Gibson Library News 5 February 2026
We are looking for a Freelance Project Co-ordinator
Following the award of a grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, we are recruiting a freelance project co-ordinator to help us manage our Digital Discovery Project.
The Gibson Library Society is a registered charity which exists to support the Gibson Library in Saffron Walden. The Gibson Library is an independent historic library and a unique cultural treasure which has until now been 'a hidden gem'. Its historic collection of 25,000 volumes includes beautiful medieval manuscripts, rare botanical illustrations, unique annotated copies of rare books and together with the lending research collection of 12,000 books is regarded as a significant Victorian Studies centre important to local and family historians, as well as history researchers both nationally and internationally.
Over the next two years, we will be developing a new website and a digital catalogue for the Library and starting to digitise the rarest books in the collection. All the tasks will be carried out by volunteers and we are looking for an enthusiastic freelancer to help organise the activities.
If you love books and would like to have a pivotal role in bringing this exciting project together, please do get in touch. Closing date for applications 2 March 2026.
Further particulars here.
News 19 January 2026
Dear members,
We start 2026 with very exciting news. We have been awarded a grant of £139,000 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund!/
This generous award will enable us to raise the profile of the Library and give it a strong digital presence so that we can introduce its unique treasures to a much wider audience. We have the strong backing of Essex County Council as the trustees of the Gibson Library, who are as keen as we are to make sure that the Library ceases to be 'a hidden gem'.
As you know we have been working on this for a number of years, so it is wonderful to finally be able to make a start.
The Digital Discovery project, made possible by the grant from the Heritage Fund, consists of three interlocking activities: a new website to showcase the Library and its collections and make them accessible to all; a dedicated digital catalogue suitable for use by researchers, accessible from the new website; and a programme of digitisation of the rarest and most important books and other items in the historic collection, to safeguard the collections for future generations.
There will also be a number of launch events in 2027 for both members and the general public and we hope to involve local schools and as much of the local community as possible.
We will be looking to recruit volunteers to help with the digitisation of books and the inputting of data into the new catalogue. So, if you have some time that you could spare or if you know anyone else that might be interested, let us know. If you already volunteer but might have some additional time, that would be wonderful. Volunteer recruitment will start in the Spring once the new website is up and running.
The project is due to run for two years but of course we will continue digitising books and adding to the catalogue beyond that, making use of the new skills and equipment we will have acquired.
The award of the grant is due to the hard work and dedication of a small team of our committee members working under the guidance and leadership of Kelly Cole, including Peter Walker, Bruce Tice, Ben Cowell and Ian Willard. We owe them all our grateful thanks.
If you have any questions about the project, do get in touch, using the following email address: society@gibsonlibrary.org.uk
Martyn Everett
Thursday 19th February in Saffron Walden Library, at 7:30pm - The Magician and his Library: The Story of John Dee, by Rachel Morris
Rachel Morris talks about her new book, The Year of the Wizard, a lyrical and highly atmospheric history of Renaissance magic. It is also - by an act of historical imagination - an account of the lives of the wives, daughters and servants of the Magicians; and because John Dee had a spectacular library it is also the story of a 16th century book lover and how he built a library in turbulent times.
Rachel grew up not far from Saffron Walden. "Prior to writing The Years of the Wizard I wrote The Museum Makers, which is part cultural history of museums, part memoir of my bohemian family. And prior to that I worked in the cultural sector, running a museum-making company called Metaphor with my partner Stephen Greenberg. The themes that run through all my books are fictional libraries, renaissance history and magic, early museums, memory, John Dee, Jorge Luis Borges, memoir writing and the history of story-telling."
Please note the earlier start time for this meeting, as the author is travelling from London.
Non-members are welcome, and there is no charge for admission. The Library has disabled access.
Details for meetings in 2026 will be available shortly.
All meeting events are held in Saffron Walden Library except where stated. There is no charge for admission and non-members are welcome. The Library has disabled access.
When meetings are announced as being "via Zoom", GLS Members will be sent a Zoom invitation via the GLS email gibsonlibrary1832@gmail.com ; Members can also contact Peter Walker via the Library if they do not have email.
Wednesday 14th January in Saffron Walden Library at 7:30 pm - Books: A Manifesto, or, How to Build a Library, by Ian Patterson
The meeting was held in Saffron Walden Library on Wednesday 14th January at 7:30 pm, when author Ian Patterson talked about his new publication, Books: A Manifesto, or, How to Build a Library. This is a book about books and "the subversive power of reading and the strange, enduring magic of books as objects".
"Ever since childhood books have been at the centre of Ian Patterson's life, as a poet, teacher, translator, bookseller and collector. As he constructs the last of many libraries, he makes an impassioned case for the radical importance of reading in our lives - from Proust to Jilly Cooper, from golden age detective novels to avant-garde poetry."
Wednesday 10th December 2025 at 7:30 pm
Gardening and Reading in Tudor and Stuart England, a talk by Dr Grace Murray in Saffron Walden Library
Old herbals, marginalia, saffron cultivation and Tudor poet, Gabriel Harvey of Saffron Walden will all be discussed in the next talk of the Gibson Library Society.
