The George Williams Memorial Library is located in the ringing chamber of Winchester Cathedral and is available for readers and borrowers by appointment. The system for loans provides a standard loan period of eight weeks with a liberal renewal policy for serious research and special problems. The only exceptions are the archive material and the Guild’s annual and triennial reports for which, because of their unique importance, loans are solely at the discretion of the librarian. A catalogue of the printed books and of the complete archive is maintained on the Guild website. Part of our collection of archive material, held at the Hampshire Record Office in Sussex Street, Winchester, is available for consultation only. The collection there has the call-number 20M94.
2023 was a little busier than earlier years. I have answered queries on the Ottershaw and Shalford bands (both now in the Guildford DG) and have enabled another enquirer to make good his incomplete copy of Banister’s Art and science of change ringing. I have been pleased to receive Vivien Dean’s Master’s degree dissertation Of books, bicycles and bells, on her father’s ringing career pre-war. The purchases headed under expenditure have all been of recent Ringing World publications, comprising the Little green and Little purple ringing books, the Criblines series, The voice of the church: bells and bellringers in the life of the Church of England, by Max Drinkwater and others, Simon Linford’s The core seven and beyond and John Loveless’s Biography of George Pipe.
Looking forward, I have found a home for our duplicate part-run of Ringing Worlds (that doesn’t involve waste recycling) and a binder for our unbound Ringing Worlds who will undertake the work at moderate cost.
The Guild’s online archive has the minutes of the Guild Annual meetings and Executive Committee meetings from 1980 to 2000, and since 2013 (Minutes from 2001 to 2012 are available from the Guild’s Document Repository) and a collection of historical articles from The Ringing World about Guild people, places and events. These are all maintained by Tony Smith, to whom I am duly grateful.
I am always pleased to assist Guild members and others with an interest in the Guild with their researches. I should like to thank my colleagues within the Guild and the Winchester Cathedral band for their continuing support.
| Income | Expenditure | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| £.p | £.p | ||
| Balance b/f | 317.32 | Sub. to The Ringing World | 91.00 |
| Income | 350.00 | Sub. to the Friends of the Central Council Library | 10.00 |
| Book purchase | 74.50 | ||
| Balance c/f | 491.82 | ||
| £667.32 | £667.32 | ||
Bruce Purvis