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100 YEARS OF LIBRARIES

Virtual Library
Bath and North East Somerset Council Logo
Virtual Library

100 YEARS OF LIBRARIES

100 years of Banes Libraries

Bath’s first free public lending library opened 100 years ago in July 1924.

In celebration of 100 years of libraries in Bath this exhibition charts the history of all the free public lending libraries in what is now Bath and North East Somerset (a couple of them are even older than 100 years!).

We’re still researching the history of our libraries so if you have any information that might help please let us know.

whenever you see this symbol: 'Find Out More' Click the image to see links, in-depth research, images, personal memories or cuttings from our scrapbooks
black and white photo of man in apron holding a large pile of books in front of book shelves

Moving the Bath Reference Library, 1964.
Bath in Time,12588

With thanks to:

Bath Record Office
Radstock Museum
Keynsham & Saltford Local History Society
Research volunteers: Annie Daykin, Simon Ingram-Hill, Ann Rossiter, Lindsey Davis and John Stanfield
All the many current and ex-staff and Community Libraries who have shared their knowledge and memories for this exhibition.

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How Free Public Lending Libraries Came To Bath

Early Public Libraries

Public libraries have been around for longer than we might expect – Chetham’s Library in Manchester is the oldest surviving English public library, founded in 1653. Up until the mid-19th century most were closed-access libraries, with use tightly controlled and users segregated by class, sex and age. For those who could afford it there were circulating and subscription libraries where people could be a member and borrow books for a fee.

Libraries Acts and Funding

The 19th century brought many social and political reforms around working conditions, public health and education for the working classes. Among them was the Public Libraries Act of 1850, which allowed municipal boroughs in England and Wales to build and staff public libraries using funds raised through local rates (though it didn’t include money for books!). By 1914 62% of England’s population lived within a library authority area.

The Public Libraries Act of 1919 took things a step further, scrapping the cap on the proportion of tax that an authority could spend on library provision and thereby reducing reliance on philanthropic top-ups.

decorated sepia paper printed: Meyler's Ladies and Gentlemen's Library, in the Grove, Bath
Subscriptions 15s. the year - 5s the quarter - and 2d. the month.
The London, Bath, Bristol, Salisbury, Chester, Reading, Birmingham, and the Dublin Papers for the use of subscribers. Paper, Pens, Ink, Wax, Wafers, and every other Article of Stationary of the best quality.
Magazines, Reviews and all periodical works regularly supplied. A liberal price given for Libraries or parcels of books.
Subscription library advert c. 1781
Bath in Time, 12128
Poster: Friends and Foes of the public Library. Working men, have you compared the men who ask you to vote for the half-penny rate with those who say don't? The Mayor and all the corporation. The whole of the clergy of all denominations. and all those who usually help in starting and supporting all plans to help the working classes, say "yes." Mr Osmond of the Cremorne Tavern, Mr Leaker of the Angel Inn, Mr Wartenburg, beer seller, Captain Fitzgerald of the 'Argus', Mr Reuben Cook, Commercial Traveller, say "No."
Poster c.1850
Bath in Time, 46453

The Bath Public Library Campaign

The fight for a public lending library in Bath was long and contentious. While many saw a public library as vital for progress and supporting working people, many more objected to paying more tax for it.

The campaign started early: a committee was formed and they began to collect books and look for premises. The first application was made to the Council in 1869, but the Guildhall was inundated by taxpayers who objected and the proposal was voted down. A second attempt in 1872 fared the same, with pro-library speakers heckled by the crowd. Although the pro-library movement steadily grew, the motion was defeated for a third time in 1877.

After that the argument played out through posters, flyers and the newspapers, who each took a side. A postal poll of 1880 once again decided against a new library.

Find Out More, From the scrapbooks, A Fierce Debate

Bath Reference Library

A significant number of books had been donated throughout the campaign, many of them local books. In 1893 they were brought together in a dome room in the Guildhall and the non-lending Reference Library was born. It was a quiet beginning with no advertising and most people didn’t even know it was there!

When the Victoria Art Gallery was built in 1900 the Reference Library was included and given a more suitable home, and the campaigners took their chance to submit a new proposal to create a lending library alongside the Reference Library. They were defeated by another poll in 1906.

Success!

By July 1923 only 22 boroughs in England, of which Bath was the largest, had not created a public lending library. Up until this point the Libraries Acts had stipulated that two-thirds of the city’s ratepayers had to agree to the proposal and the addition of a penny to the rates. This stipulation was finally removed and the Council debated the proposals again in 1923 without need for a public vote. The proposal was finally approved. Bath’s first public lending library opened only a year later in July 1924.

black and white photo of 4 men sat reading at a large table surrounded by bookshelves
Bath Reference Library, Bridge Street,1939
Bath in Time, 37630

Libraries Today

We are still guided by the ideal that access to knowledge and education through libraries should be available for everyone, for free. The Libraries Acts now write this into law – all unitary, county or metropolitan borough councils have a statutory duty: ‘to provide a comprehensive and efficient library service for all persons’.

Today Bath and North East Somerset has three authority-run public libraries: Bath Central Library, Keynsham Library and Midsomer Norton Library. They also run a Mobile Library to take the service out as widely as possible.

The region also has 8 Community Run Libraries and 3 small Independent Libraries, providing hubs right in the heart of their communities.

Find Out More: 'A GOOD BARGAIN': THE STRUGGLE FOR A PUBLIC LIBRARY, 1850-1924 History of Bath Research Group

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Bath’s New Lending Library 1924

black and white photo of woman in dark overcoat and hat, stretching with right arm to put a book in a tall bookshelf
Bath Municipal Library, routine staff work c.1925
Bath in Time, 37762
black and white photo of man in suit sitting at a desk covered in papers and books
R.W.M Wright in the Municipal Library c.1925
Bath in Time, 11609

The first free public lending library in Bath opened in the Victoria Art Gallery in July 1924. It was housed in the converted Print Room, next to the non-lending Reference Library. It began with 9,200 books.

The Mayor borrowed the first book at the opening of the library – The Heavenly Twins by Madam Sarah Grand, a novel exploring gender issues and feminism in the late 19th century. A copy is still held in the Bath Record Office.

Bridge Street

The library was hugely popular and expanded quickly, until it took up the whole ground floor of the Gallery and part of the basement.

