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 20M94DI.
A propos of the Guild reports and the online catalogue, the latter shows the library’s holdings up to the 68th report, of 1947 and the triennial reports from 1960, but not the 69th-77th reports, 1948-1956, nor the first triennial report, 1957-1959; yet the handlist published in 1977 shows a complete sequence of the reports, and the borrowing register shows these now missing reports to have been in circulation in 1984. Can anyone help in tracing the missing volume? Failing which, I have duplicates of the annual reports in question but not a complete copy of the triennial report, 1957-1959. With a perfect copy of the latter - if there is one to spare anywhere - I could make good the lack if the missing volume does not turn up.
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.
My main concern during the year has been to strengthen our collections both of practical manuals on all aspects of the Exercise, and of historical resources. To meet the first objective I have added some of the Central Council’s more recent publications, mainly to do with teaching and learning, and new collections of methods and principles. The second objective has been met with the purchase from the Friends of the Central Council Library of the DVD editions of The Bell News and The Ringing World to 1940, the CDs of Campanology and The Bellringer, the Trollope Manuscript, and the newly-reprinted Order and Disorder collection of early newspaper articles on bells and ringing, and its supplement. I have also acquired, at the pre-publication price of 40, George Massey’s monumental study for the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, The Church Bells of Somerset, a work unlikely ever to be surpassed in its breadth of coverage and command of detail.
Andrew Barnsdale continues to hold recent volumes of The Ringing World which he is binding for the Guild Library, though I am budgeting in 2012 for binding of more recent years by a local bindery. The extension of the George Williams Memorial Library in 2010, whilst it has increased our storage capacity by 25%, does not afford limitless expansion. I believe that the centenary of The Ringing World should serve as a cut-off point for the permanent retention of a paper-based back-run, and that future years of the journal should be held in electronic form, which objective I intend to pursue in 2012.
I am always pleased to assist Guild members and others with an interest in the Guild with their researches, and 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 | 53.60 | Sub. to The Ringing World | 57.00 |
| From the Central Fund | 300.00 | Sub. to The Friends of the Central Council Library | 10.00 |
| CDs and DVDs | 123.60 | ||
| Books | 152.60 | ||
| Postage and packaging | 10.00 | ||
| Balance c/f | 0.40 | ||
| £353.60 | £353.60 | ||
Bruce Purvis
The new ringer’s book
Ringing jargon made easy, pt 1
Beginners’ Grandsire
Beginners’ Plain Bob
Ringing circles
The learning curve - 4 vols
Ringing basics for beginners
Listen to ringing I (compact disc)
Listen to ringing II (compact disc)
Teaching unravelled
Kaleidoscope ringing
Teaching tips
Starting a new band
Bellhandling: a tutor’s companion (DVD)
Eisel, J.C.: Giants of the Exercise II
Davies, M.B.:An unassuming genius: the life and times of A.J. Pitman
Massey, G: The church bells of Somerset
The Bell News, 1883-1915 (DVD)
The Ringing World, 1911-1940 (DVD)
Wratten, C.: Order and disorder
Eisel, J.C: Order and disorder: supplement
Campanology and The Bellringer: two early ringing periodicals (CD)
Trollope, J.A.: The Trollope Manuscript: an unpublished history of change ringing (CD)
The bell adviser
DIY guidelines
Splicing bell ropes illustrated
Collection of minor methods
Plain minor methods (2008)
Treble dodging minor methods (2008)
Collection of principles
Rung Surprise, etc. (to end 2007)
Spliced minor collection
Collection of Grandsire compositions
Collection of 10-bell compositions
Collection of 12+-bell compositions
Collection of Universal compositions