Gibson Library Society The year has seen us make considerable progress in resolving the outstanding problems stemming from the County Library Service's implementation of a new catalogue. The items that had their catalogue records cancelled, have now been reinstated on the new catalogue, and the items in the Gibson Library lending collection, that had been wrongly designated as 'library use only' (about 14,000 items) have now been correctly designated for lending. This has resulted in a sharp increase in lending, and also in the number of requests received from other libraries.
Throughout the year our volunteers Margaret Graves, Richard Woods and Felicity Benson have continued to work on the sorting of the bequest of slides and photographs from the collection of our deceased member Richard Jemmett. A considerable number of slides have already been passed on to the the Essex Record Office, as they relate other parts of Essex; as the work continues, we anticipate dispersing many more items to the ERO and other archives as appropriate. Other regular volunteers including Peter Walker, Charles Reese, Pat Gregory, and Maureen Johnston have all contributed to the smooth-running of the library, by undertaking important behind the scenes work.
Many of you will recall the interesting lecture given here several years ago by geologist Hugh Torrens, about the work of Edward Charlesworth (1813-893), a nineteenth-century geologist with a national reputation, who lived in Saffron Walden. As Professor Torrens is retiring, he has transferred his research papers about Charlesworth to the Gibson Library, and they are currently being catalogued by Richard Woods.
You will all have noticed the several exhibitions and displays about the Gibson Library, curated in the library by Sarah Turpin, a member of Essex Libraries staff, during the last year. In addition to these exhibitions, Sarah has also been responsible for adding new books to the catalogue, and during the past year she has been taking part in a Library apprenticeship scheme, designed to improve her knowledge and library skills. Sarah was able to base some of her course models around the Gibson Library, and we are pleased to supporedt her learning programme with addition training, and also to cascade some of this training to other staff members. We were also able to support former member of staff Kate Allen with her post-graduate art course.
One of our new volunteers, Martin Turnbull has been systematically searching through our large collection of negatives left to the Library by local photographer David Campbell, and he has simultaneously been scanning a large proportion of the most interesting images. To date he has examined over 15,000 negatives and made positive scans of some 1,500 images. This is a most important task, as our attempts to obtain a grant towards scanning the negatives have so far been unsuccessful. Featuring some of the images Martin has discovered in the local press has also attracted a whole new wave of interest in the Library.
During the year we have worked closely with the Historical Society, and were able to host two joint events - reception to mark the retirement of Jacqueline Cooper, editor of the Historical Society Journal, and also the launch of the new book by our President Bruce Munro, 'One Man's Saffron Walden', published by the Historical Society. We regularly supply information, photographs and other images for use in the Journal and look forward to working with Helen Lunnon, who has replaced Jacky as editor.
At the end of March we held two important events based around the recently restored 17th/18th century recipe book, donated to the Library by Miss Gibson in 1922. This was conserved two years ago, with the help of a grant from the Gibson Walden Fund, at the Essex Record office by the chief conservator Diane Taylor, and the conservation inspired two of our members Gillian Williamson and Ljiljana Ortolja-Baird to research the history of early cookery and recipe books, and the history of this particular book, and to use this research to put on a superb one-day exhibition in the Reading Room, and to organise a well-attended talk by the highly regarded historian Sarah Pennell.
During the year we have received a number of bequests and gifts, including a bequest from the estate of Christopher Cornell, to support the purchase of some botanical books. Christopher grew up in Saffron Walden, and spent his early years as a gardener here in the town, before moving to Cambridge. Our member, local author Geoffrey Ball, died earlier in the year, and his daughter Colleen, has generously allowed us to select several books on the history of gardening, agriculture and local history, from his personal library. Several very interesting illustrated and historical books were donated to the Library by Mrs Sonia Gordon, including a children's cookery book written and illustrated by Jean Cocteau. Former treasurer, and committee member Barbara Hughes recently gave the library several volumes published by the Folio Society, and Robert Rogers, formerly of Newport has donated his reminiscences of his time as a gamekeeper on the Shortgrove Estate.
Earlier this year I learnt that the extensive personal library of John and Cecilia Nicholson was at risk following the death of John Nicholson in December 2021. John and Celia, both lived in the Saffron Walden - Newport earlier in their lives, and John in particular was very active in local acting circles for several years, before moving to Cambridge. While in Saffron Walden, he started a small magazine that only ran to five or six issues, but were to be the beginning of a lifelong career in small press publishing, culminating in the late 1980s and early 1990s in the establishment of the Small Press Group that promoted specialist small press bookfairs and published Small Press Yearbooks, and magazines. Towards the end of his life, John Nicholson resumed acting, and appeared in a number of popular films, such as Harry Potter, and the Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. In mid March, Gibson Library volunteer, Richard Woods and I joined a small rescue party at a rambling old house in Bedford in order to save as much of the small press material as possible. This mission was successful, and the rescued publications are currently being sorted, for deposit in appropriate Libraries, including the Small Press Collection at University College, London, and at Cambridge University Library. Some relevant items will also be added to the Gibson Library collections.
During the year we have hosted a number of visits to the Library from volunteers at Audley End, Geography classes from the County High School and Newport Grammar School, and also from members of the Walden Initiative.
Lastly, I must also thank the members of the committee for their work and support in all our activities, and in particular our treasurer Peter Walker and also our Secretary Gillian Williamson. Unfortunately Gillian is stepping down from her position of Secretary; she has been a major asset to the Society and to the Committee, and I am pleased to be able to report that Gillian is willing to stay on the Committee.
Martyn Everett,
Chairman, Gibson Library Society, 19 April 2023
Return to the AGM 2023 page.
