The Society came into being in a more spacious and a more leisured age; its originally declared objectives were "to furnish facilities for antiquaries and afford opportunities of meeting." For the first fifty years, membership tended to be restricted to the squire, to the gentry in general, and to those memorable figures in 18th and 19th century archaeological studies, the parson-antiquaries: the pursuits of archaeology and local history rested in the hands of a few. For the greater part of the latter half of the 19th century the total subscribing membership of the Society did not rise far above 200, although in the last decade of that century it increased to 300 and then to 350. In the first half of the 20th century, virtually coincident with the second fifty years of the Society, there came a gradual change. This half-century saw the advent and rise of the professional archaeologist, to whom the initiative in research has now largely, though not entirely, passed. In the same period, together with the quiet and imperceptible tide of social revolution in this country, the full extent of which is apparent only in retrospect, there came the general spread of education. These influences jointly brought about a larger potential membership of Societies such as ours, and it is interesting to study our membership figures during this period, for by these the health and fortunes of the Society may be judged.