Unfortunately, major flooding in the storage areas in the 1960s means we don’t have many images of this time – you can see that the photograph below left has suffered some damage.

faded black and white photo of approx. 20 people, men in hats, women wearing fur stoles and hats, around a large counter, with tall book shelves in background
Issue Desk, 1930s
Bath in Time, 37579
black and white photo. people queueing to enter tall doors in an arched doorway. Floor is black and white tiles and there is a glass display case.
Internal entrance via Victoria Art Gallery, 1950s
Bath in Time, 37629
black and white photo. 3 men in suits looking through a counter full of cards, people other side of counter watching.
Issue Desk, 1950s
Bath in Time, 37591

Municipal Lending Library

Everything was managed by a card system, and librarians could use the cards to track the location of every book, whether on the shelf or being borrowed. If a library user wanted to find a book that wasn’t on the public shelves they had to search through long drawers of index cards and then fill out a request slip so the librarian could fetch it. (Despite the advance in technology, sometimes we still use the slip system for the Reference Collections today.)

The library contained a huge number of reference books and directories and the staff would pride themselves on being able to find the answer to almost any question – they were Google long before the internet!

Find out more: staff memories: Libraries in the Family

The Books

When Bath Municipal Lending Library opened in 1924 it had 9,200 books.

Before local authority funding for books was brought in, our early libraries were mostly reliant on donations for their book stock. Sometimes that was money from local philanthropists, more often it was donations of books themselves – our Historic Reference Collection still contains books that were donated in this way.

sepia printed ornate book plate: Bath Public Reference Library. bequest of the Late Alderman Cedric Chivers, J.P. 1929
book open to a page with an illustration and title: book of Betty barber, on a pile of other books

Our oldest and most valuable books are held in Bath Record Office, who have around 1,000 books in their collections, mostly from the 17th and 18th century.

Bath Central Library still houses two rare collections:

  • The Juvenile Collection – a large collection of children’s literature dating from Victorian times to Harry Potter.
  • The Napoleonic Collection – a collection of French Revolutionary, Napoleonic and contemporary European books.

Today B&NES Libraries buy and manage all the book stock for the B&NES and Community Run Libraries, with Moorland Road Community Library also holding a small collection of its own. The independent libraries at Southside, Larkhall and Combe Hay have their own collections and, like the early libraries, are still reliant on donations.

We’ve come a long way from that start of 9,200 books in Bath. As part of Libraries West our members now have access to over 2 million physical items.

While our eBooks and eAudio-books are very popular, physical books will always be at the heart of the library.

And remember – we don’t charge late fees!

pile of 9 new books, with Library stickers

Queen Square

The combined Reference and Lending Libraries at Bridge Street kept growing, and following the flooding in the 1960s the decision was made to separate them to give both more space.

Bath Reference Library moved out to Queen Square in 1964 as a temporary measure – and ended up staying there for 26 years!

black and white photo of two men in hats carrying wooden crate of books into van
Moving to Queen Square, 1964
Bath in Time, 12587
black and white photo, card catalogue in foreground, bookshelves against wall with large dinosaur fossil-type mural on wall
Reference Library in Queen Square, 1989
Bath in Time, 37701

The huge cast of a plesiosaur skeleton you can see in the photograph above right was a reminder of the building’s previous occupant, the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institute.

The Children’s Library

When Bath Municipal Lending Library opened in 1924 it had 9,200 books.

Before local authority funding for books was brought in, our early libraries were mostly reliant on donations for their book stock. Sometimes that was money from local philanthropists, more often it was donations of books themselves – our Historic Reference Collection still contains books that were donated in this way.

black and white photo of children browsing book shelves
Junior Library, Newmarket Row 1956
Bath in Time, 37652
sepia photo of woman sat on chair reading to children and adolescents
Storytime, c.1965
Bath in Time, 12514
black and white photo of woman sat at desk, with lots of full bookshelves. there are posters on the walls and hanging decorations
Children’s Library, 1990
Bath in Time, 37640
Find Out More, customer memories. 60 years of the Library Service

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A New Home The Podium

Black and white photo of a building site, taken from above.
The Podium Centre under construction, 1989
Bath in Time, 26082

A new site was being sought for the libraries and was found in the proposed development of the empty Podium on Northgate Street. Plans were being developed in the mid-1970s, but it wasn’t until 1987 that construction was underway. For the first time this was a building designed specifically for the Bath Public Libraries together.

hand-drawn sketch of buildings, with a car and people on the streets
Artist’s impression of the proposed Podium development, 1976
Bath in Time, 21499
line drawing of buildings with pedestrians
Artist’s impression of the Podium development, 1985
Bath in Time, 26077
Find Out More, Staff memories. Moving to the podium

Libraries Reunited

On 28th September 1990 the Lending and Reference Libraries were reunited in their new home in The Podium and named Bath Central Library.

Having been separate for so long it was a challenge to bring everything back together and to find a new home for everything in the new building.

The move also brought together the staff from Bridge Street and Queen Square, along with the Bath Branches Team, who worked mainly at Moorland Road Library, Weston Library and on the Mobile Library.

photo. woman, accompanied by a man, pulling on a cord to open small black curtains over a wall plaque
Official Opening, 1990
Photograph from Jean Wright

Bath Central Library 1990s

desk with people stood talking, chairs and bookshelves
Enquiry Desk, 1990
Photograph from Jean Wright

Three staff worked at the Enquiry Desk at any one time, and it was positioned right in the middle of the library. There was a large counter…positioned in what is now Quick Select…and the area in the middle was full of trollies for all the returned books. Despite the number of staff working there were still often queues as all procedures and processes took longer than now.


Hilary Cox, Development and Outreach Officer
Memories of working in Bath Central Library only a few years after it opened
photo. rows of desks, some occupied by young people, with bookshelves either side.
Library floor, 1990
photo. computer on desk in foregroung, shelves with books and folders and desks with people standing at sitting.
Reference and Study Area, 1991
B&NES I33-18
Find Out More Staff Memories Bath Central Library in mid 1990s

Remember These?

red wooden train. children looking in carriages, which contain books. the round yellow sign on the front of the 'engine' says 'The Podium Puffer'
B&NES I35_23

The Podium Puffer was a favourite in the Children’s Library from 1990-2004

The Record Library 1990 – quite a mix of cover art on display!

photo. a man leaning over red racks full of records.
B&NES I39-6
photo of bronze statue on wooden plinth. statue is representation of person curled up with knees and forehead on floor.
Image credit Victoria Art Gallery

The Scarab by Edwin Whitney-Smith marked the entrance to the Bridge Street Library from inside the Victoria Art Gallery for many years.

