Tavistock Library - a short history

This is a history of the public library run by Devon County Council. Not to be confused with the independent Tavistock Subscription Library or the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust Library and Information Service.

In the beginning

The history of libraries in Tavistock goes back over one thousand years to the abbey founded by Ordwulf, son of Ordgar, Ealdorman of Devon, in the year 974. The abbey had a scriptorium for copying manuscripts, and the works being copied would have formed part of the abbey's library.

By 1525 Tavistock Abbey had a printing press, and it was there that The boke of comfort called in latyn Boecius de consolatione philosophie was printed by "me Dan Thomas Rychard monke of the sayd Monastery, To the instant desyre of the ryght worshypful esquyer Mayster Robert Langdon." What happened to the press and collection of books and manuscripts after the dissolution of the abbey in 1539 is a matter for speculation.

Tavistock Subscription Library

The concept of a free public library, open to all and managed by a local authority, did not develop fully until the mid-nineteenth century. But in 1799 Tavistock's first library, available to all on payment of a subscription, was opened. This was at a time before compulsory education existed so literacy was limited. If you could read, it was likely that you could also afford the subscription. The idea behind the library was simple - one person could only afford a limited number of books in their own personal collection. By clubbing together with other like-minded individuals a much larger collection could be established by pooling resources.

As the Subscription Library still exists and its history is well-documented, we will move on to the first true "public library" in Tavistock.

Public Libraries Act, 1850

The Public Libraries Act 1850 enabled towns and districts to establish free public libraries. It allowed local authorities with a population over 10,000 to spend one halfpenny in the pound on the service, subject to a vote approved by two thirds of the local ratepayers. Tavistock's population in 1851 was 8,036. The Public Libraries and Museums Act 1855 reduced the population requirement to 5,000 and increased the expenditure to one penny in the pound - the so-called "penny rate". Further legislation in 1866 removed the population requirement entirely.

Devon's free public libraries

It's one thing for legislation to exist which allows free public libraries to be opened, but a very different thing for them to open. Devon's first was in Exeter which opened the first true free public library in the county in 1870, the same year as Leeds. The Borough of Plymouth opened its first library in the former Guildhall in 1876, the Borough of Bideford followed in 1877, and the Borough of Devonport in 1882. Devonport was unusual in that the corporation took over the library and collections of the former Mechanics' Institute which had been transferred from the Civil and Military Library in 1865. South Molton followed in 1889, Moretonhampstead in 1902, Newton Abbot in 1904, and Torquay in 1907.

But what of Barnstaple, Paignton, Tiverton, Exmouth - and Tavistock?

Enter the County Council

Council councils were created in 1888, largely taking over the administrative functions of the unelected county courts of quarter sessions. They consisted of councillors, directly elected by the electorate; and county aldermen, chosen by the council itself. In the wake of the Great War, the Public Libraries Act 1919 allowed county councils to open and run free public libraries. It also allowed small library authorities, such as South Molton and Moretonhampstead, to hand over their services to the county council.

All this needed money, as opening public libraries had done in larger towns. And, as in larger towns, Andrew Carnegie, Dunfermline-born American steel magnate came to the rescue. The Western Times of 4 January 1924:

An explanation of the Rural Library Scheme was made to the Devon Education Committee at the Castle of Exeter yesterday by the Secretary of the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust (Colonel Mitchell). Members were previously handed a brief memorandum of the scheme, together with a short summary of the chief provisions of the Public Libraries Act, 1919. The information in the memorandum was based chiefly on recent reports by the Carnegie Trust.

It was pointed out that a grant made by the Trustees is calculated at the rate of £1 for five books, one book being allowed for each five of the school population. In one case of Devon this would mean a grant between £1,700 and £1,800. The Trustees consider that such a supply would probably be adequate for about five years, after which the Council would have to make substantial purchases of books each year...

With the help of the Trustees a Central Library Scheme in London has been inaugurated for the loan of expensive books of an advanced character, which may be obtained through the Rural Library Scheme by students in rural areas...

The scheme would be under the management of a County Librarian, and the Trustees as condition of their grant require that a salary of not less than £300 a year [£23,000 in 2024] should be offered in an area such as Devon. The cost of maintenance has not reached a halfpenny rate in any county, and is generally considerably less than that.

