Association of Independent Libraries - Tavistock Subscription Library

Home

1: Institution	Tavistock Subscription Library
2: Founded	1799
3: Postal address	Court Gate, Guildhall Square, Tavistock, Devonshire PL19 0AE
4: Tel. Fax. Email Web	Tel: 01822 890293 (Hon. Secretary) AIL page for Tavistock Subscription Library
5: AIL contact	Mr John M. Gale, T.D.B.Ed.Hons.Tech., Hon. Secretary
6: Hours	Members have their own keys and can use the facilities at any time.
7: Membership details	Over 90 Members.
8: Activities, publications etc.	Weekly meetings of the local Writers' Circle on Tuesday afternoons, Members' coffee morning meeting every Friday morning.
9: Refreshments	-
10: Visitors / Researchers	Contact the secretary
11: Background information	The Tavistock Subscription Library was founded in 1799 and settled permanently in the 1830s into rooms alongside and above the massive Court Gate, entry point into the court of Tavistock Abbey. In 1810, the Duke of Bedford became the President of the Library, a family connection which continued until the 1950s. When the Duke sold his Tavistock properties before the Great War, Court Gate was included in the sale. Money was raised to buy it for the town and the Library became the tenants of the Town Council. In the 1960s, the Library, threatened with closure, sold off many of its books, but the remaining collection was saved and housed in a small Reading Room alongside Court Gate. Here the Library remains.
12: Collections	The small collection is now a Local Studies Reference Library, with some books on the Bedford family and others by well-known local nineteenth-century authors.
13: Building	Court Gate dates from the twelfth century. The arch and its adjacent walls and buildings were restored in the 1820s by John Foulston, working for the Duke of Bedford, who offered the Subscription Library a permanent home there at a nominal rent. The present Reading Room was originally a small museum.
14: Status	Subscription library. 2004/03/15