LIBRARIAN AND ARCHIVIST’S REPORT

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 20M94D1.

The Guild’s online archive has the minutes of the Guild Annual Meetings and Executive Committee meetings from 1980 to 2000 (More recent minutes are already available from the Guild’s Document Repository) and a collection of historical articles from The Ringing World about Guild people, places and events.

Andrew Barnsdale continues to hold recent volumes of The Ringing World which he is binding for the Guild Library.

I am always pleased to assist Guild members and others with an interest in the Guild with their researches. Enquiries have been made and answered in the past year about the early days of ringing at Chiddingfold, on the first quarter peal and peal at Lockerley and the role of the incumbent in supporting ringing there, and on the 1875 peal at Bramley (Surrey). As is fairly usual there has been a request to establish a Guild member’s date of election with regard to the grant of honorary life membership.

I should like to thank my colleagues within the Guild and the Winchester Cathedral band for their continuing support.

Bruce Purvis