Libraries Newsletter
August 2021

 

 

Monday 26th July was a momentous day, as it saw the return of evening opening at Blackburn Central Library for the first time since the first wave of the Covid pandemic in March 2020.  This also means that the Central Library is now operating its full range of opening hours once again.  In a further step towards the full return of normal service, Darwen Library is set to become the second borough library to return to its full set of pre-pandemic opening hours from Monday 2nd August (including evening opening on Mondays).  From Monday 2nd August, the revised opening hours for all libraries will be:

Blackburn Central Library
Mon 10 am - 7 pm
Tue to Fri 10 am - 5 pm
Sat 10 am - 2 pm

Darwen Library
Mon 10 am - 7 pm
Tue Closed
Wed 1 - 5 pm
Thu 1 - 5 pm
Fri 10 am - 5 pm
Sat 10 am - 2 pm

Cherry Tree Library
Mon 2 - 4 pm
Wed 10 am - 12.30 pm and 2 - 4 pm
Fri 2 - 4 pm
 

Mill Hill Library
Wed and Thu 10 am - 12 pm

Roman Road Library
Tue and Thu 9 am - 12 pm
 

 

Please note that Monday 30th August is a bank holiday, and all libraries will be closed on this day in addition to the above scheduled opening hours.

 

Children's summer holiday activities programme


 

We are currently experiencing very high levels of demand for our children's summer programme.  While we're delighted to see so much enthusiasm for our activities, several are now fully booked.  We will do our best to offer places to as many as possible, and redirect people to our other libraries when we have alternative spaces available.  Please help us to help other people by arriving punctually for your pre booked sessions, or by letting us know if your circumstances change and you'll be unable to attend, so that we can offer the places to others on our waiting lists.  While places are still limited due to social distancing measures, we are asking that only one adult attends per family group to leave as many spaces as possible free for children.

We are sorry that some people have had difficulty contacting Angela Boatswain due to the volume of demand for our activities.  If you are struggling to get through, please contact Andrew Orr (01254) 587941 andrew.orr@blackburn.gov.uk or the general Blackburn Central Library number (01254) 661221 library@blackburn.gov.uk and one of our staff will reply to you as soon as we can.

The updated programme below shows which events are now fully booked, which are currently bookable and which are not yet open for booking.  We can add names to the reserve list for fully booked events, but we cannot guarantee that space will become available.  Please note this list is as accurate as possible at the time of writing, but please make your own enquiries before relying on the information:

Blackburn Central Library

Other events and activities taking place for children
 

If you haven't been able to book onto one of our own library activities, why not check with one of our community partners to see if they have any space available?  You might even be able to do both!  There's a packed programme of events taking place over at the Get Stuck In website coordinated by Spring North, or you can access Family Learning Workshops in various venues (details below):
 

Christina Gabbitas highlights the dangers of knife crime, grooming and county lines gangs on
International Youth Day


 

In the run up to the models arriving during the summer holidays, we want to let people know that they’re on their way.

We need lots of A4 posters, featuring words like ‘warning’, danger’, ‘live animals’ etc to keep everyone safe. Alternatively, you may want to draw one of the colourful creatures so people know what they look like.

The Brickosaurs trail will feature 15 prehistoric beasts made of colourful interlocking bricks. They will be ‘captured’ in shop windows or surrounded by barriers around the town centre between 20 August and 1 September.

The competition will be split into two age categories – under 11s and 11-16 – all posters will be displayed around the town centre, and there will be some great prizes up for grabs including goody bags and High Street Vouchers. The winners of each category will also be invited to officially unveil the T-Rexcellent models!

The deadline for entries is 13th August and submissions need to be dropped off at the Ask Me Point in The Mall.

Catherine Price, Blackburn town centre BID Manager, said: “We are so excited to welcome the unique collection of bright and colourful Brickosaurs sculptures to #Brickburn. 

“We need to warn people that these brightly coloured dinosaur brick models are on their way – and we need your help.”

To download our Brickosaurs Poster frame, click here (landscape) or here (portrait).

Alternatively create your poster on A4 paper, making sure you put your name, contact number and age on the back.

Highlights of the Brickosaurs trail include a whopping 2m tall Velociraptor and a Parasaurolophus measuring over 3m in length, made of over 113,600 bricks!

To help track down all the Brickosaurs there will also be a free trail map, or guests can download the Experience Blackburn app.

To find out more about the trail visit www.blackburnbid.co.uk/brickosaurs

The free event builds on the award-nominated brick model trail in 2019, featuring characters from Paw Patrol.

Mystery history

This image was donated to the library by Community History volunteer Philip Crompton, although the original photographer is unknown.  It shows another view of Blackburn which has long since passed into history - 1962 to be precise, but where is it?  As usual there are no prizes for guessing, it's just for fun.

Last month's photo prompted quite a lot of interest and debate on Facebook.  It was donated by “©Ditz” with the following message.  "My grandparents, George and Ellen Brown lived in Audley Street, on the corner north of  Skiddaw Street. The photo was taken behind their house in 1968 by my (now) wife, looking from the Skiddaw Street end towards Pendle Street. My grandmother ran a shop from her front room from at least the 1930s to the late fifties or even early sixties."

 

Love, Hate and the Law in Tudor Lancashire: The Three Wives of Ralph Rishton


 

The Friends of Lancashire Archives are hosting an online event from the USA, with Professor Lawrence R Poos of the Catholic University of America.

Ralph Rishton (c. 1522-1573) was a member of an East Lancashire minor gentry family, who would have remained in obscurity if his matrimonial career had not left such a substantial trail in the records of courts of law.  First married at the age of nine, to a wife who soon went insane while he was away at war, he bribed officials of the diocese of Chester to obtain a forged annulment in order to marry another woman he had impregnated.  Within a few years he repudiated her to marry a third woman, with whose help he defrauded a cousin of a substantial inheritance.  As he lay on his deathbed, a court case was pending in York to determine which (if any) of his marriages was lawful.  Litigation over his property continued for more than a decade after his death.

This presentation is based on a forthcoming book which disentangles the dozens of legal cases which the Rishtons found themselves in, in ten different courts from York and Lancaster to Chester and Westminster.  The cases make it possible to reconstruct their remarkable stories, and what they reveal about violence, marriage and property during the 1500s.  The presentation will also consider the role of antiquarians and the local press in forming historical memory.

A video of the presentation is available on the Friends of Lancashire Archives website from 1st August, along with details of a Q&A session with Professor Poos on 29th September.

Please note: Any opinions expressed in this newsletter are the contributor’s own and are not necessarily endorsed by Blackburn with Darwen Library and Information Service.

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