Publications

The Origins of Bilton Library

Bilton Library opened in 1950 in a hall on Skipton Road.

This was one of a pair of halls which until 1906 had served as the main Harrogate Library on Raglan Street/Victoria Avenue. When Harrogate’s new Carnegie Library was built (originally planned as the west wing of a planned "Municipal Palace"), these old library buildings were moved to Skipton Road as temporary Buildings.

Over the years these temporary buildings have had various uses and are still in regular use almost a century later, one for the Bilton Social Club and the other as Jehovah's Witnesses "Kingdom Hall".

The Library moved to the Old Vicarage on Bilton Lane in 1972.

In 2012 the library was threatened with closure and it has continued as a volunteer-run community library.

The chapters in the book are:

• The Early Libraries
• The Central Library
• The Old Vicarage
• And to Come
• Interviews with three Local Residents
• Library’s Future at Risk

Published in 2013 as an A5 soft-back booklet with 26 pages, price £1.50.