The George Williams Memorial Library is situated in the ringing chamber of Winchester Cathedral and is available for readers and borrowers when the tower is open for ringing, and by appointment at other times. If I am not present, a number of the Winchester ringers are authorised to provide access to the books. The system for loans provides a standard loan period of eight weeks, with a liberal renewal policy for serious studies and special problems. The only exceptions are the bound copies of Guild annual and triennial reports for which, because of their unique importance, loans must be specially approved by me.
That part of the collection of archive material held at the Hampshire Record Office has the reference 20M94DI and is available for study. Catalogues of the archive held with the Library at Winchester Cathedral and at the HRO, and of the book collection are on the W&P website.
There were several significant acquisitions during the year including two purchases: The Ringing World Index by Cyril Wratten and Rowena Gay, published by Alan Ellis of Vancouver, which will complement the Guild’s complete set of The Ringing World; and Church Bells of Dorset, Part III by Chris Dalton, which brings this valuable work to completion. We are also grateful to the Winchester Cathedral Bellringers’ Library for gifts of Elphick’s Sussex Bells and Belfries and Volumes I to III of Sharpe’s Church Bells of Herefordshire.
Andrew Barnsdale kindly agreed to bind a further four volumes of The Ringing World, for the years 2001 to 2004. The library cabinet has little space for convenient storage of further volumes of The Ringing World, and we will be investigating the feasibility and acceptability of an extension on top of the existing cabinet.
The Guild On-line Archive now has the minutes of the Guild AGMs and Executive Committee meetings from 1988 to 2000 (more recent minutes are already available from the Guild Document Repository) and I hope to add earlier minutes in the future. The On-line Archive also has a collection of historical articles from The Ringing World about Guild people, places and events. These are initially a more or less random selection from the wealth of material available but it is my intention to build this up more systematically in the future.
I am always pleased to assist Guild members with their researches and would like to thank the Winchester Cathedral ringers for their continuing support.
| Income | Expenditure | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| £.p | £.p | ||
| Balance b/f | 5.18 | The Ringing World | 50.00 |
| From Central Fund | 300.00 | Friends of the CC Library | 20.00 |
| Index to the RW | 55.00 | ||
| Bells of Dorset | 29.00 | ||
| Balance c/f | 151.18 | ||
| £305.18 | £305.18 | ||
Tony Smith