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, England's printing presses churned out dozens of instructional manuals or 'how-to' books for the aspiring gardener or herbalist. This talk explored why these books were enduringly popular with Tudor and Stuart readers by turning to surviving copies with notes scribbled in the margins, and shows that learning to garden was just one of many reasons why people read their how-to books.
Dr Grace Murray is a Lecturer in English Literature at Birkbeck, University of London, where she specialises in the history of reading in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. She is interested in how people throughout history have read and written about practical knowledge, especially concerning plants. Grace assisted with research for the recent British Library exhibition Unearthed: The Power of Gardening, and co-curated the ongoing National Trust exhibition Whispers of the Wilderness: Exploring Wilderness Gardens at Beningbrough Hall in North Yorkshire.
Friday 10th October at 7:30pm
Poems to Share Now, an informal evening of poetry readings to be held in Saffron Walden Library.
Hosted by local poet Hannah Walker the evening featured old and new poetry and include 'open mike' sessions. Come along to share your poems, or just to listen. If you want to read a poem, please speak to Hannah on arrival. The evening starts at 7:30 pm (but please arrive at 7:20pm).
Admission is free, and non-members are welcome to attend, but adults and young adults (14+ years) only please. The Library has disabled access.
Thursday 2nd October
National Poetry Day Poetry Readings with Open mike sessions in Saffron Walden Library.
Printing Exhibition in Saffron Walden Library July to September
Tuesday 9th September to Friday 26th September : Arts and Crafts Printing
Thursday 18th September at 8:00pm
Arts and Crafts Movement printing, An illustrated talk by Perry Staker, in Saffron Walden Library
Perry has a long-standing interest in food history and social history, and many members will recall her excellent talk about Twelfth Night. In 2018 she was invited to take on the role of the Victorian Cook in the BBC2 series 'The Victorian House of Arts and Crafts' shown in January 2019. This led to a developing interest in the Arts and Crafts Movement, which has has more recently turned towards the influence of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement on printing./p
Perry is a lecturer and historian who lives in Thaxted.
This lecture coincided with an exhibition in the Library on Arts and Crafts printing, which was strongly influenced by William Morris and Walter Crane. The exhibits featured books from the Library's own collection, including some that are available for loan after the exhibition finishes. The exhibition is open to the public between Saturday 13th September and Wednesday 1st October, during Library opening times.
Printing Exhibition in Saffron Walden Library July to September
Monday 14 July to Wednesday 6th August: Small Presses and Private Presses
Friday 8th August to Saturday 6th September: Early printing, from manuscript to printed book
11am, Thursday 4 September 2025
Gibson Library Society Annual Outing: A Visit to the St Bride Foundation
Just off Fleet Street, in what was the heart of the British national press is the St Bride Foundation. It was set up in 1891 as an institution to support the people and printers of Fleet Street, providing both education and recreation. It had a school of printing to educate printers in the newest technologies and an extensive library, as well as more practical facilities such as a swimming pool (the first in the City of London), a gymnasium and washrooms for laundry.
On our two-hour tour we will visit the printing workshop, the library and its other historic rooms. In the workshop we will be shown different printing techniques and the lengthy process of preparing a newspaper (before computerisation) for print. We will get a chance to view some treasures in the library's special collection. The Foundation's library, originally created as a resource for printers, today contains over 50,000 items, many of which are manuscripts including a substantial fragment of one of William Caxton's earliest printed works.
The group size was limited to just 24 persons, so please book early.
Click here for the form, which should printed off and returned to the Library.
Thursday 19 June 2025, in Saffron Walden Library, in person, at 8pm
Edward Charlesworth: Natural Scientist, Curator, Inventor, Fossil Dealer, Controversy - an illustrated talk by Dominic Davey
Edward Charlesworth lived from 1813 to 1893 and participated in significant developments in the study of the natural sciences; being acquainted with and/or communicating with some of the leading natural scientists of the time. Charlesworth was a gifted and prolific geologist who published influential scientific papers and was made a fellow of the Geological Society while still in his twenties. He was a respected museum curator and expert in palaeontology enabling him to both act as a consultant to geological collectors and institutions and to make his living from the buying and selling of fossil collections. Many of his ventures were focused on East Anglia and he made significant contributions to museums in Norwich and Ipswich before settling in Saffron Walden towards the end of his life.
Dominic Davey:
Dominic grew up in Manchester and took a degree in geology at Swansea University. He spent his working life in the oil exploration business, initially as a seismologist and then as an IT professional. Since retiring, Dominic has rediscovered his enthusiasm for geology and is a member of a handful of local and national geological societies, including the Gibson Library Society and the History of Geology Group. The gifting of the Edward Charlesworth archive to the Gibson Library, by Professor Hugh Torrens, presented a unique opportunity to study the life of a Victorian geologist who lived in a time of significant scientific, and especially geological, developments.
Wednesday 14 May 2025, in Saffron Walden Library, in person, at 7:30pm
Gibson Library Society's AGM
Details of the AGM are held on the Society's 2025 AGM webpage.
