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During the Victorian period there was a great enthusiasm for setting up Reading Rooms and Lending Libraries. The Parish Magazines of the late 1800s are full of detail about a number of these institutions.
Mrs Lily Griffiths remembered a library at the rear of the Old National School when she was a child during the 1930s.
Before the 1930s it is thought that a library was held in the Methodist School room (built 1907) behind the Methodist Chapel in Bridge Street. Pam Bishini (nee Batt) lived at 9 Bridge Street as a child, and recalled a "Christian Endeavour" lending library run by Misses Gosling and Davies. Mrs June Prictor said that a friend recalled the Methodist School Room being used as a library for a short time before it moved to the "TocH building" - Library Cottage, 1 Church lane.
John Newton recalls that the TocH building housed the library downstairs, and the Labour Exchange upstairs. Access to the library was through the Coffee Tavern (7 & 8 High Street, currently Martins and Kitchenmonger).
Brenda Newton recalls there were several independent lending libraries during teh 1940s and 1950s, including:
- Trigg's & Son (11 Bridge Street)
- W H Smith (6-8 High Street)
- E Barnard (21 High Street).
Miss Stella French (head teacher at the Croft Nurseery School from 1954) and Mr Geoffrey Dopson recalled that during the 1950s there was a library at Wessex House, 127 High Street, in a room at the back,
in the north end of the building, that previously had been Mr Kerlie's dentist's room.
In 1967 a new library was built on the site of James Great western Mill, which had been destroyed by fire in 1960. Also on the site were the new Fire Station and a large car-park.
The current new library, including the Town Council office, was built in 2007, and opened in early 2008.
See also:
- Reading Rooms
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