HOME HILL’S CHILDEN’S LIBRARY 1949 TO 1960’S CIRCA

I have always enjoyed reading and last week I came by a book, just released this year “The Little Wartime Library” by Kate Thompson.  It tells of the Wartime Library at Bethnal Green in East London during World War 11.  The library had been bombed in the London Blitz in 1940 and the librarians moved the library to the underground railway for safety and to be a service to the people (over five thousand them) that bedded down for the night in safety of the underground.  The Children’s Library was a great success to the children who lived there for five years of their lives.  This bought back many memories for me when the Home Hill School of Arts Library ran a free children’s library from 1950 to the 1960’s.  Miss Myrtle Keller (later Mrs Beck) opened the library every Saturday morning from 10.00 am to 11.30 am in the main hall of the Memorial School of Arts.
The Home Hill Library began in Home Hill in 1923 in a building opposite the Police Station.  It consisted of a room for books and a reading room.  Membership was by subscription only. When the Memorial School of Arts was opened in 1927 the library shifted to the new building. The library rooms were at the front of the Memorial  School of Arts with a  passage way dividing them and steps led upwards into the function room. The library opened every Wednesday and Saturday night from 7.00pm to 9.00pm from the 1940’s on.  I joined the adult library in the 1960’s.
When the children’s library began, the books were kept in two long wall cupboards on each side of the function room up above the seating accommodation and the dance floor. Miss Myrtle Keller, an accountant,  was the secretary for the library and she ran the library at night as well the children’s library on the Saturday.  She laid the books out on the chairs below the cupboards where we chose our books and had them marked off on our library card file.
In December 1949, Mr Cavanagh, (Head Teacher at Iona), addressed the School of Arts Committee asking the Committee to make arrangements for a Children’s library to be established. Before the meeting closed, £10.5/- had been donated.  In April 1950, Local support had raised £70, and together with a Government subsidy, there was sufficient money to purchase books and I suspect that the cupboards could have been built also.
The Grand opening of the Children’s Library took place on Saturday afternoon, 21st July 1950.  Mr H G McLeod, Deputy Ayr Shire Council,  declared the library open. A children’s committee was established to assist in running the affairs of the children’s library. By August 1950, Mr Cavanagh advised there were 91 children who had books out on loan.  Reference books were also available.  The very young readers could not take books out but could read books at the tables and chairs provided.  Two of the older readers would assist in recording the incoming books and the outgoing books on the Saturday.   Another £20 of books were on order.  £20 or $40 worth of books does not seem much by today’s  prices of books, but in the 1950’s, that would have purchased quite a few books.
In December 1950, the Children’s Library was closed down because of a severe outbreak of poli. The Chairman of the committee, Mr Tom Jackson, Secretary Miss Myrtle  Keller, and Mr Cavanagh did not reopen the library till after 15th February 1951.  By June 1951 a total of 114 books had been purchased for the adult and children’s libraries. There were 4000 books in the libraries.   Mr D  Cavanagh was profusely thanked for instigating a free Children’s Library for the district.  In 1953 members of the CWA were assisting the children’s library on Saturday morning.
In my time at this library, Miss M Keller was running the library on a Saturday morning.  Some of the books that were available for reading were Enid Blyton’s Famous Five and Secret Sevens.  I remember a few of us girls formed our own Secret Seven Club.  I cannot remember much more of this club to say how long it lasted but it was fun. Reading matter consisted of Black Beauty, The Billabong Books, Seven Little Australians, the Ann of Green Gables series and the Pollyanna books.  The Boys would have read Treasure Island, Cowboy and Westerns, and maybe Moby Dick and the Biggle Books which were flying adventure books. Robinson Crusoe, Swiss Family, Robinson, and Norman Lindsay’s “The Magic Pudding” were also among them, as well as the Scarlet Pimpernel rescuing people from the French Revolution.
Today The Home Hill Library works under the banner of the Burdekin Shire and during school holidays there are activities for our young people.  If anyone has a story to tell about the Children’s Library in Home Hill or Ayr, we would enjoy hearing from you.
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Contributed with thanks to Glenis Cislowski

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