The Chained Library of Wimborne Minster reopens for the 2024 season on Monday 1st April.
The Library, originally opened in 1695 & is one of the first public reference libraries in England. It is still used today as an invaluable source of a variety of reference materials. At the time it was opened libraries were designed to give access to books, but not to loan them.
This is the second largest chained library in England open to the public and is still in its original location, at the top of a stone spiral staircase in a Norman tower.
New for this season are books from recent notable donations, the first are 2 volumes that came following the sad closure of the Quaker Meeting House in Boscombe. Both are by George Fox who was an English Dissenter, and the founder of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers.
The second donation of seven books, presented by Revd Canon Andrew Rowland, Rector of Wimborne Minster, includes two historic bibles, a Geneva Bible dated 1582 and a King James Bible dated 1648. Also included is a Prayer Book, dated 1858, which was last used in the Priest’s stall at Holt Parish Church which, sadly, closed in 2020.
This season a new Chained Library Guide Book is available from the Minster Gift Shop (and the Museum of East Dorset and Gulliver’s Book Shop) at a price of £6.00. The profits will be divided between the library, to support its conservation work and the Minster church.
The Library’s new season starts on Monday 1st April 2024 and runs until Tuesday 31st October, Monday to Friday mornings and afternoons and the first Saturday morning in the month. For special appointments, or group bookings contact church House for details.
A visit to the Wimborne Minster Chained Library is a must for all lovers of books and history, or just the curious!