Hale Library

In 1907, Hale Urban District Council established a library at 113 Ashley Road, with 5,000 volumes. It was evidently very popular with local residents and was soon forced to find larger premises.

The continual growth of the district and of that of the reading public has demanded increased accommodation and we have been fortunate in securing convenient and commodious premises in the immediate neighbourhood of original site.

- Hale Urban District Council, Free Library Committee minutes, 5 October 1910. Trafford Local Studies collection, cat. ref. HAL/1/1/10/1

The 1911 census lists William and Florence Molineaux at 118 Ashley Road, where their occupations are described as ‘Librarian (Hale U.D.C)’ and ‘assisting the Librarian (Hale U.D.C)’.

By October 1917, the Free Library Committee had already entered into an agreement for the rental of new premises at 193 Ashley Road, to commence the following March.

In 1925, the Committee resolved that ‘books taken from houses where there have been infectious cases be burned forthwith and the Sanitary Committee be asked to refund the cost’. The minutes do not tell us the nature of the ‘infectious cases’, although the Sanitary Committee’s minutes for that month recorded one case of diphtheria and four cases of scarlet fever in the district. Again, in 1932 books were destroyed for similar reasons:

In 1938, and again in 1945, the minutes record the Committee's search for new library premises, first at Ollerbarrow Farm, and later on Cecil Road. On 12 November 1945, the minutes record that members of the Women’s Voluntary Service assisted library staff with the transfer to their new workplace.

In 1957, a branch library for Hale Barns was established in the Unitarian Chapel School on Hale Road.

In 1965, plans for a library building on Leigh Road were submitted. Plans for an extension were drawn up in 1974.

In 1990, a new space was created for children, complete with a Toys and Games Library. Trafford Libraries’ newsletter Open Book also reported a new reading area for magazines, as well as ‘our new drinks machine [which also dispenses tea, hot chocolate, orange and blackcurrant at only 20 pence per cup]’. An audio service was also added, where cassettes and compact discs could be borrowed.

Today [2022] plans are underway for a new library facility to serve the residents of Hale. A temporary library opened on Ashley Road on 6 January 2022. 

Sources

R. N. Dore, A History of Hale, Cheshire: From Domesday to Dormitory, (John Sherratt and Son Ltd, 1972)

The Guardian, 12 February 1968

Manchester Evening News, 12 September 1942

Manchester Evening News, 25 May 1949