Hollins Cross public library · reopened 14 September
Choose a service
Four ways to use the building. Every one is free with a library card.
Three quiet hours under the west windows.
A reserved desk with a lamp, a socket and nobody asking you to move. Bring your own work or borrow from the open shelves; we hold the desk for twenty minutes past your start time.
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Handle the town’s papers with an archivist beside you.
Rate books, mill ledgers, school logbooks and the 1911 street directory. Tell us what you are looking for when you book and the boxes will be waiting on the table.
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Census, parish and newspaper records, one name at a time.
Sit with a family-history librarian and the paid databases we subscribe to so you do not have to. Bring one ancestor’s name and a date; leave with a sourced family sheet.
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Half an hour with a reader, not an algorithm.
Tell a librarian the last three books you loved and one you abandoned. You leave with a short stack, already issued to your card, and a reason for each.
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The redesign, 2024 – 2026
The 1904 building had been carved into offices, a server room and a turnstile lobby. The redesign undid most of it. The security gates went first; then the false ceiling in the Long Room, which had hidden the original roof lights for forty years.
Shelving now stops at 1.4 metres, so a child can reach the top and a librarian can see the whole floor. The desks moved to the windows. The staff room moved to the basement. The archive moved up from it, into a room with air you can breathe.
Since the doors reopened
Counts from the booking ledger, 14 September – 1 October. Illustrative figures for this concept page.
Visit
| Mon – Fri | 08:30 – 21:00 |
|---|---|
| Saturday | 09:00 – 17:00 |
| Sunday | 11:00 – 16:00 |
AccessStep-free entrance on Calder Street, lift to all floors, hearing loop at every desk, Changing Places toilet on the ground floor.
01422 604 180Next free desk: today, 14:00
| Tue, Thu | 10:00 – 19:00 |
|---|---|
| Wed, Fri | 10:00 – 17:00 |
| Saturday | 10:00 – 13:00 |
AccessLift from the market hall (Gate B). Six quiet desks, one large-print station. No archive collection at this branch.
01422 604 233Next free desk: Thursday, 10:00
Book a visit
Nothing is held until the desk confirms it. Your choices stay put if anything goes wrong.
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Reference CS-0000 · a copy is on its way to
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