Colonel Mitchell explained that it was the late Mr. Carnegie's belief that one of the ways he could help in the spread of knowledge was to give a large sum of money for the erection of borough libraries. These buildings were now in various parts of the country, and were maintained out of the rates, the average rates levied for their upkeep being equivalent to one penny three-farthings the pound.

What was desirable for the boroughs was even more desirable for the villages, and nowhere more so than in Devon, where the population was scattered in as high a degree as anywhere in England or Scotland.

In practical terms, a central store was required together with locations in towns and villages across the county, probably in schools, where the deposit collections were available. Books, packed in boxes, were to be sent to each location and, after an appropriate amount of time, returned to the store for reallocation to the next location. Experience had shown that central monitoring of the collections was essential, and one location simply sending a box to another did not work.

Colonel Mitchell added that this offer was time-limited and had to be accepted by the end of 1925.

Devon County Library

It was hard for the county councillors to turn down the offer of free money to set up a much-needed service which would reduce the inequality between those living in rural areas and those in the county's boroughs. No time was lost.

The Western Morning News reported on Wednesday 18 June 1924:

[Tomorrow] the Education Committee will report, with reference to the county library scheme under the Public Libraries Act, that the sub-committee have appointed as librarian Mr. S. T. Williams, senior assistant librarian of the Cambridge Borough Free Library, who will take his duties on July 1.

A central depot for books will be established in Exeter, from which boxes of books will be sent out three times a year to local centres.

By September 1924 things had moved on apace. The service would be known as the Devon County Library, with its premises in Colleton Crescent until more suitable ones could be found. A list of 52 or 53 centres had been drawn up to receive the books.

Tavistock's County Library Centre

The Western Morning News of Monday 2 March 1925 provides an update, and for the first time Tavistock features. The population of Devon to be served is about 310,000 with a grant of £2,900 from the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust of which at least £2,200 [about £168,000 in 2024] must be spent on books. The balance to be spent on boxes and furniture.

📌 Personal aside: Those boxes were still in use when I started work in Exeter Central Library in 1981. Strongly made of wood, they were about three feet wide, two feet from front to back and eight inches in depth. They had metal fastenings which could be secured with a padlock. They had to be strong, being taken to railway station in Exeter and sent by rail. When they reached their destination they were loads on to carts or lorries and taken to their destination. They ended their lives carrying books to residential homes in Exeter.

Tavistock's population was reckoned at 5,238 and the centre would initially receive 400 books, increasing to 500 by the end of the first year. Torquay, the largest centre, would receive 3,000 increasing to 4,000.

A better class of book is generally required in the larger places than in the villages. Although there are exceptions, most of the latter require only the simplest non-fiction, but in larger places the percentage of non-fiction required is higher and more advanced. It is probable that a large number of modern works of travel, biography, essays, and up-to-date works on a variety of subjects will required. These books are published at a high price, and it is not possible to purchase many of them new, unless the average cost of the book is to be much higher than at present. Many of the books, however, can be obtained at about a third of the published price, and bought in large numbers at one time can frequently be purchased very cheaply.

Agatha Christie on the rates

The objection to public libraries stocking "light" fiction is an old one which ignores what we would now call the benefits to mental health they bring. The Western Times of 19 March 1926 hints at a discomfort on the part of library staff: 

The opinion expressed by many librarians is, says the report, that in time works of an educational nature will be more widely read.

And in the Western Times of 13 April 1928 it surfaced again:

Mr Batting...wished the practical side could be developed at the expense of the fiction side. It sickened him somewhat to find young fellows and girls going to their schools and getting books of fiction and poring over them morning, noon and night. Could it do very much good? Mr. Goaman said was to the credit of the Devonshire people that they were actually reading a higher percentage than the average of practical books. Even small villages were showing well in this respect.

Into the Thirties

It's clear from reports from other towns in Devon, including Torrington, Plympton and Plymstock, that staffed branches were opened. In 1935 the post of Male Branch Librarian at Paignton was advertised with a salary of £150 a year [£13,500 in 2024]. Applicants had to be certificated members of the Library Association.

