Innerpeffray Library

Serendipity is real.  Whilst in Dundee, and waiting for Barry to emerge from a room at the Verdant Mills Museum, I picked my way through some tourist brochures. I saw one saying Innerpeffray Library and picked it up thinking it might be interesting.

Fortunately for us it was in the general direction we were headed the next day so we plotted a route that would get us there. It pelted rain and blew a gale as we drove, we headed off the wrong direction once or twice, but we were rewarded for our persistence. Many times over.

It is the most beautiful of places, with the most wonderful of stories. It is in fact, the very first free, public lending library in the UK. It was established in 1680.

Founded by David Drummond 3rd Lord of Madertie he established a permanent endowment (a "Mortification") to ensure its future. Originally the books were kept in a small room in the Innerpeffray Chapel, and have been looked after since then by The Keeper of the Books. We met the current Keeper Lara and she showed us many of the treasures.

In the early 18th century his heir Robert Hay Drummond took over responsibility for the Mortification, and he built a new building to house them which was completed in 1762 - the building which still houses the Library today.

There were many highlights. The generosity of spirit of the founder - who also established a free school on the site 20 years before the Scottish Government Act required free education for all - in opening his Library to local people - it was meant to "be for all" , has lingered with me.

The school was operational until 1947; and the Library only stopped lending books in 1968.

I could wax lyrical as they say about the whole experience and the wonder of it all, but the real highlight for me was the Borrowers' Registers. Handwritten, the registers contain the names of borrowers and the books borrowed with the first recording in the first book in 1747, and the final one in 1968.

The borrowing of a book was treated as a sort of a contract, and the person's name, address and sometimes occupation were collected, along with the title of the book and how long they were borrowing it for.

Perhaps depending on how trustworthy they were, or how local they were, how often their journey took them by the Library, it seems the borrowing time could range from 2- 6 weeks.

as the books were returned, the Keeper would draw a line through the entry.

Some borrowers could probably read, but not write and they simply signed the entry rather than wrote in their own hand. It would have been a long walk for local people to come across the farmland to borrow books, and I love that they were able to.

When I asked about women borrowers, there were some. Our conversation turned to how women however, were mostly working in and around the home; whilst men's work often took them further afield. It is possible men borrowed the books, but women read them aloud in the evening to the family.

I so want to investigate these registers and discover some of the stories within. If anybody has family history that links to the area of Innerpeffray, outside of Perth, it would be marvellous to see if one's ancestors had borrowed from the library, and to learn which books.  To then visit the Library and hold the books they borrowed - well, that would be something precious.

The Library is fully committed to sharing and holding the books, and will access particular books you might wish to see; as well as having some brilliant displays along themes, and along historical lines.

It is probably good that blogging in Scotland is such a slow process for me - and we have to head out for dinner - or else this post could go on for ages!

I will do another post on the Chapel as well, and can only highly recommend an online visit to the Library.