Welcome to the Gibson Library

Image of the Gibson Library Reading Room

Plan your visit

Image of dated books a "Collection Fiction titles"

View our collections

image of the George Stacey Gibson Portrait

The Gibson Library Society

The Gibson Library is an independent, historic library founded in 1832.

The historic collections consist of more than 25,000 volumes, old maps, photographs, newspapers, directories, periodicals and local ephemera.
There is also a research lending collection of more than 15,000 volumes, which is continually added to.

image of the Gibson library exterior clock tower

News and events

August Book of the Month

1 August, 2026/by Katie

July Book of the Month

1 July, 2026/by Katie

The Gibson Library History Timeline

16 June, 2026/by Katie

Videos

Illuminated Manuscripts

The Gibson Library is home to three medieval illuminated manuscripts. These illustrations come from a fifteenth-century Book of Hours by the ‘Master of the Golden Scrolls’.

7 July, 2026/by Katie

Great Exhibition

Illustrations from the full-colour record of the 1851 Great Exhibition. Dickinson’s Comprehensive Pictures of the Great Exhibition of 1851 (1854), available to view in the Gibson Library along with other catalogues, tickets, cuttings and other ephemera relating to the event.

7 July, 2026/by Katie

Archaeology

Images taken from several books in the Gibson Library detailing the archaeological investigations of Lord Braybrooke (R C Neville) of Audley End.

7 July, 2026/by Katie

Turtles

Lithographs by Edward Lear (of The Owl and the Pussycat fame) from Tortoises, Terrapins, and Turtles, Thomas Bell (1872). Just one book from many in the Gibson Library’s Zoology collection.

7 July, 2026/by Katie

Travel India

The Victorians loved to travel and to read about travel. Explore the Gibson Library’s extensive collection of books about travel in Asia and Africa.

7 July, 2026/by Katie

Insect Books

Thomas Martyn’s The English entomologist exhibiting all the coleopterous insects found in England (1793) and L.M.Budgen’s Episodes of Insect Life (1849-51) are just two of many books on beetles, butterflies, moths and other insects in the collection.

7 July, 2026/by Katie

Useful links

Find us
Volunteer with us
Shop
Privacy policy

Sign up for our newsletter

Contact us

The Gibson Library
2 King Street
Saffron Walden
Essex CB10 1ES

Telephone: 0345 6037628
(Switchboard – ask for Saffron Walden Gibson Library)

Email: society@gibsonlibrary.org.uk