Non-members are welcome to attend the following talk, but may not take part in the business of the AGM.
The AGM was followed by a talk on by Oscar Aldred on Sir Cyril Fox and the Archaeology of the Cambridge region.
Sir Cyril Fox PhD FSA FBA MRIA (1882-1967) was an archaeologist and director of the National Museum of Wales, who went up to Magdalene College, University of Cambridge to read - as of then - Section B of the English Tripos in 1919. Extraordinarily, Professor HM Chadwick, his college tutor, transferred Fox to read for a PhD after his first year. After completing his PhD in 1922, Fox subsequently published it with few amendments in 1923 with Cambridge University Press. This is not remarkable in itself, but it is rather that the topic of study which was highly regarded: the title of his dissertation and publication was 'The Archaeology of the Cambridge Region' (ACR). In ACR, Fox outlined the basis for a landscape approach to archaeology, that has formed the foundation for landscape archaeology. In this talk, drawing on examples of Fox's archaeological work from the Cambridge region and beyond, I will examine what made Fox's study significant, and how it transformed our thinking about the past.
Oscar Aldred PhD FSA works for the Cambridge Archaeological Unit, within the Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, and is a Member of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research and the Centre for Landscape Regeneration, also at Cambridge. His main research interests are in landscape archaeology, excavation, the history of archaeology, and archaeological method and theory. He specialises in later prehistory to post-medieval times, and the archaeology of the North Atlantic and the UK. He is widely published, including the book 'The Archaeology of Movement' (Routledge 2021) and an article in 2023 about the 100 year anniversary of Fox's ACR in the Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society (PCAS).
Wednesday 30 April 2025 at 7:30 pm in person in Saffon Walden Library
Brightening from the East. The nonconformist landscapes of 20th century Essex, by Author Ken Worpole
In his new book, Brightening from the East, writer and social historian Ken Worpole explored a unique 'region of the mind' - the Thames Estuary, the marshland landscapes of the East Anglian shoreline, and the Quaker and Anglican strongholds of the Essex interior - where Essex has been fertile soil for a rich variety of radical and religious settlements, 'the Thaxted experiment' being the most well-known. In his talk the author focused on the powerful mix of East End political radicalism, the English Folk Revival, and the Christian 'leavening' of rural Essex, which all combined to produce some of the most remarkable episodes in the history of social reform in 20th century, a number of which were discussed in greater detail.
Ken is the author of several books, most recently No Matter How Many Skies Have Fallen: back to the land in wartime Britain (2021), New Jerusalem: the good city and the good society (2015) and Contemporary Library Architecture: a planning and design guide (2013).
Friday 14th March, at 7:30pm in Saffron Walden Library
POETRY 2
The Gibson Library Society held a second evening of poetry readings: "from Matthew Arnold to Benjamin Zephaniah", hosted by local poet Hannah Walker.
People were invited to bring their favourite poems to read, or poems they have written themselves, or just come and listen. Modern poetry or old favourites, high-brow or humorous - all are welcome at our poetry evening.
Wednesday, 19 February, 2025 at 8:00pm in Saffron Walden Library
Agent Zo, courageous Second World War resistance hero - An illustrated talk by Clare Mulley
AGENT ZO tells the remarkable story of courageous resistance fighter Elzbieta Zawacka, aka 'Zo', the only female member of the Polish elite special forces, the 'Silent Unseen', and the only woman to parachute from Britain to Nazi-German occupied Poland during the Second World War. There, while being hunted by the Gestapo, who arrested her entire family, she established an important intelligence network, couriered microfilm across wartime borders, and played a key role in the largest organised act of defiance against Nazi German occupation - the Warsaw Uprising.
Clare Mulley is an award-winning author focused on female experience during the Second World War. Her books include Agent Zo, as well as The Women who flew for Hitler, The Spy who loved and The woman who saved the children.
Wednesday 29 January in Saffron Walden Library at 8:00pm,
'Unruly Virtuoso: Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682) Defies His Editors', an illustrated talk by Professor Claire Preston.
Keeping up with Dr Thomas Browne of Norwich, one of the great polymaths of the seventeenth century, is an impossible task. His broad intellectual range, his vast reading, his inventive thinking, and his quirky, gorgeous prose have resisted the best efforts of scholars and editors to contain and explain him. This talk explored Browne himself - his life and influential works - and the Oxford edition currently in progress that tries to capture a mind at once characteristic of his hectic and fascinating times and unique among its greatest writers.
Claire Preston is Professor Emerita of Renaissance Literature at Queen Mary University of London (2013-2020) following twenty-one years at Cambridge (Sidney Sussex College). She has published widely on various aspects of early-modern literary-scientific interaction. Her most recent book is The Poetics of Scientific Investigation in Seventeenth-Century England (Oxford, 2015); her current project looks at 'big science' from Henry Oldenburg to Robert Oppenheimer. She is General Editor of the Oxford Complete Works of Sir Thomas Browne (8 vols, 2023-27) for which she is editing Urne-Buriall, The Garden of Cyrus, and A Letter to a Friend.