Reference Moves Again

After another 27 years together, the Reference and Lending Libraries were again to part.

In 2017 the Local Studies and Special Collections were moved to the Guildhall, to become part of the expanded Bath Record Office: Archives and Local Studies.

Their collection fills 5km of shelving in the Guildhall basement as well as offsite storage, and the knowledge of the team is second to none – well worth a visit if you’re undertaking any research.

two men, one standing, one crouching near book shelves
Sorting out shelves, 2017
person sat at desk in foreground, table with boxes on in middle of floor, room lined with shelving with books and folders.
Bath Record Office today

Bath Central Library Today

Bath Central Library today welcomes around 214,000 people a year through its doors, to borrow books, to study, to use the computers, to visit the Sensory Space, to play in the Lego Lab or just to have a safe space to keep warm – all for free.

With the many challenges our communities have faced over recent years libraries and all they offer are more important than ever.

We hope to be here for another 100 years – and we look forward to what that future might bring!

table with tall green chairs in foreground, 3 bookshelves visible behind, full of books, one labelled Adult Fiction
Bath Central Library today
Image credit Anna Barclay
children and adults from behind, person on chair blurred in background
Baby Bounce and Rhyme session
Image credit Anna Barclay
seven adults of varying ages, genders and races stood in a row in front of book shelves. all are wearing combinations of black, white and light blue and blue lanyards.
Bath Central Library Team today

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The Women of Keynsham

black and white photo. two women in cardigans standing either side of a large counter full of cards.
Two Librarians, Keynsham Library
Image credit B&NES Libraries

The story of the beginning of Keynsham’s Public Library is dominated by women.

It starts with a group of Keynsham ladies in 1941, who approached Somerset County Council to request that a public library be set up in the Old Liberal Club on Bath Hill. They must have made a good case because the library opened on July 4th the same year.

stylised circular hand drawn map within ornately bordered drawn frame.
Historic Map of Keynsham
by Mary Fairclough

The first librarian, Mrs E C Hartley, ran a team of women volunteers. A library committee member remembers that one of the volunteers disapproved of Enid Blyton books and tried to have them removed!

Another volunteer, Miss Mary Fairclough, was commissioned to paint a map of historic Keynsham. With canvas hard to come by she used hessian from tea chests instead. The map is still on display in the current Keynsham Library.

The Library at Bath Hill

The Library at Bath Hill was on two floors – the upper floor for adults and the downstairs room for children. A local man and his sister donated 1,000 books and all the furniture and fittings to set up the Children’s Library.

The library was a community hub from the start, with everything from council meetings to play-reading groups being held there. However, the building itself wasn’t always in the best of repair.

The room was sometimes blue with smoke from the heating stove, and Miss Fairclough remembered:

One afternoon there was a sudden cracking sound and a large section of ceiling descended in chunks of plaster and a cloud of dust over the desk: followed, after a moment’s horrified silence, by one small mouse.

black and white photo. stone buildings on street, with cars parked and driving past, including mini
The Liberal Club, Keynsham
Keynsham & Saltford Local History Society
black and white photo. woman with guitar sat on floor surrounded by children

Linda Horne was librarian at Keynsham from 1983-1989.

We’re grateful to her for many of the Keynsham stories shared in this exhibition.

Find Out More, from the scrapbooks. Gorilla Disrupts book time
Find Out More, customer memories. Memories of Keynsham Library

Busiest Library in Somerset

With the post-war growth of Keynsham, the library went from strength to strength.

From 1958 there were paid staff rather than volunteers and opening increased from 3 to 5 days a week. Keynsham Library became the busiest library in Somerset.

It was clear that a bigger building was needed, and in 1965 the library moved out of Bath Hill and into the new development on Temple Street.

After only a year issues had risen by 100,000, peaking in 1979 at a huge 396,000 a year.

low seating around a coffee table with desks behind, full bookshelves line the wall behind
Library at Temple Street, 1983
floorplan with colours denoting seating, shelving and computers
Plan of building, 2006

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A New Modern Library

photo taken half way up curved stairs. seating and shelves with people visible below and above
Keynsham Library interior as it is today

In 2011 Keynsham Library was on the move again as their building was demolished to create a new Civic Centre, Library and Community Space. For 3 years the library was in an old archive and records office on the Riverside Complex on Temple Street, with only room for half the books and beset by leaks and flooding.

shelves visible behind full-height glass walls with stone corner pillars
Keynsham Library new building

The new building opened in October 2014 – designed to be energy efficient and with a glass floor to display the Roman mosaic beneath.

At the same time the library combined with the One Stop Shop to provide Council Services in the same space.

Keynsham Library, Information and Advice Services will celebrate the 10th anniversary of their building in October this year – look out for details of activities and events!

Keynsham Library Today

Keynsham Library, Information and Advice services today offers books, study spaces and computers, council services, a Sensory Space, and a cup of tea and slice of cake in Pam’s Pantry!

In 2023-24 86,000 people visited Keynsham Library and numbers keep increasing!

map rug on floor, with bean bag and soft toys. books on low shelves and in display shelves
Keynsham Library today
four women and a man stood on wooden floor. all wearing black, blue and hiote.
Keynsham Team today

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Midsomer Norton
The Drill Hall 1921

Midsomer Norton Library is one of the oldest free public lending libraries in what is now Bath and North East Somerset, second only to Radstock Library.

sepia photo of river with streets/pavements either side and bridges,
Library in the Drill Hall
Image courtesy of Tom Randall

The library opened in the Drill Hall on the High Street in 1921 under Somerset County Council and was for a long time the smallest library in the area, with Radstock being the largest and busiest.

By 1927 Midsomer Norton was part of a co-operative agreement with other library authorities in Somerset, giving them access to a larger catalogue. This is an early precursor of the Libraries West consortium we’re part of today.

Somerset County Council began providing all the library’s stock in 1962, including non-fiction books where before there had only been fiction. There was some criticism from readers that the new books weren’t light enough!

The Hollies

The Hollies

In the early 1940s the library moved over the road to The Hollies, taking up the whole right side of the building, including the block that was later demolished to make way for Safeway (now Sainsbury’s). The entrance was through the grand door at the front – now painted bright red.

