Hereford might be a lovely city. I have absolutely no idea. When I visited recently, it was largely obscured by rolling clouds of fog, roaming the streets and disorienting unwary visitors like me. Perhaps it was part of a plot by Worcester and Gloucester to stop people finding Hereford Cathedral. If so, I'm glad to say it failed and I eventually made it to the home of the unique chained library.
Looking for a Library
Once you've made your way through the gift shop and the café, then round a corner, through an exhibition, past a video presentation, around another corner, and through the Mappa Mundi display (also worth a visit), you'll reach the famous Hereford Cathedral Chained Library. At one time, chained libraries were common across Europe, but now only Hereford's survives with all its books still chained.
No librarian likes having their charges pinched, but physically attaching the books to the shelves seems a bit of an extreme reaction until you realise that these are not any old paperbacks. Hereford Cathedral's Chained Library is home to around 1500 volumes, including 229 medieval manuscripts. The oldest is the Hereford Gospels, created in about 800 AD, making it older than the stones of the cathedral itself. Handy boards describe highlights of the collection, while lists on the end of each shelf detail what they hold.
Size Isn't Everything
The first thing that struck me was how small the library is. In an age of digital information, ebooks and print-on-demand, it's easy to forget that until Caxton introduced the printing press with moveable type to England in the 1400s every book had to be laboriously copied by hand. Many volumes in the chained library represent hours spent by monks in a monastery's scriptorium, carefully copying and decorating pages of usually religious, legal or historic texts. Without health and safety or electric light, I imagine their backs must have ached and their eyes must've struggled, especially in the darker winter days. The writer's lot has always been a tough one!
The Library Revolution
As any book lover knows, if you don't have many books, you don't need a whole room to keep them in. For hundreds of years, the slow production process meant that books were few and far between and very expensive. Consequently, they were often kept where they were used and in huge, heavy, lockable wooden chests. There are some impressive examples in Hereford Cathedral. I like to think the canons used them for hide and seek between services.
As book availability increased and a culture of education and learning developed, so did the need for dedicated rooms for reading and study. The first library at Hereford Cathedral was created some time before 1478, but is not the one we see today.
Bookcases Galore
The Chained Library is currently housed in the purpose-built New Library Building, opened by HM Queen Elizabeth II in 1996. This incarnation began with a 1583 inquiry by her namesake's government. Appalled by the state of Hereford's library, new statues were introduced, creating the post of Master of the Library and stating that all Hereford's library books should be chained from then on.
Later in Elizabeth I's reign, Sir Thomas Bodley was inventing ways to store and access books in his new library in Oxford. His design included more shelving and a lectern-desk where users could rest the books they were reading. Dr Thomas Thornton, canon of Christ Church, Precentor of Hereford, Master of the Library and nicker of good ideas, copied the innovative design and ordered versions of the oak shelving for Hereford Cathedral. Although it was dismantled, rearranged and moved a number of times, this is the layout you see when visiting today.
In 1612, Dr Thornton also introduced rules, many of which sound quite familiar to modern library users, including that people should "not...teare, blotte, note, or otherwise hurte or anoy any bookes". Annoying the books is definitely a terrible idea.
Everywhere in Chains
In 1849, disgruntled antiquarian and MP Beriah Botfield wrote of the chains
"These fetters are very injurious to the binding of the books...and by causing all the volumes to have their edges turned outwards, are by no means calculated to invite the beholder."
Looking more closely at the chained library shelves, it's hard not to feel rather intimidated. Each huge tome is placed spine-inward so that the chain attached to its cover dangles down the shelf, making it easier to pick up without tangling. Chains do make me think of medieval torture and castle dungeons, however, and it gives the library a feel of exclusivity, as though the knowledge it contains is being restrained for all eternity lest it cause havoc upon the Earth. This is not the case, however. Not only can visitors come along to view the library, researchers and academics are able to access the books in a more modern reading room above the chained library.
Unchained Melody
I'm glad that I braved the fog that day and found Hereford Cathedral. The Chained Library a fascinating trip for the book, history or library lover, but also one that illustrates how far we've come in terms of knowledge sharing. The Chained Library illustrates the physical barriers to learning that have existed in the past and reminds us that access to information is a privilege. It's an easy lesson to forget in the age of the internet, when facts are available at the touch of a button anywhere in the world - providing you have the right tech and connections. Today, we think nothing of walking into the local library, browsing the (unfettered) books and taking home any volume we choose. Our ancestors would have found this astounding, and its a gift that must be both valued and preserved.
More Information and Related Links
This post is based on a visit to Hereford Cathedral in December 2022. Ticket prices were £6 per adult and £5 for students, with group options for families. The exhibition also includes the fascinating Mappa Mundi, a copy of the Magna Carta and a rolling exhibition of other artefacts and documents. For up-to-date information, please visit the official website.
As well as my visit, I learned more about the Chained Library from resources including:
- 'Rare Treasures of Hereford Cathedral' published in 2011 by Scala Publishers Ltd and available from the Hereford Cathedral gift shop.
- 2019 video introduction to the Chained Library and its history by Cathedral Librarian Dr Rosemary Firman.
- Hereford Cathedral website, 'The Chained Library'.
Photographs are author's own.
