Ipswich Building Society
USEFUL FACTS AND FIGURES
- In 1989 IBS started to compile a comprehensive catalogue and index of the Archive material accumulated since it started business in 1849 as the Ipswich & Suffolk Freehold Land Society.
- Archive contents date from the time of the Civil War (a deed of 1656) to the Second World War (microfilm of records made in 1942).
- One business ledger started in 1849 – the Recapitulation Book is still updated each month to this day.
- Over 350 bundles of title deeds, stored in 30 acid free boxes, have already been catalogued and indexed.
- There are 2 very large bound ledgers of plans & ballot posters, one of which contains over 200 plans for Estates developed by FLS in its first 50 years.
- 4 archive plan boxes contain over 100 other items including estate plans, architect’s drawings of houses, and advertising posters.
- The Archive also includes over 50 Minute Books from 1869 onwards.
- Documents are indexed by Street or Estate name and/or parish in Ipswich, and parish or place name in Suffolk, Essex, Norfolk and elsewhere. Whilst 95% of documents relate to Suffolk, there are references to places as far afield as Barbados.
- In 2001 (August) IBS decided to commence the transfer of details from original hand written catalogue & index to a computer database. The system chosen (DS CALM) is a specially designed archive database used by most British Record Offices, Libraries & Museums. Great care will be taken to ensure that methods used to enter material into the IBS database is compatible with systems used at Suffolk Record Office.