Tavistock was not in the fortunate position of Paignton or other larger towns. The service was run for two hours a week by volunteers "operating in cramped conditions in a room used during the day as an office of the Urban District Council and with minimum equipment necessary for library purposes". [Librarian's Annual Report for year ending 31 Jan 1949]

At County Library level, the service moved to 138 Cowick Street in Exeter, the former St Thomas Rural District Council premises opposite the parish church. From there Cyril Manchester and later E. J. Coombe ran their ever-expanding domains. Cowick Street was much more convenient for despatch of those wooden boxes from St Thomas railway station. By 1942 the headquarters had moved to Barley House, high above St Thomas, where it remained until the late 1990s.

Planning the new library

Under the system of local democracy then in use, each County Branch Library was overseen by a local Sub-Committee. In Tavistock, at its fullest in 1956, it comprised representatives from:

• Tavistock Urban District Council
• Tavistock Rural District Council
• Co-opted Members
• County Council representatives

The book of minutes starting from the initial meeting in 1947 has been preserved and its pages provide us with considerable, and not always interesting, information.

The first meeting took place in the Council Chambers on 28 July 1947, attended by Mr. Heyden, JP, (in the chair), Mrs M. E. Bazley, Mr A. H. Callaway, Mr E. H. Conybeare, Mr Frank G. Quant* and E. J. Coombe, the County Librarian.

It was agreed that the opening hours would be:

Monday: 2.30 - 4.30pm, 6 - 8pm
Wednesday: 6 - 8pm
Thursday: 2.30 - 4.30pm
Friday (market day): 11am - 1pm, 2.30 - 4.30pm, 6 - 8pm
Saturday: 2.30 - 4.30pm, 6 - 8pm

The County Librarian would advertise for the post of Librarian and the opening date would be agreed by the Chair and the County Librarian.

📌 Personal aside: Frank Quant, JP, (1900-1985) who had worked for the London and South Western and Southern Railways bequeathed his collection of railway books to the library.

The Library opens

By January 1948 the new library in the east corner of the main Pannier Market building had been fitted out. But sparsely, as future discussions would show. It was opened to the public on 28 January 1948 between 4pm and 8pm. The Branch Librarian, working 18 hours a week, was Mr. S. Brock.

The Western Morning News of 29 January 1948:

LET THEM READ ADVENTURES

ADVICE WHEN NEW LIBRARY OPENED

A warning against condemning the reading of adventure books children was given by Mr. John Day (vice-chairman Devon Education Committee and the County Library Committee's chairman) at a public meeting before officially opening Tavistock's new branch of Devon County Library.

The spirit of adventure of Tavistock's greatest man—Sir Francis Drake—would live as long as the English race endured, he declared. Mr. Day recalled that a library was first founded in Tavistock by John Tayler, of Holwell, in 1799. Tavistock had always been a seat of teaming, and in 1524 had a printing press, one of the earliest in the country. Many notable men and women, writers, and statesmen had lived there.

The main difference between libraries of the past and those of the present was that once books had been the privilege of the few, but now a social service for many was being established.

The true library rate for last year was 4d., and the 1949 rate would be 4½d.; not a great increase when the service of the libraries was borne in mind. 

The Western Times of 30 January 1948 gave a different account: 

A warning against condemning the reading of adventure books by children was given by Mr. John Day (vice-chairman of Devon Education Committee and the County Library Committee's chairman) at a public meeting before officially opening Tavistock's new branch of Devon County Library...

The new branch was the thirteenth to be established in the county's post-war programme, Mr. Day continued. It would be open for 18 hours a week instead of two hours a week as in olden days, and 4,500 books would be available, increasing to 6,000.

Mr. J. Heyden (chairman of Tavistock Urban Council) said the new centre, in the pannier market, was not an ideal one. nor was it in an ideal place, but it was central and spacious, and better than nothing.

📌 Personal aside: Arriving in Tavistock as Librarian-in-charge in 1983, the Area Librarian told me that a town centre location, though small, was better as it was more likely to be used by shoppers.

The minutes of the Sub-Committee meeting on 18 February 1948 tell us that in the first seventeen days of opening 941 new members had joined and 3,114 books had been borrowed.

Of the new members, 81 lived outside the town in places such as Brentor, Lamerton, Lydford, Mary and Peter Tavy, and Yelverton.

There were 386 women members, and 367 men; 102 boys and 86 girls.

