The Society's annual frolics

Each year members of the Parson Woodforde Society gather in a location associated with James Woodforde. We call these expeditions 'frolics', the term used by Woodforde. In common use in the eighteenth century, it denoted a celebration or entertainment.

The Society's founder, Canon Leslie Rule Wilson, in the garden of Beechfield House, Castle Cary, Somerset. Built in 1775 by Richard Clarke (d.1784), and often visited by the diarist, this was the home of Nancy Woodforde for the last 25 years of her life [Parson Woodforde Society Collection, with thanks to Phillip Judge]Over the years we have visited the diarist's childhood home in Somerset and the villages where he served as a curate; Winchester, where he attended boarding school; Oxford, for his university days; Norfolk, where he served as parish priest for nearly 29 years; and Bath and London, which he visited as a tourist.

Happily for Woodforde enthusiasts many of the domestic buildings known to the diarist still stand, such as the former Cary Villa in Castle Cary, Somerset (left). His niece Nancy lived with other family members at this house after his death, close to her beloved brother William.

The convivial frolics are great fun, involving explorations and the opportunity to make new friends. We often have a coach or boat trip (or both), and make visits to churches, museums and exhibitions of direct relevance to Woodforde and his diary. We have two formal dinners, usually with a guest speaker at one of them.

Members of the Society can read news of individual frolics by viewing the Members' area.

'One of the most pleasant experiences of my life'

Mike Webb, Curator of Early Modern Archives and Manuscripts at the Bodleian Library, holds one of Woodforde's diary notebooks during the Parson Woodforde Society's Oxford frolic of 2024 [photo Margaret Bird 2024] So wrote one of the first-time participants after the Oxford frolic of 2024. Other first-timers wrote in a similar vein: 'I enjoyed every minute.'

The Society is not at all cliquey. Its welcoming warmth is felt by those attending for the first time, including those on their own, who then vow to repeat the experience.

During the 2024 frolic the Society's members spent an absorbing morning in Oxford's Bodleian Library examining a very large number of Woodforde papers, together with manuscripts of other 18th-century diarists.

These included a large proportion of James Woodforde's 72 notebooks, which the library stores in specially-made acid-free boxes, and the diaries of William Woodforde's daughters Julia and Anna Maria. The books, each carefully labelled by the clerical diarist, are of tough, supple paper. His tiny handwriting is difficult to read without the magnifying glasses helpfully provided by the Bodleian.

Society members were allowed to hold and read the original diaries, as illustrated in the Members' area. For many of us this visit proved the highlight of an enjoyable frolic described as 'action-packed' by yet another first-time frolicker.

At the Suffolk Coast frolic: outside the Lowestoft Museum at Oulton Broad [photo Lowestoft Museum 2023]