Our Resources

Norfolk Girlguiding holds one of the largest groups of historically important items outside Guiding Headquarters.

Dating from 1911, these items include elements of genealogy, social history, women’s history and community projects, as well as the development of an international voluntary organisation in a rural setting. There is work written by Agnes Baden Powell, links to the Royal family and their Norfolk Estate and also to Nurse Edith Cavell. Alongside this, there are items such as badges, uniforms and flags which document women’s interests, vocational skills and their place in society across the last 100 years.

These have now all come together in our amazing new Archive Resource Centre (ARC) which was officially opened at our Afternoon Tea Party on 5^th June 2016.

We have two large rooms of uniform, flags, and archives.  It is very much a work in progress and will take a long time for everything to be catalogued and easy to find!   Work is currently being undertaken to provide handling boxes for traditions, discovery, dressing up and campfire blankets for all ages, including reminiscence boxes for older users. These are available for groups and individuals to explore and boxes of items are also available to borrow.

Part of our vision is to engage units across the county in creating video clips of old fashioned skills e.g. hoisting a flag, knot tying, tent pitching and striking, and then uploading these onto YouTube and Facebook. Our resources are adding to the authenticity of the videos.

Try this skill now! How to Tie a Friendship Knot in your Centenary Necker which has already achieved 88,000 hits.

Our aim is to achieve museum accreditation, and although it will take time, it gives us excellent standards and guidelines to develop our project. We have recently interviewed applicants for two internship roles, and a Conservator has come to visit and do a report as required with our Heritage Lottery Fund bid.

To help make all this happen we have a team of regular helpers who come regularly to sort, organise, and catalogue all the items we have at the moment in boxes and on hangers! We are at the ARC every Monday, and would love to see anyone else who would like to join in.

Have a look at our Facebook page to see our latest news.