Saintfield Heritage Society was formed after a successful series of lectures given in the town between 1970 and 1973 known as the Anderson lectures. The founding father was Mr Cecil Patterson who organised a public meeting in 1974 at which it was decided to form a Heritage Society. The first chairman was Colonel Perceval-Price and the first Honorary Secretary was Mr Cecil Patterson. The principal object of the Society is “to advance the public education in all aspects of the history of Saintfield and its surrounding districts, including the geography, folklore, customs, dialects, place names, etc. of the area.”
The Society has organised a series of talks every year since then and currently has over ninety members. It meets on the second Thursday evening of the month between September and April (but not December), currently in the Woodrow Room of the Parish Church Hall. An annual dinner is usually held in May and an annual outing in June. The programme for 2018-19 is available here.
In 1982 the Society published a book of articles relating to the history and heritage of the area. Since then a similar book has been published every four years, the most recent being Book 9 published in 2014. Details of how to purchase the books can be found here. The index for books 1 – 8 is available here.
Membership of the Society is open to all and the annual fee is currently £10 (£4 for students).
The current members of the Committee are listed here.
The Honorary Secretary can be contacted at: info (at) discoversaintfield.com