Loughborough builds a County-wide Library Service
23 September 2016
Building a County-wide Library Service
In 1922 Loughborough College Principal Herbert Schofield announced that he had secured a grant from the Carnegie UK Trust to set up a county-wide library service with its headquarters at the College. The College Registrar and the Head of the Department Extra Mural Adult Education were designated as honorary librarians. The Leicestershire County Rural Library aimed to provide a circulating library, initially of 10,000 books, to serve the rural areas of the county. Boxes of books would be sent out from the College to local centres like schools and village clubs, and to adult education classes and centres like the YMCA. The College motor van would be used to deliver to thirty centres in a day.
The County Rural Library opened in March 1923 and supplied around 150 centres with books in its first full year, but although the stock was by then over 10,000 volumes and growing, it was ‘far from adequate to meet the needs of a large county’. The report continued: ‘the main demand is for fiction of a rather popular kind, not too fatiguing to the intelligence and somewhat soporific in influence. On the other hand there is a gratifying demand for literature in a great variety of fields.’ Fourteen adult classes had benefited from receiving books and ‘the method of distribution by motor van from Loughborough College has worked out fairly satisfactory, and in point of cost is the cheapest in the kingdom.’ In 1925 the first Sub-Library was opened at Oadby and by 1929 branch libraries had also been established at Hinckley, Melton Mowbray and Ashby de la Zouch.
In 1926 the County and the City of Leicester combined to inaugurate a regional library scheme for Leicestershire. The object of this was that Leicestershire should be a single unit for book supply and library work. This ‘will mark a new era in Library work’, commented the College Calendar. A new Morris delivery van was also acquired. It carried on its side the name of the College Works Manager, J F Driver, and sported gleaming paintwork, with what we might call today a ‘go faster stripe’. It was kitted out with fitted shelves, in all likelihood made in the College workshops, and had a uniformed driver with AA patrolman-style knee-high boots. Deliveries of books were made three times a year to all Library centres working under the scheme.
A county rate was levied to provide funds in 1927 and a full time County Librarian and a special assistant were appointed to catalogue the whole of the library stock. The resulting card catalogue was kept at Library HQ at Loughborough College. By 1929 the word ‘Rural’ had been dropped from the Library’s title and it was known simply as the ‘Leicestershire County Library’. The book store and office, it was reported, had now been rehoused in ‘a suite of rooms specially designed for library work’ (actually one of the huts off Frederick Street), from which the library van was able to collect consignments of books direct. This arrangement continued until the College needed the space for the expanding aeronautical and automobile engineering workshops and in 1935 the County Library HQ, its Librarian, and his three assistants departed Loughborough for more spacious quarters in New Street, Leicester.
Jenny Clark, Loughborough University Archives
The County Library van c 1926
The van’s shelves were made by Loughborough College students.
The County Library on Frederick Street, 1929
‘I Do Love Cricket – It’s So Very English’*
7 September 2016
In late 1919, thanks to the persuasive powers of Loughborough College Principal Herbert Schofield, the County Council bought 14 acres of land on Ashby Road for playing fields. Schofield was able to increase the area within months by purchasing a further parcel of land and acquired another 12 acres in 1921. Levelling the ground and laying out pitches was commenced early on and a cricket pavilion, complete with dressing rooms, shower, slipper bath, lounge, tea room, and even a small gym, was built. A cricket screen and scoring board were designed by the College workshops. The grounds and pavilion were officially opened by Lord Crawshaw of Whatton House on 13th May 1921. This cricket ground was located where the Student’s Union now stands.
By 1923 the playing fields stretched to over 30 acres and besides the cricket pitch included two rugby pitches, two football pitches, a hockey pitch, and grass and hard tennis courts as well. In early 1923 1000 square yards of turf was ordered for the cricket pitch from Leicestershire County Cricket Club at a cost of £41.5s 0d and a concrete practice pitch was also planned ‘to the specification and tender from the College Works Department’. All this work had been completed by June and towards the end of the year the College received a request from Leicestershire CCC for facilities to play Minor County Championship matches at the College ground. It was agreed that the ground would be available for County matches during the 1924 season.
The first ever county cricket match held at the College ground was a Minor Counties championship game between the Leicestershire Second XI and Norfolk, played over two days, July 4th-5th 1924. The College Union agreed to provide tea for the teams on both days and the Leicestershire CCC was to organise catering for the public. While all the Leicestershire players seem to have been professional, Norfolk included three gentlemen amateurs, notably GEE Colman (Eton & Oxford) of the well-known mustard firm. Leicestershire’s best known players were probably the bowlers Horace Snary and Haydon Smith, and the team’s coach, who acted as scorer for the match, was the ex-Surrey and England all-rounder Ernie Hayes, renowned for scoring 276 in a partnership of 371 with Jack Hobbs against Hampshire at the Oval in 1909. Norfolk won the toss and decided to bat. The result? After a shaky start in a generally low scoring game Leicestershire batted well in their second innings and managed to win by six wickets.
Several other Minor Counties matches were played on the College ground in the 1920s as well as two first class games, against Derbyshire in 1928 and Glamorgan in 1929 (see picture here – one of the College’s radio masts, erected a few years earlier, can be seen in the background). However, the increasing cost of preparing suitable pitches and hosting the matches was beyond the means of the College Union and no more county matches, as far as we know, were played on the this ground.
Jenny Clark, Loughborough University Archives
*Sarah Bernhardt
College cricket pavilion, 1921
The scoreboard designed and built in the College workshops, 1921
The first County Cricket Match at Loughborough College, 1924