Adult fiction, unsurprisingly, was the most popular with 1,554 loans. Adult non-fiction represented 792. Children's fiction (as discussed by Mr Day at the opening) was 451 and non-fiction 317.

📌 Personal aside: "Lt.-Comdr. S. Brock" as he is described in an article in the Tavistock Times of 30 July 1948 has proved to be an interesting and somewhat elusive character. Samuel Brock, born in the Coastguard Buildings at Grade, near Ruan Minor, Cornwall, on 6 June 1889. His father had joined the Royal Navy, claiming to be 14 at the age of 13; by 1879, when was married, he had transferred to the Coastguard at Weymouth. He had retired to Uffculme by 1911 but rejoined the Coastguard for the duration of the Great War. He was promoted to the honorary rank of Lieutenant Commander (retired) in November 1923 and died in Uffculme in 1942

His son Samuel, our first branch librarian, seems to have adopted his father's rank for his own purposes. He trained as a draughtsman and worked for a railway signalling company in Kilburn. Married at Hampstead Register Office in 1909, he joined the Royal Army Service Corps as a Motor Transport Driver in October 1916, specialising in driving lorries. He was discharged in November 1919 with an injury to his ankle. In 1939 Samuel and his family were living in St Albans where he had resumed working as a draughtsman.

It may never be clear what circumstances led Samuel to apply for the post of branch librarian when it was advertised, probably in the two Tavistock newspapers. His wife died in Kingston-upon-Thames in 1972. Samuel died in East Cornwall in July 1974 and was buried at St Ive.

Onwards and upwards

Such was the success of the new branch library that at the May 1948 meeting of the Sub-Committee it was unanimously resolved to extend the opening hours from 18 to 24. The Branch Librarian's salary was also increased to £150 [£6,800 in 2024] and an assistant appointed for 12 hours a week to help at busy periods.

Mr Quant suggested that a bench be provided and one was to be obtained from the Urban District Council store. And all agreed that an electric clock should be provided.

The West Devon Regional Library

With the branch library up and running - and the hours of Mrs N. Phillips, assistant librarian, increased from 12 to 18 - Mr Snook from Headquarters attended the Sub-Committee on 22 July 1948 to explain the concept of the Regional Library. Because of Tavistock's success and distance from Exeter, he proposed that collections of books for the rural centres should be assembled and despatched from Tavistock rather than the county town. An additional 3,000 books would be supplied together with a "qualified full-time Librarian" to run it from 1949. The branch would benefit from the additional books "floating through it", and (possibly) longer opening hours.

Mr Quant, who we can tell would have loved spreadsheets, had created graphs showing the number of loans and members for the previous quarter. They would be displayed in the library.

The Regional Librarian was confirmed as Mr K. G. Hunt who would start work in the autumn of 1948 in readiness for the Regional Library service to start in January 1949. The branch's opening hours would be increased to 30 per week.

📌 Personal aside: By the 1980s Ken Hunt had become Area Librarian in North Devon responsible for a vast rural area.

Minutiae

The minutes of the Sub-Committee meeting on 29 October 1948 give us an indication, if we needed one, of why the sub-committee system was eventually disbanded. But during its existence its members were valuable allies of the Branch Librarian.

E. J. Coombe travelled down from Exeter and announced that the heating for the Regional Library was being provided, that K. G. Hunt had moved to Exeter, that Mr J. G. Galt had been appointed in his place, and that a reconditioned vacuum cleaner had been bought.

The Sub-Committee recommended a glass screen to protect staff from the draught and a spring be fitted to the door for the same reason.

📌 Personal aside: Jack Galt (1923 - 2000) was the son of a solicitor's managing clerk from Exeter. On 29 September 1939 he was already working as a "librarian's clerk" in Exeter, though whether it was for the City or the County Library isn't clear. It's to Jack that we owe the compilation of a scrapbook of press cuttings about Tavistock Library as well as the continuation of the book of Sub-Committee minutes. He was nearing retirement when I joined Devon Library Services in 1981 and was working at the Barley House headquarters as Bibliographical Services Librarian. His memory stretched back many years and it was while I was working on the refurbishment of Tiverton Library in 1983 that he told me of the wooden book boxes being sent to Tiverton by train from Exeter, and taken up the hill to the library by horse and cart. As Tavistock's pioneer post-war librarian, I am dedicating this history to his memory. The initiatives which follow were put in place by Jack.

