It is 10 years since Long Melford welcomed the Mayavision film company to the village to film an episode of BBC’s the Great British Story presented by Historian Michael Wood and Archaeologist Carenza Lewis.
At the time local residents Rob Simpson and John Nunn were invited to be the film companies coordinator’s for the village, the result was over thirty households in the village participating in archaeological test pitting in their back gardens, a fun and informative weekend was had by all. It was on the back of this event that we took the decision to try to form a Museum and Heritage Centre in Long Melford after some time spent trying to find a venue for this, the offer of a room at the village hall came up, which we gratefully accepted.
Starting from scratch was by no means an easy task, but thanks to grants from Parish, District and County Councils, progress was made and we acquired our display cases, volunteers also stepped forward to make ready the Centre, in the Spring of 2012 we opened to the public and since then we have gone from strength to strength thanks to our dedicated volunteers, so much so that it was decided this year to apply for Charity Status, this has now been approved and we as a charitable body are now the Long Melford Heritage Trust we hope this will in the future allow us to gain more grant funding and expand our various projects and promote the great history of our village.