Since our foundation in 1975, members have undertaken studies of Sark’s history and buildings, its rocks, climate, water resources, landscape, flora, birds and other fauna, its economy, languages and culture. They have donated books and documents, photos, models, maps, tapes, archaeological finds and miscellaneous objects. 

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The collection has expanded rapidly in the last three years. In 2005 it comprised Marcia Marsden’s remarkable Herbarium of dried flowers with the record cards of Sark plants since 1839, plus her botanical library, and the collection of books about Sark bequeathed to us by Ken Hawkes (author of Sark 1974). The Reference Library has now tripled to around 500 books (and a similar number of pamphlets), and the Herbarium has over 500 specimens. 

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Manuscript Collections

Our collection includes the working papers of AH Ewen (co-author of  The Fief of Sark 1969) and his indexed transcription of the Registers of Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, kept by Sark’s ministers (1570-1899). If you are interested in family history there is also a fine study of Sark’s tombstones, made by Société members during the 1970s. The Victorian censuses for the Channel Islands and some other historical documents are viewable on CD ROM.

World War II  

Among documents relating to the deportation of Sark residents during the Occupation there are the administrative papers of the Friends of Sark, who were pen friends to internees and raised money for post-war reparations.

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Digital resources
The Audio Archive has about 20 hours of recordings from 1937 onwards of the Sark patois, spoken and sung. Also digitalized are some weather records, aerial and geological photographs, and geophysical data from archaeological surveys. We have a number of documentary films, historical, and of marine life round Sark.  Interactive DVD can be used to identify plants (BSBI) and birds (RSPB), supplementing Frank Rountree’s magisterial Birds of Sark.  Our extensive slide and photograph collection is gradually being digitalized.

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