Carnegie Free Library at Grays in Essex

Carnegie Free Library at Grays Thurrock c.1914 [Author's Collection]. Map extract from Ordnance Survey Sheet 161 London NE - OS One-Inch Map Depicted 1954, Published 1960. Crown Copyright. Reproduced with kind permission of the National Library of Scotland under the Creative Commons Attribution licence.

Carnegie Free Library at Grays Thurrock c.1914

This photograph of the Free Library at Grays was taken around a decade after the building had opened on a plot of land on Orsett Road donated by the brewer Charles Seabrooke, along with his business partner H. Astley. The library was formally opened by the Countess of Warwick, "Daisy" Greville.¹ Although born in London, her ancestral home was in Essex. Opened to the public in November 1903, the building replaced a room in the Bank Buildings on the High Street. That may be the head librarian stood inside the entrance porch. Around the time of this photograph that post was held by Francis W. Saxton. Born in Plaistow, he had previously worked as a clerk for the railway company. The Grays & Tilbury Gazette reported that the opening ceremony "took place amid scenes of dignified rejoicing which befitted the culmination of so important a scheme of municipal enterprise." ² Like many libraries of the period, it was mostly funded by the Andrew Carnegie, who donated £3,000 towards the project. The library was designed by the locally-based architect and artist Christopher Mitchell Shiner who produced a Renaissance-styled structure of locally-sourced red bricks with Portland stone dressings, topped with a roof of Westmoreland green slate. It was reported, and can be seen in this photograph, that "the building was ornamented with carving, the gables bearing an allegorical representation of the arms of Grays, Thor"s belt, Thor"s hammer, and Thor"s oak, surrounding a view of the river, the Parish Church, and the Training Ship Exmouth." The clock tower was provided by the school children of the town. The building was damaged in the Second World War when a V-1 rocket landed in a pit to the rear of the building. This enemy action destroyed around 2,000 books held in the library. In later years the building was deemed too small for the town in which the population had increased significantly. Subsequently, a new library building was opened in January 1972.

References
1. "Free Library Opened" : Essex Weekly News; November 13th, 1903, Page 6.
2. "Grays Free Library" : Grays & Tilbury Gazette and Southend Telegraph; November 14th, 1903, Page 3.

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