Page 9 - HB- Church Road

Church Road Redditch Heritage

A catalogue of 1859 showed 926 volumes had been acquired.⁵

The following selection from that list gives some indication of the range provided.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin - Shakespeare’s Plays and Poems
Boswell’s Life of Johnson - The Cottage Gardener, January to June 1851
History of Scotland - Several Charles Dicken’s novels
Life of Lord Clive - Punch 1851, 1852
Scott’s Poetical Works - Bell’s Rudiments of Drawing
Leaves from the Note Book of a Naturalist
- Topham’s Agricultural Chemistry
Memoirs of a Working Man
The following chart gives an indication of the growth of the Institute’s library and
membership. Dr. Page commented in 1898: ‘It has justly been remarked by a careful
observer that “with the population and the importance of the town the Institute ought to have a
membership of one thousand”. Let the public now respond and make it so.
The following Statistics Show progress of the Library of the Redditch Institute.⁶

Year No. Volumes No. Of Total Volumes Total no. Approx. Town
Exc Ref. Reference members Pop

1850 200 4400 (1851)
1853 902 24 926

1873 1118 30 1148 8,949
1876 3000 450

1887 371 10,000

1892 3000 383
1897 3183 130 3313 360 12,092

1912 4,000 383

The Redditch
Literary and
Scientific Institute
19057

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