A full-time library

At the Sub-Committee meeting on 22 April 1949, the County Librarian announced a planned increase in opening hour to 40 per week, making Tavistock a "Full Time Branch Library", Alongside the increase was the appointment of a full-time Junior Assistant to be trained in the work of both the Branch Library and Regional Library. Unsurprisingly, the Sub-Committee was delighted. At the next meeting they were less delighted as the vacancy had only had three applications, and none had the School Certificate.

The Librarian's Report records the loan of a book to the National Central Library of Italy, and 39 books lent to other libraries in the UK. Quite an achievement for a library hardly a year old.

The new opening hours would be:

Monday: 10.30am - 1pm, 2pm - 7.30pm
Tuesday: 10.30am - 1pm, 2pm - 7.30pm
Wednesday: 10.30am - 1pm, 2pm - 7.30pm
Thursday: 10.30am - 1pm
Friday: 10.30am - 1pm, 2pm - 7.30pm
Saturday: 10.30am - 1pm, 2pm - 7.30pm

A library cleaner, Mr G. H. Slatter, was appointed to work eight hours per week at 2/0¾ [two shillings three-farthings] an hour.

Financial crisis

A report to the County Library Sub-Committee on 28 March 1951 spelled out the grim reality of local authority cuts, the first since the Second World War. The budget for new books for the County would be reduced from £21,000 to £14,000, and £2,500 less would be spent on fiction for adults. The impact would be to reduce the number of novels available by 15,000. Measures to mitigate included ending services to the H.M Forces and hospitals, and buying more secondhand books - and recalling 7,000 books from urban branch libraries, including Tavistock. And no requests would be taken for new fiction unless the books were of "outstanding literary merit".

Into the Fifties

Mr S. Brock, who had served as Branch Librarian at the library's opening, and subsequently become Part-Time Assistant, left the service on 26 September 1953. Mr P. J. Bawden joined as Full-Time Assistant on 28 September.

📌 Personal aside: Peter James Bawden was born in Truro in 1941 and died on 7 November 2018, fondly remembered by many people. He lived in Plympton for many years which is when I met him and was regaled with stories of the Tavistock Mobile Library in the 1950s, one the less salacious ones I repeat below. He was presented with the Music Shield of the Gorsedh Kernow in 2014 for "outstanding services to music in Cornwall." A man of many parts and a great sense of humour.

On 17 December 1954 the temporary BBC television transmitter controversially located on North Hessary Tor began broadcasting to the Tavistock area just in time for Christmas. 

The Cornish Guardian on 23 December 1954 took a positive view:

Used selectively, television is perhaps better entertainment than even sound broadcasting, and at times even more educational. We have always regarded as nonsense the attitude of people who, with so little experience say of television. "I wouldn't have it if you gave it to me." Much nearer the truth are the people who say, "You are not living in your day and generation without it." 

Jack Galt, now the West Regional Librarian, reported in April 1955:

The past working year has been satisfactory in every respect. A careful check on the use of the Library was made from the opening of the North Hessary Tor Television transmitter and, although adult reading showed a very slight decline in January and February [1954], March reading returned to the high level of the first nine months of the year.

The Regional Library saw some changes over the same period. The centres at Tavistock Secondary Modern School and Postbridge were transferred to Headquarters, Sydenham Damerel lapsed and Maristow House, a "school for retarded children" started. Horrabridge received an extra bookcase.

Enter the Travelling Library

The Tavistock Times of 1 July 1953 had some exciting news:

Thanks to the progress - unequalled by any other County Branch Library in Devon - made by the Tavistock branch under the guidance and care of Mr. J. E. Galt and his staff, the Devon County Library Committee decided to make a big experiment in the county using their model branch of Tavistock for the experiment.

"The operation of this new method will mean the disappearance of the village library service as we have known it for the last 30 years except that certain large villages which can offer a good choice of books to readers will continue to function."

Following the meeting an inspection was made of the new mobile library, blue and cream van, it measures 22ft. by 7ft. 6ins. and inside bookshelves reached from floor to ceiling. Skylights and electric lighting enhance the brightly-painted interior and lockers provided storage space for reserve books.

