — we are ordinary people with a shared curiosity about the past.

Membership runs from [INSERT RENEWAL DATE, e.g. January each year] . Members are reminded at the first meeting of the new season, and you can renew by paying at any talk or by contacting our Treasurer. If you are unsure whether your membership is current, please contact us.

Our regular talks are held on the third Tuesday of each month (except August, when we take a break) at Martham Methodist Church, starting at 7.30pm (doors open from 7.00pm). We also organise coach trips, car share visits and guided walks throughout the year.

The full programme for 2026, including all dates, speakers and locations, is on our Programme page.

The great majority of our talks take place at Martham Methodist Church, Martham, Norfolk. It is a comfortable venue in the heart of the village with ample seating — we are very grateful to the congregation for making us so welcome there.

Occasionally a talk or event will be held at a different venue (for example a visit to a local site), and this is always clearly noted on the programme page.

Booking forms for coach trips and other visits with limited spaces are sent directly to members. If you haven't received yours, or if you are a non-member wishing to join a trip, please contact Pat who handles bookings.

Please note that places on trips are usually reserved for members in the first instance, and spaces can fill quickly, so early booking is advised.

The Annual Dinner is one of the highlights of our social calendar and is usually held in February. A menu and booking form are sent to all members in advance. If you haven't received yours, or if you would like to attend as a guest of a member, please contact Pat for details.

Our AGM is held each September at Martham Methodist Church. All members are encouraged to attend. The AGM includes election of the committee, a review of the year's activities and finances, and usually a short members' talk. Papers and reports are available on our AGM & Reports page.

Absolutely — we love to hear suggestions from members and visitors alike. If you know of an interesting speaker, a local history topic worth exploring, or a site worth visiting, please let us know. Our programme committee considers all ideas when planning each year's schedule.

We will do our best to help. Our members have accumulated a great deal of knowledge about Martham and the surrounding Flegg area over more than fifteen years of research. A good starting point is our Digital Archive, which includes documents, photographs and maps.

If you can't find what you need there, please contact us with as much detail as possible about what you are looking for, and we will try to point you in the right direction. For more formal genealogical or historical research, we would also recommend the Norfolk Record Office in Norwich, which holds a vast collection of local documents, many related to Martham.

We are not a genealogy service, but we are happy to share what we know. Our archive contains census records, tithe maps, historic photographs and other documents that may be useful. Please contact us with the family name(s) and approximate period you are researching.

For dedicated family history research, we suggest:

• The Norfolk Record Office
• FamilySearch (free)
• FindMyPast (subscription)
• The Norfolk Family History Society

We are always delighted to hear from people who have old photographs, documents, maps, or stories relating to Martham and the Flegg area. Donations to the archive — whether physical originals or digital scans — are gratefully received and properly credited.

Please contact our Secretary to discuss what you have and how best to share it with us. Nothing is too small — a single old photograph can be enormously valuable to the historical record.

The full collection of Martham Stories — our 85-minute oral history project created with Flegg High School students in 2013 — is available free to watch on YouTube. The films cover topics including village shops, the railway, war years, and the secret wartime airfield on Heigham Holmes.

You can also find out more on our Martham Stories page.

If you have spotted something factually wrong, out of date, or misleading in the text of any page — for example an incorrect date, a misspelled name, or a broken link to an external source — please let us know via our Contact page. Please include the page name and a brief description of the problem and we will look into it promptly.

Technical problems — pages not loading, images missing, layout looking broken, or links that go nowhere — can be reported via our Contact page. It is very helpful if you can tell us:

• Which page or section the problem is on
• What you were trying to do
• What device and browser you are using (e.g. iPhone / Safari, or Windows / Chrome)

Please note that the site is currently undergoing a redesign, so some pages may still be in the older style — this is intentional rather than a technical fault.

Our privacy policy explains how we collect, store and use any personal information you share with us — for example when you contact us or join as a member. [PLEASE INSERT A LINK TO YOUR PRIVACY POLICY PAGE HERE, OR SUMMARISE THE KEY POINTS BELOW. EXAMPLE:]

We do not share your personal data with any third parties. We hold member contact details solely for the purpose of sending out the programme and other group communications. If you would like your details removed from our records at any time, please contact our Secretary.

Members automatically receive the annual programme by post or email (depending on their preference) as well as any updates or reminders about forthcoming events. If you are not a member but would like to be kept informed, please get in touch and we will add you to our mailing list.

You can also check the Programme page on this website at any time for the latest schedule.

Not without asking us first. Nothing on this website may be copied, reproduced or published without the permission of the Martham Local History Group. This does not mean we will refuse — but you must ask.

The reason is that our archive material has come from many different sources and there are numerous individual copyright holders. We need to trace the relevant copyright holder for any image before we can grant permission for its use.

Please contact us with details of the image you are interested in and how you intend to use it, and we will do our best to help.

Short quotations with a clear attribution to the Martham Local History Group are generally acceptable for non-commercial, educational purposes. For anything more substantial — such as reproducing a full article or talk report — please contact us first. Our talks are authored by their individual speakers, and we would want to involve them in any decision about wider publication.

Yes, please do — we would love to hear from you. Old photographs, postcards, maps and documents are the raw material of local history, and every contribution, however small, adds to the record. We can accept original items on loan or for donation, or simply a good-quality digital scan.

Please contact our Secretary to discuss. All contributed material is properly credited in the archive.

We are always interested to hear from potential speakers on topics relating to local, regional or broader history. If you have a talk you think our members would enjoy, please contact our Secretary with a brief outline of your proposed subject and your availability. Our programme is planned annually but we do occasionally add talks at short notice.

Yes. The Martham Local History Group is professionally insured through PolicyBee, which provides public liability and other appropriate cover for our events and activities.

Our full Aims and Constitution is available on the website. It sets out the group's purpose, how we are governed and how decisions are made. You can read it on our Constitution & Aims page.

Martham Methodist Church is on the main (Repps) road through the village and is accessible by car. There is on-street parking in the village centre close to the church, but please park responsibly. If you have any specific accessibility requirements, please contact us in advance and we will do our best to accommodate you.

We do not currently have a presence on 'the Socials', but this is something we are looking to change in due course. This website will, however, remains the definitive source for our programme and archive material.