Much-loved community library reopens after two-year closure in Eton Wick

A much-valued community library has reopened after two years of closure – helping the elderly in particular avoid arduous trips into Windsor for basic library services.

Eton Wick Library is one of the smaller libraries which found itself without funding from the Royal Borough amid its ongoing financial difficulties.

This, and other issues, caused the temporary closure of the library, to the dismay of residents.

Lindsay Pardoe, chair of the trustees of Eton Wick Village Hall – which hosts the library – said: “It was one of the most used libraries in the Borough. It was really sad when it closed.”

A consultation in March asking the community their feelings produced an ‘overwhelming’ response of people saying they missed the library and wanted it back.

Because Eton High Street library also closed, elderly people were having to get the bus into Windsor to get to a library, Lindsay said.

“The logistics of that makes it quite inaccessible and it was very difficult.

“If we hadn’t managed to reopen it, I was looking at ways of doing People to Places buses for them into Windsor,” she said.

Now Eton Wick’s library offering is back, including interactive machines and a computer suite for elderly residents who may not otherwise have access to one.

The primary school will make good use of the library, coming in for story time – and there will be summer activity camps for children hosted there.

“We’ve had the most amazing comments now the library is back, thanking us for all we’ve done,” said Lindsay.

A new set of trustees for Eton Wick Village Hall took over in December last year and got ‘straight on the case’ to request funding from Eton Town Council.

The town council in turn approved a grant to get up the library up and running with one three-hour session a week.

“Most libraries withing RBWM and bordering local authorities like Slough are actually closing now. If they’re managing to keep open, they’re being primarily run by the parish councils,” said Lindsay.

The trustees also applied for grants from Baldwin’s Bridge Trust (an Eton charity) which helped get the library open for two sessions a week: Tuesday, 2pm to 5pm and Saturday 10am to 1pm.

A reopening day was held earlier this month, visited by RBWM councillors, the mayor of Eton Town Council Malcolm Leach, and local children’s author Fiona Barker, who came to read one of her books to the youngsters.

Eton Wick Village Hall trustees will now be monitoring the use of the library to see how it is faring.

“This is being put into Eton Town Council’s budget next year and we don’t want to lose the funding,” said Lindsay.

“So we’re telling the residents: you said you wanted the library reopened, we reopened it, now you’ve got to use it to keep it open.”