The mobile library will be staffed by a qualified librarian and a driver will assist with the books.

Inevitably, not everyone was happy as Plymouth's Western Evening Herald demonstrated  on 11 August 1954:

It would be boorish to begrudge the amenity, but it looks a little queer side by side with reports of Westcountry parents complaining that their children have to walk nearly three miles to school.

Taken in conjunction with the plastic cover innovation introduced by Plymouth, this will look a little like having literature delivered on the doorstep with the milk.

After three months of operation the Sub-Committee received a report. It had 134 stopping points, 2,000 registered readers and had issued more than 13,000 books. A six-fold increase in loans and 300 per cent increase in membership compared with the deposit system.

The end of an era - and the start of a new one

On 19 October 1957, Jack Galt, who had created the full-time library in Tavistock, the Regional Library and Travelling Library, left Tavistock and headed with his family to Exeter. There he became Readers' Advisor at the County Library branch within the Library Headquarters at Barley House. Until 1974, Exeter had two main public libraries - the City Library in the centre and the County Library on top of the hill in St Thomas. 

Jack was replaced as Regional Library on a temporary basis by Mr T. Shannon. At their meeting on 15 November 1957 the Sub-Committee recorded their unanimous appreciation of Jack's services.

📌 Personal aside: By the time I arrived in Devon in 1981 Terry Shannon was Librarian-in-Charge at Okehampton. Born in 1933, he died in 1999. 

Terry Shannon was soon replaced on a permanent basis by Mr R. E. P. Wood. Born in Plymstock in 1934, Ray Wood first appears in the minutes of the Sub-Committee on 2 May 1958. Proposals for library improvements included fluorescent lighting and the shelves and walls to be painted. The Travelling Library had issued 105,378, an increase of 25%.

📌 Personal aside: I knew Ray Wood well - he worked for me in Plymouth from 1987 until his retirement. Stories abound, but I will only give two of the more repeatable. The first comes from Peter Bawden who discovered an orthodox way of providing staff facilities on the Travelling Library - by lifting up a flap in the floor.

The second involves Ray's underwear which he would leave soaking overnight in the library's washbasin. There was also a story involving his pyjamas, a cat and filing cabinet...

Those were unorthodox for the male staff of the library service. Johnny Bright, working at Torrington Library, slept on the table in the library. Later, when I knew him, he was working at St Thomas Library in Exeter and was seriously concerned about the curtains in the staff room there.

On 25 July 1961 Devon County Library opened its biggest and busiest branch costing £29,000 - at Paignton.

By 1964, society was changing and the Sub-Committee questioned the late opening of the library until 8pm on so many evenings, especially on Saturdays. Ray was instructed to count the number of visitors after 5pm in half-hourly bands and report back to the next meeting.

The stocks of the Branch Library and Travelling Library were combined, allowing much easier exchanges between the two.

In March 1965 the results of the survey were clear, and the Sub-Committee recommended that the library close at 6.30pm on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and 6pm on Saturday.

The members of the Sub-Committee were also told that it would cease to exist. The Sub-Committee recommended to the new Public Libraries Committee of the County Council that there should continue to be local representation.

The last days of the Devon County Library

In February 1971 the Conservative Government published a White Paper on the structure of Local Government in England. This led to the Local Government Act 1972 which reduced the Cities of Exeter and Plymouth and County Borough of Torbay to secondary authorities, subordinate to a new Devon County Council. In library terms, services in Exeter, Plymouth and Torbay would become part of a much larger Devon Library Service.

The uncertainty that led up to this decision saw Devon County Council rapidly investing in library buildings in "vulnerable" areas. Plympton received a temporary structure which lasted over forty years, Plymstock a smart new-build. It is probably at this time that Tavistock Library, under pressure in its corner of the Pannier Market, expanded into the ground floor of Court Gate - the space currently occupied by the Museum of Policing in Devon & Cornwall.

Brave New World

It's not clear exactly when Ray Wood left Tavistock, but it seems likely that his move to Plymouth coincided with the creation of the new service on 1 April 1974. This, from the County Library's perspective, saw a takeover by the former senior staff in Plymouth. E. J. Coombe, County Librarian, retired, as did Bill Best Harris, City Librarian of Plymouth. Rex Charlesworth, former Deputy in Plymouth became the first County Librarian of the new authority.