Despite being larger than the Drill Hall there was no workroom or staffroom in The Hollies. The two staff had to do everything on the counter, which would have presented a real challenge in finding space for all the books and cards!

red door in stone building, seen through metal archway surrounded by trees
Original library entrance as it is today

Do you know what year the library moved out of the Drill Hall?

Do you know what year the library moved out of the Drill Hall?

Brand New Building

Issues of books declined through the 1960s, attributed to a lack of space. The campaign for a better home for the library began in earnest in the 1970s, led by Councillor Mrs Betty Perry. It took a decade to win, but the new, purpose-built library building opened in November 1983.

a newspaper article titled' Betty Faces Booking' black and white image of 6 women of various ages posing for the camera in front of bookcases
Find Out More, staff memories. Midsomer Norton Library on the Move
young people in two lines on floor, with paper and art works in between
Local students visit the library, 1980s
display shelves and stands with items on, with standing water on floor
Flooding of library, 2011

The opening of the new building marked a significant change for all the local libraries. Midsomer Norton became the largest and primary library in the area and Radstock, which had until then held that position, became a branch library to Midsomer Norton.

In 2011 the library suffered significant damage after a pipe burst in the freezing weather. The heating system, some furniture and 300 books had to be replaced.

The Hollies – Again!

After 35 years, with technology changing, Midsomer Norton Library found itself in need of a new home again. So across the High Street it went for the third time, back to The Hollies!

This time the library joined up with the One Stop Shop to become Midsomer Norton Library and Information Services. An excellent modern design was commissioned to meet the new, joint needs while still retaining the essence of the library that’s so important to the community.

floorplan with colours denoting seating, shelving and computers
Map of Library and Information Services, 2018
shelves of books with large 'self service' sign in background
Midsomer Norton Library in The Hollies
Image credit Anna Barclay
woman holding up picture book in children's area
Storytime session held in children’s library today
Image credit Anna Barclay

MSN Library Today

Midsomer Norton Library, Information and Advice Services today is as much a hub of the community as it was in its small beginnings in the Drill Hall.

88,000 people visited in 2023-24, making use of the books, computers, study spaces, council services, games and the Sensory Space.

The Midsomer Norton team have built a particularly good reputation for their children’s activities and events. It’s a small place of great imagination.

seven women wearing black and white stood in front of books
Midsomer Norton Team today

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From Paper to Pixels Changing Technology

For hundreds of years, libraries were organised by card catalogues. Every book had a card which had handwritten (later typed) details including title, author and where it could be found on the shelves.

Everything changed with the introduction of computers.

It took time to input thousands of books for the very first time, but when it was complete the whole catalogue could be searched and managed in a fraction of the time.

two people stood looking at large box, nearly as tall as them full of small drawers
Card Indexes, 1972
Bath in Time, 13416
newspaper article titled Libraries set to go on line
Newspaper article, January 1998

Digitisation changed the look of the library – gone were the banks of card indexes and instead there were staff computers.

As access to information at home became easier the banks of shelving for reference books and directories that once took up half the floor space became less and less used, eventually given to fiction instead.

Find Out More, customer memories. No future in this internet malarkey

Libraries today would be unrecognisable to those who used them in the first half of the 20th century. Most of our customers borrow and return books using the kiosks and we’re able to link up with seven other authorities through the Libraries West consortium to offer all members access to over 2 million items.

We have eBooks and eAudiobooks. Our newspapers and magazines are now digitally available and thousands of people access them every month. We also have a Virtual Library with book reviews, games, information and more. Where will we go next?

woman in pink coat scanning card on a self-service machine
Using the self-service machines
Image credit Anna Barclay

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The Mobile Library

black and white photo of old curved-front van clad in shiny metal
Bath Mobile Library, 1967
Bath in Time, 12526

We don’t know what date the first Mobile Library rolled out across what is now Bath & North East Somerset, but we do know that in the 1960s there were three on the road: one at Keynsham, one at Radstock and one in Bath.

Our earliest record is a Mobile Library at Keynsham in 1958. Originally managed from Bridgewater Library, until Keynsham Library took it over in 1965, it was stored behind the Charlton Cinema.

The Mobile at Radstock covered the north west of Somerset, and in 1966 the Bath Mobile service expanded to include Combe Down on the route.

The Mobile Library in the image above originally belonged to Gloucester Libraries. It was replaced in November 1968 with Bath’s first brand new Mobile Library, which cost £4,000, probably the one pictured on the right.

Black and white photo of boxy van, like a lorry
Bath Mobile Branch Library, c.1974
Bath in Time, 34322
Newspaper article with headline Mobile Library (it cost £4,000) Goes On Show
Local Press article published November 1968
Newspaper article with headline Move to run mobile library full time
Local Press article published
December 1968

There have been many variations of Mobile Libraries over the years. Graham Ewen, Mobile Library driver from 1982 to the mid-1990s, remembers his first van as ‘a decrepit and battered petrol driven vehicle’ – on one occasion the petrol was stolen from it while it was outside a school.

Helen Beckwith remembers working on the Mobile in 1994 and the challenge of toilet stops: ‘We sometimes went in pubs, sometimes had to ask readers if we could use theirs on particularly bad days. It’s not so different now!’

Our current Mobile Library hit the road in 2019 and is out every weekday on regular routes, outreach visits or events – not to mention an annual slot at Bath Christmas Market.

mini-bus like whit van with green stripes
Mobile Library, 1999
delivery-type van, with colourful decor on the sides, with an awning
Mobile Library today
interior of van lined with books shelves and lots of people looking at books
Keynsham Mobile Library Interior, 1980
Image credit B&NES Libraries

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Library At Home

newspaper photo of two women posing behind piles of book
Eileen Colburn and Jean Weare

The idea of taking books out to people who aren’t able to get to the library gained a lot of publicity during the Covid pandemic, but it’s been going on for much longer than that.

In 1979 Keynsham Library began a service taking collections of books to group dwellings for older people, which later merged with a similar service run by the Red Cross.

Two volunteers, Eileen Colburn and Jean Weare, were given long service awards in 2006 for 20 years of work with the Home Library Service, which by then had already been going for 30 years from Midsomer Norton and Keynsham Libraries.

They co-ordinated a team of volunteers who delivered books to residents who weren’t able to get to the library for many different reasons. The friendly face was then, and remains, sometimes more important than the books.

newspaper article with photo of three women loading crates of books into a car
Books on wheels for patients
B&NES Library at Home

Staff at Midsomer Norton Library launched a Books on Wheels service in the 1980s as an extension of the Home Library Service, delivering books and magazines to Paulton Memorial Hospital.

