Tickhill Public Library

I went to watch cricket today but a decent picture eluded me and on my way home I stopped in the village centre and the library was so well illuminated, I took it quickly on my iPhone. This is my blip. The building has a long history. Here is some edited highlights.

Tickhill Library was opened on Wednesday October 7, 1908 by Lord Scarbrough of nearby Sandbeck Hall. His Lordship praised the new building and said that ’… access to good standard literature was looked upon as a necessary adjunct of our educational system in all up-to-date towns’.

The library was the result of the generosity of Henry Shaw, a native of Tickhill, who had made his fortune from Balby Brickworks and other speculative ventures. He had died two years earlier, and had left a site on Castlegate for a library valued at £500, and £1,500 for building, on condition that Tickhill Urban District Council took responsibility for the construction and the provision of a library service.

Doncaster architect, Philip N Brundell was chosen to design the building, and local builders, Messrs Rawson & Sons submitted the lowest tender for construction.

The building of Conisbrough red brick with Mansfield stone dressings had an imposing front and stone doorway and was surmounted by a fine four-face clock supplied by Mr Fretwell of High Street, Doncaster. It contained a large, lofty room for use as a reading room, lecture hall or concert hall, beyond were magazine rooms for ladies and gentlemen and a lavatory; there was a large basement for storage. lf.

Unfortunately, donations of money and books were not forthcoming and the building’s only literary use was the reading room for newspapers; it was mainly used as a venue for dances and meetings, as council offices and a village hall. In the 1970s it was converted into a youth centre.

It was to be over 50 years before Tickhill had a regular library service: the West Riding County Council provided a mobile library service, followed, several years later, by the opening of a temporary library building on the opposite side of Castlegate.

In 1994, the original 1908 building closed and a decision was made to convert it back to a Library. 88 years to the day, on October 7, 1996, it officially reopened as Tickhill Library – complete with books!

Whether it continues as a library with all the cutbacks is another matter but it was great to see it restored to the original concept.