Chapter C

Flint
Carmarthen
Anglesey
Middlesex
Hampshire (Isle of Wight)
Hampshire (Southampton)
Worcestershire
Northamptonshire
Cumberland
Durham
Northumberland
Kirkcudbright
Nairn
Fife
Bedfordshire
Surrey
Linlithgow
Shropshire
Cambridge
Isle of Man

(Carnegie United Kingdom Trust, _Seventh Annual Report_, 1921; p. 9.)

[21] _Library Association Record_--“The Gloucestershire Rural Library Scheme,” by Miss A. S. Cooke (Feb., 1921).

[22] S. B. Antrim and E. I. Antrim, _The County Library_ (1914), p. 238.

[23] Total number of vols. accessioned (Dec. 31, 1920) 37,302; number in the library 30,597.

[24] J. H. Friedel: _Training for Librarianship_, p. 106.

[25] pp. 141-5.

[26] The character of the best type of village institute may be judged from the following account of the Nettlebed Working Men’s Club and Institute:--

“Perhaps the most original feature of the equipment of the hall is the provision of a cinematograph apparatus. The provision of picture palaces in all English villages would be a doubtful advantage, if they showed the baser sort of ‘cowboy’ and other sensational films. Given some restraint in the choice of subject, however, moving pictures make winter evenings more changeful. During 1918 the cinema was used very little, but it is now running every Saturday evening, and draws full houses. Mr. Fleming’s main idea in installing a cinema at Nettlebed was to make use of its educational possibilities. The Oxfordshire Education Committee welcomed the provision, as also did the Inspector of Schools, the more so because it extended advantages to the school children of six parishes near Nettlebed. The Education Code permits teachers to take the whole or part of a school for rambles or visits to places of educational interest during school hours, and films have been shown at Nettlebed on certain afternoons to a concourse of children. The subjects of the pictures were chosen to illustrate geography, history, English, and nature study. A village club can conduct its ‘cinema department’ by joining a lending library of films, so that the subjects can be duly varied.

“The higher aspects of village life have not, however, been neglected at Nettlebed. Concerts, lectures, and dances are held in the men’s hall, which is laid with a special dancing floor of oak, famous throughout the district, and this is protected in the ordinary way by a cloth covering. Dancing classes are held weekly for children in the afternoon and for adults in the evening, and are conducted by a lady resident in the village. An instructress, under whose care the young girls in the village and district are taught cookery, laundry work, and housekeeping, lives in a house near the hall. Across the road is the school garden, divided into some fourteen plots, each cared for by one boy. At the back of the playground is an old building converted into a carpenter’s shop, in which another section of the boys work under the supervision of the village schoolmaster. All of these branches are under the control of the County Education Authority. Altogether, it will be seen that in these various ways instruction as well as amusement is provided.” Sir Lawrence Weaver, _Village Clubs and Halls_ (1920), pp. 82-3.