The Society was founded in 1876, putting it in the middle range of the many ‘county’ societies set up in the Victorian era. The following outline chronology notes some of the key dates and events – illustrating both continuity and change.
- 1840s – First attempts to found a county archaeological society fail to take root
- 1875 – Local antiquarians and people interested in building conservation invite Dr John Beddoe FRS to convene a provisional committee, to develop more durable plans for a local society
- 1876 – A public inaugural meeting of the Society takes place on 21 April 1876, at the Bristol City Museum. 67 persons attend. ‘Good-humoured comments as to the relative position of the names “Gloucestershire” and “Bristol” in the title of the new society’. Affairs of the Society are vested in a Council, which meets for the first time on 3 May, with Sir William Guise as president. The preservation of significant sites and buildings – then unprotected by law – is an explicit aim. There are 513 members. Field meetings are arranged in August, a publishing committee is set up, and Volume 1 of the Transactions is compiled
- 1877 – Summer meeting in Cirencester; in the early years, such meetings were residential, and included the AGM
- 1878 – Sir John Maclean begins a 14-year stint as Transactions editor. The summer meeting convenes at Clifton, 100 members proceeding in numerous carriages to Westbury-on-Trym
- 1879 – Summer meeting in Cheltenham
- 1880 – Total income £157 14s
- 1882 – The Society protests strongly, but unsuccessfully, about the proposed destruction of the Minster House on College Green, Bristol
- 1883-5 – Maclean edits an ambitious three-volume set of Berkeley Manuscripts, cementing the Society’s emerging reputation as a publisher of historic archival material, and the start of a long association with the Berkeley family
- 1886 – Early arrangements for Society libraries in both Bristol and Gloucester, largely formed from books donated by members and sister societies, are reconsidered, with holdings henceforth being mostly consolidated in Gloucester, though some are still kept at the Society’s room at the Lit & Phil in Berkeley Square, Bristol
- 1887 – We undertake our first excavation: the Roman villa at Tockington Park
- 1888 – We attend the first Congress of (county) Archaeological Societies, at Burlington House
- 1894 – Mrs E M Bagnall-Oakley is the first woman to address the Society and to write for the Transactions
- 1898 – A week-long summer meeting in London attracts a great attendance
- 1899 – We intervene to excavate and arrest the deterioration of the ruins of Hailes Abbey, exciting great public interest; it renovates an old barn to serve as a site museum
- 1903 – Evening meetings begin in Bristol and Gloucester, extended in 1905 to Cheltenham and Tewkesbury
- 1906 – After an appeal for funds, the Society erects sheds to protect Roman pavements at Witcombe villa
- 1907 – End of an era: retirement of Canon William Bazeley, secretary since 1879
- 1910-11 – Hucclecote villa is excavated
- 1914-18 – The 1914 summer outing goes ahead, using motor charabancs for the first time, but most activities are then curtailed for the duration
- 1918 – Bristolian John Pritchard becomes President, capping many years of diligent observation and recording of threatened sites in the city. He recruits 93 new members in a single year
- 1920 – A dedicated Excavation Fund is established
- 1923 – Our initiative saves Chedworth Roman Villa (discovered 1864), raising the funds to buy the property and put it in the care of the National Trust. The planned summer meeting at Chipping Campden is postponed because of fear of bringing infection from a smallpox outbreak in Gloucester
- 1926 – In our 50th year, membership stands at 743. Pioneering examination of ancillary buildings at Deerhurst church is carried out
- 1928 – We persuade the owner of Belas Knap long barrow to place it in the care of the state (Office of Works), allowing methodical investigation and restoration to begin
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- 1928 – The Royal Society of Arts and BGAS form a trust to run Arlington Row, Bibury, which the RSA had just acquired. After joint fund-raising, this trust continues to 1949, when the properties are conveyed to the National Trust
- 1929 – First woman member of Council elected: Miss Ida Roper, authority on monumental effigies
- 1930 – In his presidential year, W H Knowles, a Roman expert prompts the formation of the Gloucester Roman Research Committee, excavating and producing regular reports until 1939. During the 1930s, Mrs Elsie Clifford investigates many Cotswold sites, establishing new high standards for their documentation