Our Library at Home Service today offers three different ways to support residents whose ability to leave home is restricted. All are still delivered by a brilliant team of volunteers.

  • Home Library Service
  • Reading Friends
  • Book Drop
Find Out More, from the scrapbooks. Fines, Lost books and one dedicated lady.

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Branch and Community Libraries

Branch libraries in Bath and North East Somerset were smaller libraries run by the council as a part of a whole public library system. Many of B&NES branch libraries were originally run by Parish or Town Councils before being brought together with the larger authority run libraries to benefit from shared resources, staff and joint organisation.

In 2017 libraries had to find a new way of working, as council finances encountered unprecedented restrictions. Local communities came together to take over the branch libraries, which became Community Libraries. Today, the Community Libraries are independently run but work closely with B&NES libraries, sharing stock and a library management system to make sure all public libraries in Bath and North East Somerset work together as a network for all residents.


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Moorland Road Library

black and white photo of room with gable ceiling, full bookshelves lining the walls. two triangular tables with chairs in the centre
Moorland Road Branch Library, 1967
Bath in Time, 37657

Moorland Road Library opened as a branch library in 1961. The building was always used for learning – previously a school, a Co-operative lecture hall and then a temporary cinema during World War II – so it’s fitting that it has been home to the library for so long.

It was one of the most popular branch libraries for staff and they would vie to be posted there. Footfall was frequently the highest of the branch libraries with very loyal customers.

The original shelving was more of a challenge – by the 2010s it was said to be held together by staff repairs and luck!

In 2019 the transition was made to become Moorland Road Community Library, managed by four Trustees and run by a team of volunteers under charitable status.

outside of one-story stone building with hanging baskets
Moorland Road Community Library

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Radstock Library

black and white photo of three women, two men and one boy walking towards the camera carrying books
Staff moving from Victoria Hall to new premises, 1973
Image credit B&NES Libraries

Radstock is the oldest public lending library in what is now Bath and North East Somerset. It began life in 1897 as a reading room and library in the newly built Victoria Hall, and was made a public library under the Libraries Acts on 11th July 1904.

Control of expenditure on stock was very tight – in 1910 Radstock Council gave the library special permission to buy the complete works of Dickens, which was seen as an important but extravagant purchase.

Radstock was the main library for the area and in 1973 moved into a purpose-designed, architectural award-winning building, where it has stayed ever since.

view of one story building and street front
Radstock Library and Community Hub

When the new, bigger library was built in Midsomer Norton in 1983 however, Radstock became a branch library.

In April 2019 it transformed again to become Radstock Library and Community Hub, run by a team of volunteers under Radstock Town Council.


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Paulton Library

three storey stone building with arched windows and large Public Library sign
Library in Central Methodist Church, 2001

Paulton Library opened on 14th July 1954, in a room next to Purnell & Sons at Winterfield, and moved to the Central Methodist Church Hall in 1966. In 1974 its space was doubled by an extension, which gave the whole library room for nearly 6,000 books, described by the Chair of the Parish Council as ‘a dream for a long time.’

It became a branch library in 2013, moving across the road to its current location in the shopping precinct, which was previously a bank and a chemist before being converted into the library and café.

In November 2018 Paulton Parish Council took over managing the library and after some internal building work it re-opened as a Community Library, run by a team of volunteers.

whop front with full-height windows and 'Coffee Bar & Library @ the Hub'
Paulton Library today


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Saltford Library

room with florescent lights, lined with full bookshelves and shelving in the middle
Saltford Library, 2001

Saltford was served by the Mobile Library for many years, but the community wanted a more permanent service and so in 1978, following public demand, a branch library was opened in a former hardware store on Bath Road. Some of the staff in the 1980s were avid knitters and perfected the art of knitting while still serving customers.

one storey building with ramp to door. Post office sign visible
Saltford Library today

Before work was undertaken to improve the building it was very damp. Kerri Brain remembers: ‘we often found snail trails around the library and evidence of them snacking on any paper left on the floor!’

Today Saltford Community Library is still in the same premises, without snails, and is run by volunteers under the umbrella of the Saltford Residents Association, following the change from branch to Community Library in July 2018.


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Weston Library

woman with mayoral chain stood at counter, with five other people sat listening
The re-opening of the Weston Branch Library, 1962
Bath in Time, 33668

Weston Branch Library opened in 1951, in a building gifted to the people of Weston by a local vicar in the late 18th century. The building was to be used as a shared home for community organisations and activities and the library has been an integral part of it for over 70 years.

While Bath City Council managed the library, it was run by volunteer members of the community until 1962, when the council were able to provide paid staff and open the library every day.

Weston Branch Library operated until 2018, and re-opened in 2019 as Love Weston Library, coming full circle to be once again run by members of the community. In 2023 it was granted charitable status and continues to be run by volunteers under the direction of a Board of Trustees.

honey-coloured stone building with front door on to street
Love Weston Library today


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100 Years On – The New Libraries

Chew Valley Library

Chew Valley Community Library opened as Bishop Sutton Community Library in November 2018. It is run entirely by volunteers and guided by a Community Library Committee, under the Parish Council.

stone building resembling a church with arched windows
Chew Valley Library

Timsbury Community Library

The village of Timsbury was originally served by the Mobile Library, but opened their own Timsbury Community Library in September 2018 in the Timsbury YMCA, run by Timsbury Parish Council.

room with colourful mat on floor and bookshelves
Timsbury Community Library

Peasedown St John Community Library

Peasedown St John Community Library was set up as a Community Run Library in 2019 and is located in the Hive Community Centre. It is run by volunteers as part of the Peasedown Community Trust and has charitable status.

'Peasedown Community Library' sign on a wall
Peasedown St John Community Library

Larkhall Community Library

Larkhall Community Library opened in 2010 in New Oriel Hall and is a very active community hub run by volunteers. It is an independent library that offers a great range of books.

Southside Community Library

Southside Library has been run by Youth Connect South West since 2015. It has both corporate and charitable status and, although it is an independent library, it links with B&NES Libraries through book stock donated by B&NES.

Combe Hay Community Library

Combe Hay Community Library is a small independent library located in the back of Combe Hay Parish Church. It was set up by the community in 2017 and operates on a trust basis overseen by the Parish Council.


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What’s Next?

