The Chained Library
The Chained Library of Wimborne
I decided I needed a break for a couple of days just past Winchester which is the first capital city of the English Crown, the wife and I are both avid readers and fans of The Game of Thrones in which in the last episode of series 6 we see the chained library.
Chained Libraries are not a new idea nor is it an English one, the first reading Libraries came from europe and the monasteries when abots believed that people were taking the books and they were becoming well over due it would cost a lot to send letters out, but seriously books were worth and cost as much as a small farm, hence the need to chain them.
Wimborne Minster has the second largest Library in England, the minster was built in about 1200 this not an accurate age, The library is situated above the vestry and before its use as a library it was was the treasury room which is said to have held relics of the manger, relics of St Thomas the Becket and other saints.
To get to the library you must first go a staircase that was designed to stop soldiers with drawn swords and make it easier to defend from people coming up the stairs. The library is said to contain 350 books and a detailed list was made in 1725 however the age of the books show that the library must of been started much earlier.
The books were often given to the church by the nobility of the area, what is surprising is the number of books that are not just religious books but are secular,
The Library also contains early editions of of the collected works of Plutarch, Pliny, Cicero and an english translation of Machiavelli, there are some very enliten works such as the Pseudodoxia Epidemicaby Sir Thomas Browne which is concerned with common and superstitious beliefs and many popular delusions such as proof that elephants have no joints, a boiled egg lower half of the shell must be destroyed unless a sorcerer use it to cast mischief upon you.
If you are visiting England and wish to see the library open times are on the church website. Wimborne Minister
The minster is about 2 hours drive from london and about 30 mins from Bournemouth and Poole.
I was unlucky the day I tried to see the library to take some pictures with my camera so I have used as my source the above website. After a visit the 2 main seaside towns are not so far away.
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