Tavistock, along with Ivybridge, Okehampton and Princetown, became part of the new service's West Area. It was never a happy situation. Plymouth's service was the busiest and biggest in Devon. Grafting three rural branches, not to mention three very rural Mobile Libraries, on to the largest urban system on the south coast of England, was not going to work.

The County's decentralised structure meant that Barnstaple, Exeter, Plymouth and Torquay became local headquarters for their area. Book stock purchase, headed up by Jack Galt, remained at Barley House. But for Tavistock an extra layer had been created. No longer was Barley House just a phone call away - everything had to be run through Plymouth first. And Plymouth's priorities and viewpoints were not always Tavistock's.

The new service inherited a vast amount of books, with a plethora of catalogues in different formats. Previously Tavistock had a card catalogue which was matched by a "union catalogue" of all the county's stock at Barley House. Now Exeter's, Plymouth's and Torbay's catalogues had to be combined and something usable created.

Enter the COMCAT

Devon became the biggest customer of the British Library's new BLAISE service. The result was a catalogue on microfiche which was updated annually with monthly supplements. For Tavistock's customers this opened up the large and important collections of Exeter and Plymouth. Books could be requested and delivered by the internal van service.

Many readers will remember the orange plastic fiche reader used in the old library and the sheaves of plastic sheets. 

Moving to the Fire Station

With the new Devon Library Services in charge, library buildings were reviewed. These ranged from the good - Churston was almost new in 1974 - to the ancient - Barnstaple. Tavistock's was inadequate for a growing town with a developing service.

With Christine Kinsman as Divisional Librarian, ably assisted by Jean Greaves, the library moved from the now-cramped Pannier Market space into the former Fire Station opposite. For the first time the library had a large Children's Library, in accordance with Plymouth's longstanding priority to develop services for children and young people.

Because the library was now so busy, issuing over 250,000 books a year - slightly behind Plympton and Plymstock - it was given a large, long counter to handle the manual system. Although Exeter was automated, and East Devon branches followed along with Plymouth, Plympton and Plymstock, it was to be ten years before Tavistock was connected.

Chris left and her place was taken by Tina Weekes. Tina moved to Paignton on a temporary basis in the early 1980s and took up the post permanently in 1983.

From 1983 to 1987

📌 Personal aside: I arrived at Exeter Central Library, fresh from Library School in London, in June 1981. Before Library School I had worked as a Library Assistant in Richmond-upon-Thames and Westminster and completed a degree in music. During my time at Exeter I worked on the refurbishment of Tiverton Library, and it was this that brought me into contact with Jack Galt. In June 1983 I arrived as the new Librarian-in-charge at Tavistock.

In June 1983 the staff of Tavistock Library comprised a full-time Librarian-in-charge (the writer of this history), a full-time First Assistant (Jean Greaves), a full-time Library Assistant (Judi Martin), and part-time Library Assistants Margaret Maker, Madeleine Green and Olive Ottley. There was also a Mobile Library Assistant who was independent but relied on the Branch for book exchanges and cover when she was on leave or off sick.

It's hard to imagine a time when music cassettes were the last innovation in libraries, but so it was at Tavistock in July 1983. The collection was launched by Tavistock Gazette music critic Ben Morland and County Councillor Lysbeth Gallup. There was a catch - unlike books which by law had to be free of charge, there was a 20p per week hire charge for cassettes.

Hard on the heels of the cassettes, the following month saw Tavistock hosting a Writer-in-Residence, Alexis Lykiard, for six months. As well as giving advice and encouragement to local writers, Alexis arranged visits and talks by well-known poets. These included Charles Causley and Alan Brownjohn. Quite a coup for a small market town in West Devon.

Friday mornings were the busiest day of the week as it was market day. And wet Friday mornings were something to be anticipated with something akin to horror. Three or four members of staff working around each other on "the issue", finding the tickets of queues of borrowers which regularly stretched out of the door. Unforgettable.

Memorable borrowers in those days included Angela Rippon, then living at Grenofen and looking very different from her glamorous self. And Mrs Lakeman, with her little boys Seth and Sam, now well-known musicians. Mrs Kelly of Kelly House, and her mother-in-law, were always welcome for the smile they brought.