Our Centenary Research Project will continue for the whole of 2024 and we will update this exhibition with new finds. You can find out about the celebrations and events we will be hosting throughout the year on our Virtual Library.

Bath and North East Somerset Council Logo

100 YEARS OF LIBRARIES

100 years of Banes Libraries
Virtual Library

100 YEARS OF LIBRARIES

100 years of Banes Libraries
Bath and North East Somerset Council Logo
Virtual Library

When I arrived at Bath Central Library in 1993 it was part of Avon County Council’s Library Service. The Reference Library had moved from Queen Square and the Lending Library from Bridge St to form this new library in The Podium only three years before. So many things were still new for the staff, including the layout of the library, all the behind-the-scenes rooms and books stacks, and where everything was stored. As well as the staff from Queen Square and Bridge St, there was also the Bath Branches Team, who mainly worked at Moorland Rd, Weston and the Mobile Libraries.

Three staff worked at the Enquiry Desk at any one time, and it was positioned right in the middle of the library. Half of the floor space was taken by shelving for the reference books, with only a few tables and chairs. There were several hundred directories and Fast Fact books which were very well used as the internet was still in its infancy for most people. The most popular directories were “Who’s Who”, “Dictionary of National Biography” and “A Guide to Company Giving”. Many of these directories are now available online which means a lot less books and shelving in the library.

Newspapers, maps and journals were stored at the Enquiry Desk. If a customer wanted something from the Stack or Local Store, they would have looked it up in the Card Catalogue and filled in a yellow request slip. The Catalogue was a beautiful piece of wooden furniture with tens of drawers holding thousands of cards, all representing an item held somewhere in the library’s collection. Where the public computers are now there were three “study carols”, which were small, private, quiet areas for customers using our reference material. There were also three or four huge metal cabinets which housed the excellent map collection: these have moved to the Guildhall. In what we now call the Map Room were all the back runs of newspapers and journals were stored. Today they are all available to library members online, so freeing up staff time and library space.

Although the library was using computers, staff had to handle every book when it was either returned or borrowed, with two sets of two computers either side of the large Counter. This was positioned in what is now Quick Select and was the entrance into the library, and the large area in the middle was full of trollies for all the returned books. Despite the number of staff working there was still often queues as all procedures and processes took longer. All lending books had been electronically catalogued, but the system was slow and clumsy, which meant a search for a book could take a while.

red wooden train. children looking in carriages, which contain books. the round yellow sign on the front of the 'engine' says 'The Podium Puffer'
Bath in Time, B&NES I35_23

Bath Central Library still has the same, separate Children’s Area. It used to have a lovely Train-and-Carriages kinderbox for the picture books, which the toddlers could sit inside and “drive”. There was a large desk there for one member of staff, with seating for three customers. As well as the usual Children’s activity of Storytime, there were regular craft events as well as class visits and children’s author talks. As today, lots of noise was generated in this area, which sometimes caused upset for our serious-minded researchers!

Hilary Cox

June 2024

As a boy the library played a great part in my life. I lived opposite to the library in a cottage a mere 20 yards away. In the years of austerity after the war, when everything was on ration, the opportunity to read books was all. Without television to while away the hours before bedtime, I read and I read and I read.

As soon as I skipped home across the road from Bath Hill Junior School it was across the road to the library to seek a new book. Often, I would finish it and I was able to change it for another before closing time.

The children’s section was to the left of the entrance door and staffed by a very kindly elderly lady. The method of recording loans was by stamping the date on a sheet on the inside of the book’s cover and removing an identifying card which was then placed in a card pocket in a rack. My choice of books was fairly predictable for my age. Swallows and Amazons, Just William, Five Go Adventuring etc with the odd tales from the Wild West and Bertie Wooster.

Later as I grew older, I graduated to the Senior Section up the stairs which was much larger and I started on adult novels and the classics. There, it was a much different atmosphere of hushed silence. It was sad to see it closed and the building used for other purposes after it moved into its new premises.

Brian Vowles

I’m one of the library staff in the photo ( far right) I was Saturday Assistant at the time while also a sixth former at Norton Hill School.

a newspaper article titled' Betty Faces Booking' black and white image of 6 women of various ages posing for the camera in front of bookcases
Evening Post, 24th Nov 1983

A memory of mine from that time just prior to the opening we pushed trolleys of books across the high street to the new library building from the old one attached to the Hollies building!

Newspaper Article titled 'Gorilla Disrupts Book Time' black and white photo a man reading to children. Transcript below.
The Bath Chronicle, 2nd of August, 1988

[Transcript]

CHILDREN'S author Dick King-Smith had some surprise help from his brother Tony during an afternoon of story-reading at Keynsham Library.

Just as 66-year-old Dick was settling down to read to the children, his brother, a local businessman, bounded in dressed as a gorilla.

But the author took it in his stride, laughing at his brother along with the children.

The Queen Charlton children's author has recently turned his pen to script writing and is working on the second series of Tumbledown Farm for Yorkshire Television. The first series is now being aired and stars the author as Farmer Dick.

The former Bitton farmer and primary school teacher took up writing ten years ago and has since published more than 30 children's books.

The idea for his first book, The Foxbusters, came after he lost several chickens to a fox and decided it was time for the chickens to get revenge.

Dick King-Smith is pictured above reading to the children.

Handwritten pages, transcript below

Having lived in and near Bath all my life I have been using BaNES Library Service for about 60 years. While at senior school I used to use my bus pass to visit the main Bath Library most Saturdays. At that time it was on the ground floor of the Victoria Art Gallery. I remember the Children’s section was on the left and your progressed up the steps to the main adult Library. I remember feeling excited and a bit nervous when starting to borrow books from the adult section. Would I be allowed to take out my choices?

At one stage I had a fascination with the lyrics of the Gilbert and Sullivan Operettas. I could borrow a book of those from the music section which was reached downstairs in the centre of the adult library. Many of the items kept there were later lost in a flood.

I have also used the Libraries in Keynsham – before it moved to it’s current home and Midsomer Norton Library both now at the Hollies and previously when it was in the building now occupied by Specsavers.

Over the years I have borrowed and enjoyed thousands of books and a few CD's & DVDs when they were available. Now I continue to borrow books as well as volunteering in a community library and the main library.

A dream I once had of becoming a librarian has now changed but books & libraries are very important to me.

