110 years ago, in May 1915 Didsbury library was opened with a golden key, this beautiful library was funded by the generous Scottish-American Andrew Carnegie and designed by city architect Henry Price. It’s a stunning library with a lot of character, personality and beautiful features, and it looks magnificent for its 110 years.
We could not let this big birthday pass without making a fuss, so we had a full week of celebration ending with the big birthday bash on Saturday 17 May.
It was a great program for the week, with something for everyone, including Manchester Inspired, an evening with five fiction writers motivated by this great city of ours, Caroline England, Steven Kedie, Chris McDonald, C.K. McDonnell and Nicholas Royle, delivered a fabulous panel discussion event. We also had a talk from local historian Sue Good about the story of Didsbury library. Our Archives team ran a workshop on how to use the newly launched Local Images website, the people involved in this created a display of old Didsbury photographs for everyone to enjoy.
The big day on Saturday was lovely, with lots of crafts for all to enjoy, a special – Design the library of your Dreams – Lego club, an Archives handling session with some original documents about Didsbury library. The event had a wonderful atmosphere, with lots of the Didsbury community attending, the Didsbury Good Neighbours Choir performed some beautiful songs from the balcony, and we had some great speeches, including a speech from the Lord Mayor before he officially cut the Birthday cake.
The very talented Didsbury library staff created a beautiful tree display in the library, customers then got to write or draw a memory, thought or comment about the library.
It looked amazing and got lots of attention, we had some very moving comment added to the tree:
“Didsbury library gave me a place to go when I couldn’t go home”
“Last July I moved to Manchester and did not know anyone. In the first week I was helped by the Didsbury librarians to get a library card & use the photocopier. Now I volunteer here and know some really lovely people at the library”
Thank you to All who helped us celebrate, see you on the next big birthday!