Always under pressure to raise money, the Library Service decided to start selling bus tickets on which they would receive a commission. These were time-consuming and cumbersome and lasted only a few years, but appreciated by those who bought them.

Something else that was cumbersome was the income from fees and charges. All in cash in those days, of course. Rolls of "fines tickets" were used as receipts and woe betide if, the next morning, the number of receipts issued didn't match the money in the box. If there was too much in the box the solution was simple - tear off the requisite number of receipts. But if more receipts had been issued than money taken, there was a problem. The official line, followed in Tavistock, was simply to note the discrepancy.

📌 Personal aside: When I started work in Plymouth in 1987 I discovered a different approach: the "ups tin". Any excess of money over receipts was put in a jar and used to balance any discrepancies. I was horrified.

Eventually, around 1985, came the news that Tavistock would be the next library for automation. This was before the Internet enabled easy connections between computers. A dedicated BT line using the X.25 protocol was used and at some considerable expense. Almost overnight the service was transformed. The old tickets and cards were binned and the queues - especially those wet Friday queues - became a thing of the past.

Using a terminal (in those days known as a VDU), staff could access the county's catalogue and see, for the first time, exactly what books were where. It revolutionised the requests service, speeding up delivery by weeks.

Through all this change, the fundamental work of shelving return books and tidying the shelves continued. There was little space available to promote books or have displays. Such things were still a pipedream and Tavistock Library was fast becoming the modern equivalent of the old pre-1948 library in the room in the Council Chamber.

More change

In June 1987 there was a new Librarian-in-charge. This was Jean Boase, a very experienced member of Plymouth staff who had previously jointly-run the Central Lending Library. It was a good move for her in her final years before retirement. In a strange quirk of fate she found herself buying the house in Buddle Close which Tina Weekes had sold in 1983. Jean had a happy retirement in Tavistock and died in 2009.

Jean's place was taken by another experienced member of Plymouth staff, Moira Cave. Moira took the library service into the new millennium and the new building in Plymouth Road. But before that...

And even more change

Changes were afoot in local government again in the 1990s. New counties such as Avon and Humberside had not found favour with their communities, and cities which had been subsumed by their surrounding counties, wanted greater control. Leicester, Nottingham, Brighton and, of course, Plymouth.

It was Devon's turn in 1998. In 1997 everyone was planning for the dismantling of a service which had been assembled in 1974. Plymouth was becoming a unitary authority, and getting control of its library service, and so - surprisingly to some - was Torbay. The rest of Devon was unaffected - except that they were losing access to Plymouth's books and specialist resources.

Since Tavistock was being run from Plymouth, there would be major changes again. Plymouth Reference Library was no longer the default for answering information enquiries, and the Music and Drama Library and Bookbindery were being lost as well. But so was the level of management introduced in 1974 where everything was channelled through Plymouth.

As if to mark the new service Tavistock finally heard the news it had been waiting for - a new library would be built at The Wharf as part of a County Council development. Gone would be the cramped, but town centre, location. Replaced with a spacious new building opposite the bus station and next to a large car park.

Libraries Unlimited

Any history, however short, of Tavistock Library must record the creation of the charity Libraries Unlimited in 2016. This model of library service provision, where the local authority legally responsible commissions a new charity to deliver the service, wasn't new. But it was new to Devon. Advantages include independence from the local authority's constraints and freedom to make new partnerships for the benefit of communities, and funding for a set period. Disadvantages include a new bureaucracy taking over from the old, and a possible loss of professional library expertise.

In November 2023, the County Council agreed to decommission its fleet of mobile libraries, including that which had been based at Tavistock since 1954. In place of the mobile libraries, the Council wanted to create a network of "community libraries" run by volunteers.

Now where have we heard that idea before?

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank all those former colleagues of mine who worked for both Devon County Council and Plymouth City Council. Without their knowledge, experience, advice and anecdotes this short history would not have been possible because so many records no longer exist. Many of these colleagues are now longer with us, and I would like to dedicate this to the memory of their hard work, patience, skill and good humour. I would also like to thank my successor at Tavistock, Jan Horrell, and her team for preserving what records do exist and making them available to me.