- 1932 – Under the new Town & Country Planning Act, we help county and city authorities compile lists of buildings worthy of preservation, an engagement that continues under successive legislation
- 1939-45 – Activities are much reduced, with all affairs being placed in the hands of officers. Membership falls to 465. Roland Austin, variously general secretary, editor, and treasurer since 1917, is persuaded to carry on
- 1946 – The Society supports the Ancient Bristol Exploration Fund, aimed at investigating bombed sites in the city centre
- 1946 – The Gloucester Roman Research Committee is resuscitated and carries out important excavations in succeeding years
- 1948 – Miss Elizabeth Ralph, Bristol City archivist and the Society’s Bristol secretary since 1943, begins her long (38-year) and effective tenure as general secretary
- 1949 – Mrs Elsie Clifford is our first woman President
- 1953 – Bristol Marriage Licence Bonds 1637-1700 becomes the first output of the Society’s new Record Section, established thanks to a legacy from Mr A B Robinson
- 1958 – The start of regular Society support to the Cirencester Excavations Committee
- 1962 – We makes our first trip beyond England, to the Gower peninsula
- 1967 – The Gloucester Roman Research Committee is reconstituted as the Gloucester & District Archaeological Research Group (GADARG), a separate charity now known as GlosArch
- 1969 – We help fund investigation of archaeological sites along the line of the new M5
- 1973 – The Society becomes a constituent member of CRAAGS, the body managing government grants for Rescue Archaeology in Avon, Gloucestershire and Somerset
- 1976 – In our centenary year, we have over 800 members. Marking the anniversary, ‘Essays in Bristol & Gloucestershire History’ is issued. The Committee for Archaeology in Gloucestershire is set up
- 1979 – We publish the first of our twice-yearly Newsletters, still an important means of communicating with all our members
- 1980-83 – Canon Gethyn-Jones devises and leads a successful series of summer study trips to France
- 1982 – Volume 100 of the Transactions is issued
- 1986 – Miss Ralph retires; the new Hon General Secretary is David Smith, Gloucestershire County Archivist
- 1987 – The Robinson legacy having been used up, a new publication series is agreed, to be funded by an additional subscription
- 1988 – Irene Wyatt’s Gloucestershire Transportees, Volume 1 in the Gloucestershire Record Series appears, under the sadly short general editorship of Peter Ripley
- 1996 – Our first webpage is drafted
- 1998 – Having unexpectedly been given notice to quit by Gloucester authorities, the Society decides after much debate to relocate its library to Cheltenham, on University of Gloucestershire premises
- 2000 – A more professional website is launched; an online index to past issues of the Transactions is begun the following year
- 2002 – A significant legacy enables the setting up of a research fund, to make small grants towards archaeological and historical projects, the first being awarded in 2004. The start of a long cooperation with Cotswold Archaeology, with the publication of Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Report No 1, distributed with the Transactions
- 2005 – Reflecting the increased professionalisation of archaeology, and other changes, the Society’s Excavations and Buildings committee, which had long provided expert comment on planning and listing issues, is mothballed
- 2006 – Indexes to, and the content of, all but the most recent volumes of the Transactions are now freely available on the Society’s website
- 2010 – Council agrees to establish a Monographs series, to accommodate in-depth thematic studies too extensive for inclusion in the Transactions; the first volume is issued in 2012
- 2011 – A substantial project starts, involving over 40 volunteers, to transcribe data from the 1909 Land Tax returns, and add them to a searchable online database. The first of a new series of ‘Notes and Queries’ appears in Transactions Vol 129
- 2012 – We mark the 300th anniversary of Sir Robert Atkyns’ Ancient and Present State of Glostershire with a ceremony at his memorial in Sapperton church, followed by tea in the village hall
- 2016 – A dozen members visit historic sites in south-east Poland and Ukraine; with this, after nearly four decades, the Society’s tradition of overseas summer study trips, ably led by a succession of knowledgeable organisers, comes to a close – we hope a temporary one.
- 2020 – Because of coronavirus restrictions, the AGM does not take place, for the first time outside wartime. Council meetings and talks move online
Based on Elizabeth Ralph’s account of the first 100 years, in Essays in Bristol and Gloucestershire History (1976) pp 1-49 (full text here), and annual reports in the Transactions since that date.
