Urmston Library

The first known libraries in the Urmston area were attached to schools. Davyhulme Wesleyan Methodists’ school had its own library in 1826, and as the school also taught adults, it is likely that the library served all who were connected with the church. During the 1850s, John Tomlinson Hibbert formed a Parish Library in the old workhouse on Stretford Road. At that time, the building was being used as both a day school and Sunday school.

By 1876, the local co-operative shops had started to run libraries, and these were organised by the Education Committee of the co-operative movement. Other local shops began to provide ‘circulating libraries’ with the intention of lending books to the public for a fee. These included Clark’s stationers and the local tobacconists, who boasted of having ‘an excellent stock of the latest books’. The Allotments Association also decided to have their own collection of gardening and poultry books, and formed a Horticultural Library, using profits from their show of 1912, to buy books on gardening and poultry. Thanks to small weekly subscriptions, the library had 1,000 volumes by 1922.

The first library service in the area was provided by Davyhulme Parish Council and Lancashire County Library. The building known as ‘Collingwood’ was situated on Davyhulme Road and was formerly the Vicarage for St Mary’s Church. It was purchased by the Council for £1,000 and opened as a library in 1929. Councillor Walter Newton (1877 – 1955) was a pioneer of the library service in the district and the founder of the library at Collingwood. He served on the library committee for 25 years and gave his services free as a ‘spare time librarian’. By 1932, Collingwood was issuing 40,000 books a year. Stock consisted of locally bought books and donated books, supplemented by the Lancashire County Library. There were twenty volunteers, whose slogan was ‘service every time and all the time’.

Collingwood library was extended in 1932 and began to receive more books from the Lancashire County Library.

After the expansion of Urmston Urban District Council in 1933, a Library sub-committee was formed. The administration of the library was the responsibility of Lancashire County Council. There was an increasing demand for a library service in the area and Urmston Branch Library was opened on 7 April 1936 at Golden Hill Park, with a paid librarian named Mr Forbes. Demand was so great that another member of staff was appointed which allowed for even longer opening hours. Collingwood was allowed to continue on a voluntary basis until it closed in March 1940. Mr Forbes worked there until the outbreak of the Second World War, when he enlisted in H.M. Forces.During the winter months of 1940 to 1941, the library closed at 7pm to minimise risks from air raids.

During the war, the library supplied 200 books to A.A.Battery at Lostock Road, Davyhulme so they could form a lending library amongst the troops, and these books were changed from time to time. In addition, books that were withdrawn from circulation were supplied to the Mission to Seamen and these were put on board ship at the Manchester Docks. 

The new Urmston Library and Information Centre was built as part of the central area redevelopment and was opened on 7 October 1970 by Lord Bowden of Manchester University Institute of Science and Technology. It was designed by Messrs. Leach, Rhodes and Walker. For the first time the area had a specialist Reference Librarian for the Reference and Information Library. The original library in Golden Hill Park was closed when the new ‘precinct’ library was opened.

More than 5,000 books were borrowed from the new library during the first week after its official opening. 

David Smith, in his booklet ‘The Urmston Urban District’, recalled:

In 1998 the Urmston Library declared an amnesty for people who had books out on loan and past their due date. No fines would be levied, and books could be returned anonymously.

One elderly gentleman brought in a copy of the Robert L. Stevenson classic, “Kidnapped.”  He explained that he had taken out the book 65 years earlier and now wished to return it. He joked that this was even though he had not quite finished with it. Under the old system of fines, the amount owing would have been £1,200.

The Urmston Library and Information Centre closed in 2006 and had to temporarily relocate, until the new state of the art library was completed in Eden Square in 2009.

Sources

David Smith: The Urmston Urban District 

Western Telegraph dated 12 Janauary 1940

Stretford and Urmston Journal dated 22 July 1970

Stretford and Urmston Journal dated 21 October 1970

Urmston Library and Information Centre brochure, 1970

History and development of the Library Service in Urmston