Newsletter
The Friends of Thomas Plume’s Library
Registered Charity 1098311
23, Wentworth Meadows Maldon Essex CM9 6EH31st December 2011
With Christmas behind us (I trust it was good for you) we can begin to look forward and plan for the New Year, and these notes are here to help you do just that, but first a look back on the year we are just completing. In May we held yet another very successful AGM, when we celebrated the continued success of our small society, still doing sterling work in supporting Thomas Plume’s Library after 22 years. After our business and some delicious refreshments supplied by your committee, Clive Potter, himself one of Dr Plume’s trustees, entertained us with a detailed account of GreatTotham from old post cards. His account of the village and its worthies was not without national significance and the ancient pictures of their homes had some of his audience riveted.
In July we had our annual outing, this time to Ipswich Town Library, where our guide was Dr John Blatchly, its librarian and historian. This library is much smaller than ours but about a century older, having been established for Ipswich’s Town Preachers. We were encouraged to handle the books, including a fifteenth century book of hours, in which the original owner had inscribed the names of all her husbands. From there we went on to Christchurch Mansion, which houses the largest collection of Gainsboroughs outside London. There are, however, many other treasures, including many much more recent pictures, including works by some of the most famous French artists. We had a stimulating and enjoyable day of it.
This has been yet another very good year for the purchase of copies to replace books missing from the original collection. At Mrs Wylie’s request we funded the purchase of: Sir Thomas Herbert, A Relation of Some Yeares Travaile..into Afrique and the Greater Asia, 1634, Jan Nieuhoff, Legatio Batavica ad Magnum Tartariae Chamum Sungteium,Sinae Imperatorum ……1698, Capt. John Graunt, Observations Mentioned……made upon the Bills of Mortality….., 1665, Moses Pitt, The Cry of the Oppressed Being…. A Study….Poor Imprisoned Debtors, 1691, Jodici Sinceri, Itinerarium Galliae……, 1655, and Samuel Sorbiere, A Voyage into England, with which is bound Thomas Sprat, Observations on the same voyage, by Dr Thomas Sprat, Fellow of the Royal Society and now Lord Bishop of Rochester, 1709. (NB the originals of both books were published during Plume’s lifetime. Apply to me for further details of this particular purchase if you are interested.)
The History Prize, awarded for the best essay by a year 8 pupil of the Plume School, was handed out to the four best writers again this year and the Friends, led by Sue Swaffin Smith, are, as I write, stewarding the Library to enable visits by the current the current year 8, some 280 of them. We also assisted with the stewarding of the Heritage Open Days in September. Numbers were down a little on previous years which was a pity, considering the excellent display of books from the Post-Plume Collection (now available in its entirety in the online catalogue at www.thomasplumesbirary.co.uk).
I am very pleased to be able to report that the late Brian Harrison, MP for Maldon in the 1950’s, left the Friends £2,000 in his will when he died peacefully in his sleep at the age of 95 last August. This is a magnificent sum, but has already been spent because we have had such a good book-buying year.
Looking forward to next year, you will find enclosed an invitation to ‘Words and Music’, an entertainment to be held in St Mary’s Church on Saturday 10th March. Colin Baldy has kindly agreed to lead St Mary’s church choir, and we will have some readings from our newly acquired books. In addition to our usual refreshments, we are inviting you to enter a competition to discover who can bake the best plate of cakes from a seventeenth century recipe devised by Hannah Woolley, whose book The Queen-like Closet….1684 was another recent acquisition. I do hope several of you will enter, but please let me know in time beforehand so that if it proves really popular, we are not swamped by entries to add to our refreshments.
The AGM will again be held in the Octagon of St Mary’s Church, at 7.30pm on Saturday, 19th May. Our speaker will be Magdalen Evans and her topic will be on her recent book, ‘Utmost Fidelity, the painting lives of Marianne and Adrian Stokes’. Her talk will be illustrated with images of their highly representational paintings.
Our library visit next year will be to Lambeth Palace on Thursday 12th July, where we will be able to see the exhibition entitled ‘Royal Devotion: Monarchy and the Book of Common Prayer’. We will also be able to visit the library in the company of the Librarian, Giles Mandelbrote, who, I am very pleased to say, is a member of the Friends. During the day we will also visit the Museum of Garden History, which is right next door to Lambeth Palace. Our coach only has 35 seats so early booking may well be advised. Application forms will be sent out in March.
It is with regret that I note that this is my penultimate newsletter, as I will be standing down as chairman at the AGM. My health is much better than it was but I wish to be able to devote more time to research in the Library and to writing this up. Please consider that you may be able to help by giving some time to the committee, as well as your financial support.
I know you hear this in every sphere, but the Library needs your support in both funds and in practical help, if it is to continue to survive and function as a working library for the future, so please continue to be as generous as you can.
With very best wishes for the New Year,
Tony Doe