Back on December 1 last year we began to consider the history of the library service in High Wycombe, the origins of which can be traced back over 150 years. 

In that article we took the history up to 1932, when a purpose-built library was opened in Queen Victoria Road adjacent to the Town Hall.

The library occupied the ground floor, with the Wycombe Art Gallery & Museum on the first floor.

The new library had a floor area of 8,000 sq ft, which was nearly four times the size of the old library.

It had been designed for a stock of 25,000 books, unfortunately when it first opened it only had 7,500!

At the time Wycombe’s population was 28,000, towns of comparable size had libraries of 18-20,000 books. 

So the library was completely unprepared for the surge of public interest after it opened, which saw issues nearly double overnight. Two other factors also increased footfall in the library. 

It was the height of the Great Depression and Wycombe had some 2,000 unemployed men with time on their hands, and the library was nice and warm! 

The following year the new Post Office opened across the road, resulting in many more people popping in to the library after buying stamps, posting letters and so on.

So the library committee of the Town Council, which in those days was responsible for the library, took action and increased the Book Fund and with various other sources of funding, the stock reached 20,000 by mid-1936. 

A few months before that the committee had appointed a 25-year-old man who was to have major role in developing the library service in the town.

That man was John Mayes, who had joined the Wycombe library service in 1932, and was now to serve as Borough Librarian for 25 years until 1971.

With the second world war beginning in 1939 John Mayes was called up in the autumn of 1939 and the Library Committee took the unusual step of appointing his wife Madeleine to replace him. 

Other staff at the library were also called up but could only be replaced by young girls straight from school. 

John Mayes was invalided out of the RAF in February 1944 and returned to Wycombe to take up his previous post.

His wife was no doubt relieved on several counts, not only to have him safely home, but also relieving her from the 12 hour days she had been frequently working in the library. 

During 1946 other staff returned from war service and in 1948 the complement was eleven, but the library was in a state of “exhaustion”. 

The stock had grown to 40,000 but the books were largely worn-out and uninspiring, so that a fair proportion had to be withdrawn. From the early 1950’s the library began a period of growth. 

A prediction that television, cheap paper-back books and increasing affluence of the population would reduce the popularity of libraries proved to be unfounded, the opposite being the case. 

The population of the High Wycombe area increased by about a quarter during the 1950’s to c.50,000. 

To meet the demand the book-stock at the library reached 75,000 by the end of the 1950’s. But the library was becoming too small and was also encountering difficulty in recruiting and retaining staff. 

In 1962 an opportunity arose to move the Museum, which had been occupying the first floor of the library building, to Castle Hill House in Priory Avenue, so freeing that space. 

That same year was also memorable for a visit by the Queen to the town and John Mayes was asked at very short notice to build a bodger’s hut in the Town Hall. 

Unable to get a thatcher he arranged to obtain from a London wine merchant 300 straw wine-bottle covers which he split up and nailed to the frame of the hut.

He then stained them with diesel oil – a truly resourceful man! Shortly after that Mayes was appointed Curator of the Museum, which was in addition to continuing as Borough Librarian.

Even with the additional first floor space from the Museum’s move, from the mid-1960’s the Library building was becoming inadequate. 

In February 1968 a prefabricated building was erected in the car park behind the Library to serve as a Reading Room and Junior Library. This was not a success. 

Being marooned from the main building and with little supervision, it became the venue for all sorts of unsavoury behaviour.  

When John Mayes retired in 1971, major changes both nationally and locally were about to happen in the library service. 

Workplace division was still taking place in Wycombe Library, the staff having two separate rooms, one for seniors and the other for juniors. 

In the Senior Staff room they even had their own chairs. The use of Christian names between junior and senior staff was unthinkable. 

Senior staff were paid monthly, but juniors received their wages weekly, the envelopes were handed over personally by the Borough Treasurer or his assistant.

The library will be celebrating its 10th anniversary in its new home in Eden with a series of events, which all are welcomed to attend. 

The first event is on Saturday June 23, see next week’s Nostalgia page for details. 

 To be continued.