Digitising the full Diary
One of the files for the Digitised Diary, showing a silhouette of Woodforde held by his Oxford college. By clicking on the icon for this 18MB file in the Members' area the full transcription is available to view and download [New College Archives, 9574/4 © Courtesy of the Warden and Scholars of New College, Oxford]The Parson Woodforde Society's full transcription of James Woodforde's Diary is now available online to members.
On 16 August 2024 all seventeen printed volumes were uploaded by the Society to the Members' area of this website. The seventeen files are of manageable size (in the range 14MB–24MB), varying according to the length of the individual printed volume.
Those who prefer to read a printed edition can still purchase individual volumes from this website, but as the A4 books are large the postage costs can be high—especially for customers overseas. Details of the print copies and the transcription process are given on the Publications page.
Each volume, both scanned and printed, has editorial notes and an index. An index of Diary references is available for free and can be downloaded from the Publications page.
Marking the Beresford centenary
This major development comes in the centenary of the publication of John Beresford's abridged transcription of the Diary. His first volume came out in April 2024.
Funding for this exciting project came from a generous bequest by the Society's former Hon. Treasurer and leading Woodforde scholar, Dr David Case (1938–2023). His family have expressed their delight at the use to which his gift has been put. You can read David Case's Journal articles on this website using the index of authors within the set of Journal indexes:
 | Index to Parson Woodforde Society Journals | 619Kb |
For the price of digital membership of the Society, currently £12.00, more than 5000 pages of text can be studied and enjoyed by researchers and enthusiasts using the Members' area.
Scanning by Archive-Vault in Norfolk
Archive-Vault, the same firm which had digitised the Parson Woodforde Society's Journals in summer 2023, completed the scanning process with their customary speed, efficiency and friendly service in August 2024.
Digitising Woodforde's Diary in action. Each of the Society's 17 printed volumes was scanned expertly by Archive-Vault of Rackheath, near Norwich, in August 2024. Here the soft cover of one of the volumes can be seen on the left-hand monitor [courtesy Archive-Vault 2024]
One of the Society's committee members then uploaded the scanned files. Access to the files, which can be read online and downloaded, is within the password-protected Members' area of the website.