Patricia

Library Customer and Volunteer

Handwritten pages, transcript below

I started working in Bath Central Library only a few years [after] it had moved into The Podium. There was a big counter, installed with the first library computers where staff issued and discharged books for the customers. 

To help with enquiries there was a large desk in the middle of the library. Customers and staff used the card catalogue, a huge wooden cabinet with 10's of drawers filled with cards, each representing a book in the library. Yellow slips were filled in with book details to help staff retrieve it. The internet was in its infancy, so there were shelves and shelves of directories, encyclopaedias & dictionaries. The library staff were the internet! 

When Bath Central Library moved into The Podium the first computers were installed. Staff had to have training on how to use them as well as learn about the Internet and the World Wide Web. 

I remember going to Radstock College with colleagues for our first I.T. lesson. It was really interesting and great fun. I recall coming across a woman in California announcing her guinea pig had had babies: we thought that was hilarious.

I don't think I really grasped the Concept of the internet. As we left the College I said "I don't know why I need to know about baby guinea pigs in California. There's no future in this internet malarkey!

Hilary Cox

Library Staff

Selection of news headlines: Libraries may take court action, County to prosecute Library book hoarders, 26 for 'lost' book court, Booked - for £220 fines, Library Book Laggards Face £70 Court Fines
Selection of local news headlines from the 1960's and 1970s

The headlines above show how aggressively the library was pursuing fines for overdue and lost books in the '60s and '70s!

In 1968, if you had overdue books you may have had to face Mrs Coleman!

cut out newspaper article with picture of middle aged woman. Transcript below.

[Transcript]

Forget to return that book? Mrs Coleman may be on your tail

IN SEVEN weeks a Bath housewife, appalled at the number of books "missing" from the shelves of the local library, has been rounding up forgetful borrowers and returned more than 120 books, worth nearly £100. 

"From one house I got 11 books," Mrs June Coleman, of 79 Minster Way, told me. 

On about two evenings each week Mrs Coleman gets out her car and calls on the forgetful. "I volunteered to do it because the library staff are very over-worked and can't devote the necessary time to checking up on every borrower who don't bring back their library books on time," she said. 

"It all started because every time I went to the library to get a book for a housebound subscriber it was out. And it kept on being out, so in desperation I offered to use my own car and time and get all out-standing books back. 

"I find that most people welcome my visit: they have kept meaning to take the book or books back but have never been able to get round to it. They gladly hand over the books and the fines to me. The odd one is sometimes a little difficult and threatens to put the dog on me but these are fortunately few and far between. 

"Sometimes it's a case of illness which has made it almost impossible for a book to be returned. I am thinking particularly of one family where the husband was involved in a serious accident and what with looking after him and her two children the housewife had found it impossible to go to the library. 

"In one case I called for a book that had been out for six I months and the housewife not only found this book but also two others which should have been returned in 1966." 

Two weeks ago Mrs Coleman collected 28 books but this week has only produced eight. "It varies very much from week to week," she said, "but I enjoy being an unpaid spare-time overdue book collector." 

At the last meeting of the Library and Art Gallery Committee on March 19, the director, Mr Peter Pagan, said the committee was prepared to take persistent offenders to court where they could be fined £1 for every day they kept the books after the court hearing. 

At the last meeting of the Library and Art Gallery Committee on March 19, the director, Mr Peter Pagan, said the committee was prepared to take persistent offenders to court where they could be fined £1 for every day they kept the books after the court hearing. 

22 years later, in 1990, Mrs Coleman was still on the hunt for missing books, having collected 20,000 by then!

Newspaper Article titled 'June's Novel Role'. black and white image of older lady wearing glasses holding large stack of books. transcript below.

[Transcript]

June's Novel Role

BORROWED Bath books are June Coleman's business. Since 1968, June has knocked on thousands of doors in the Georgian City recovering overdue library books for the Bath Library. It's been an action-packed twenty-two years of voluntary work where she has retrieved 20,000 books, as well as hundreds of cassettes and records.

A great story-teller, June recalls dozens of adventures she's had in her quest to win back library property from absent minded borrowers. On one occasion she returned to the Bath Central Library with seventy-four books from one elderly woman.

IRATE BORROWER

Once she was doused by two buckets of cold water from one irate borrower. Then there was the time she ducked pellets from an air-gun, and the time someone set a ferocious dog on her.

Her investigations have even lead overseas, where with persistence she recovered a book from Perth, Australia.

Despite her success rate, June says she is not a book bailiff and does not make it her job to bully people. She simply collects the books. The library sends a fine notice later.

OVERDUE

"In my job, you must be able to deal with people," June told Avon Report. "I'm always polite and ask if there's any particular reason why they may not have returned the books."

In the hi-tech nineties June receives a computer print-out of overdue lists. It's a far cry from the early days when she admits she started her voluntary recovery campaign "naively". "Basically I just couldn't see how all these books could keep going missing."

How things have changed!

In 2019, B&NES Libraries stopped collecting fines for overdue books and held a 'no questions asked' book amnesty.

screenshot of Love Weston Library website, headline Book Amnesty in BaNES
Love Weston Library's website article about the book amnesty

Now, you'll only be charged if a book is lost or irretrievably damaged. So if you find it on your shelf six months after it was due, just bring it in back and we'll reset your account with no fine. We promise Mrs Coleman won't knock on your door!

A3 black and white posters in scrapbook. One for a meeting in favour of free library held in Temperance Hall. Other for a meeting against the free Library.

The debate over Bath's Public Library was fierce and everyone had an opinion. Above and below are a selection of posters, preserved in our scrapbooks, advertising meetings to rally for and against a Public Library.

A3 black and white poster in scrapbook. Main words: Fellow Ratepayers Vote against the proposed Library Tax
A3 black and white poster in scrapbook. titled The Free Library at the Halfpenny Rate
A3 black and white poster in scrapbook. Main words: Fellow Citizens Vote against this Tax

And it wasn't just meeting organisers having their say. Below are just some of the pages from our scrapbooks featuring 'letters to the editor' in local papers. Every single letter is someone sharing their opinion on Public Libraries and they are frequently signed 'A Ratepayer'.

Large scrapbook double page full of newspaper cuttings
Large scrapbook double page full of newspaper cuttings
Large scrapbook double page full of newspaper cuttings
Large scrapbook page full of newspaper cuttings
Large scrapbook page full of newspaper cuttings
Large scrapbook page full of newspaper cuttings

Black and white photo of building site with no roof and steel pillars

I remember the excitement of going to The Podium, wearing hard hats, to look at our new library space. The pillars throughout were a disappointment, but the large space and the plan to integrate lending and reference were exciting.

