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.
2022 was, like 2020 and 2021, a relatively quiet year, overshadowed, for myself by a personal bereavement as well as that of the nation at large on the passing of HM the Queen. I have added three volumes to the stock of the Library, all Central Council publications, namely the new edition of the Manual of Belfry Maintenance and The New Ringer’s Book, and the now out-of-print Tower Handbook. (If any tower holds a copy of the last-named I urge you to take care of it, as it is now £50+ second-hand).
The balance I am carrying forward, and 2023’s allocation from the Central Fund, will afford the opportunity to add recent ringing publications to the library’s stock, and to have our loose copies of The Ringing World bound.
The Guild’s online archive has the minutes of the Guild Annual meetings and Executive Committee meetings from 1980 to 2000, and from 2013 to 2014 (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. 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 | 302.38 | Sub. to The Ringing World | 91.00 |
| Income | 250.00 | Sub. to the Friends of the Central Council Library | 10.00 |
| Book purchase | 30.06 | ||
| Balance c/f | 317.32 | ||
| £448.38 | £448.38 | ||
Bruce Purvis