Inside of half finished building, insulation visible through ceiling
inside of building with flooring and lighting, but otherwise empty
Library building empty apart from a central desk

Another exciting time was trips to buy new books. I think we went to Askews in Preston, but I may be wrong. I’ve been there a few times over the years and the trips have tended to roll into one! Pulling brand new books off of shelves into trolleys was like a mad Supermarket Sweep. We started off fairly tentatively, as we were conscious that we didn’t want to overspend, but at the end of the second day we were still underspent and were pulling off whole series of books.

The last weeks and days of the old lending library were hectic as we prepared for the move. We allowed readers to take out as many books as they wanted, as long as they agreed to return them to the new library. In this way we hoped to get the readers to help us move the books over. It turned out this was not such a good idea… More on this later.

Newspaper Article showing picture of man pushing super market shopping trolley full of books. Transcript below.

[TRANSCRIPT]

TAKING advantage of Bath library's policy to let readers take as many books as they want is Philip Edmonds of Ivy Park, Bath.

To ease the problems of transferring 140,000 books from the Bridge Street lending library and the Queen Square reference library to the new combined library at The Podium, borrowers have been told they can take any number of books from the existing Libraries - as long as they return them to the new one when it opens.

The libraries close on August 18 for the transfer. Six weeks later, the new library will open.

As the closure of the old lending library drew near the shelves emptied and we dragged older books out of store to fill gaps – Another idea that sounded better than it turned out in practice.

Then we closed. We had several hundred plastic boxes delivered to fill up with one shelf of books in each box. Of course one shelf did not fit in each box, (especially books from the Reference library.) but we managed. The new books were delivered and we started filling the shelves in the Podium. The stock from the old lending and reference libraries was transferred over and we started putting these on the shelves. The books were transferred by a delivery company who were used to doing this, and they provided sort of skateboards to put the boxes of books on and transport them around the library. That made moving the books around very easy.

three people transferring books from blue crates to shelves

Eventually we were ready to open, and on the first day we were inundated with people and books. Staff were obviously keen to help but finding some of the reference stock was quite difficult. The catalogue cards for the reference books were annotated with various abbreviations which the former lending staff had difficulty translating. Then we had to work out where the books on the “shelf behind librarian’s desk” had been moved to in the Podium.

At busy times we had three members of staff on the enquiry desk in the centre of the library. Unfortunately we had four phones, so sometimes the public were treated with the sight of three librarians on the phone, with a fourth ringing while a queue formed at the desk.

Over the next few weeks the big mistake of letting people take out as many books as they wanted became clear. I remember that I looked at the statistics for the first month of opening and if I remember correctly, we had 60,000 books taken out and 70,000 returned, so we had to find room for 10,000 extra books. They went into the stack but were not in order. This proved to be a problem for quite some time as books were supposed to be on the shelves but we couldn’t find them because they were in the stack in no particular order. We ended up having to come in on a Sunday on overtime to sort out the stack. Even the head of service at the time, Richard Ashby, joined us.

Despite the teething problems, and a few more difficulties over the years, (such as the drumming workshop that was too big for the activity room and had to be held in the children’s’ library on the day after we had been closed for a 4 day May Bank Holiday – We got a bit of negative publicity for that one!) the library in the Podium was an undoubted success. (Ask Waitrose how much their profits went up after we opened!) It was the first time that lending and reference had been in the same building, (I’m sure local historians will correct that.) 

Given the history of libraries in Bath, with public demonstrations against having a lending library in the first place, and being one of the few places, (possibly the only place?) to refuse Carnegie’s offer of $65,000 to build a library (New York Times, Feb 27th, 1906), then having both services in one place was a long awaited triumph.

Lots has changed in the Podium since the library opened, but one thing that will not have changed is the dedication of the staff.  There are a few people there from my time in Bath, but the majority of staff are “new” (in that they have joined in the past 17 years!) but I am sure they have the same service ethic that we had when the Podium opened. They have been through a lot of uncertainty in recent years, and I hope they keep up the good work for the next 30 years.

-Dave Moger, Former Staff
Written on the occasion of The Podium's 30th Birthday

Staff from the Reference Library remember the move well too...

We were pushing the crates around the new library on black wooden pallets, like extra wide skate boards. They were an enormous help...

I remember crating up thousands of books in the Reference Library in Queen Square. Many were tightly double-stacked on the shelves. I can remember how physically exhausted we were at the end of each day. We would stagger to the staff room and sit and rest for half an hour before finding the strength to walk out the door to go home.

We were envious of the Lending Library staff in Bridge Street, who had a policy of persuading their borrowers to check out as many books and LPs as they could manage, not returning them until after the move...

-Former Staff Member

My parents met working in Bath Library, starting in 1933, straight from school.  My father wrote an account of his working life in libraries for the Electronic Memory Project set up by the Library History Group in 1999. The section on his time in Bath:-

‘…my headmaster wrote to bring to my notice an advertisement for junior library assistants at Bath.  I applied and was interviewed in September with three other boys and one girl for three posts.  Someone told me afterwards that I was appointed because I had the wit to open the door for the deputy librarian when she went to call in the next candidate.  The Bath library was heavily oriented towards the reference service and we all had a very strict training there – an hour dusting and tidying every morning, only the boys allowed to climb steps to reach high shelves and again for the boys some heavy work in the basement moving and tidying special collections (18th century rate books and 19th century medical library and files of local and national newspapers). New juniors had to pass a handwriting test before being allowed make entries in the accessions register with a special pen and the right coloured ink.’

I know that my father obviously passed the handwriting test as I saw his writing 60 years later in the 1990’s.  My mother doesn’t seemed to have passed the test and she also mentioned her annoyance at missing the fun that the boys had in the basement! They left in 1943 to help set up the public library service in Swindon. Both spent their working lives in libraries.

Black and white photo of 4 men and 4 women sat on blankets in long grass
Library Staff near Warleigh,1938
Cathy's parents with co-workers. Kathleen Breakwell is far left, John Burden is 2nd from right.

I found a document my dad had written which depicts different times; Hailey Selassie coming in the library, homeless men drying their socks on the radiator!! I can't believe the library had only been open 9 years then. My mother always said it was very 'stuffy' and Swindon was a breath of fresh air!

Cathy Milby, former Library staff