From history lessons I knew all about the 1815 Corn Laws and the1832 Reform Act but The Libraries Act of 1850 obviously passed me by. It gave boroughs the power and indeed the responsibility to establish free libraries giving access to literature and information to all.
It should be understood that this was not something that had been demanded or asked for but was a facility that was put in place for the mainly illiterate working classes because it was considered advantageous for society in general. Here was a time of enormous paternalism with Shaftesbury, Dickens and very many others being active in social reform.
How amazing must it have been to have a free library available to all.
During my childhood, libraries were accepted and taken for granted as part of the landscape. Now many of them are threatened through a lack of funding and it has become accepted that many small villages use volunteers. In these strange times where people are unsure about heating their homes, many libraries have become hubs where people can be confident of somewhere warm to sit, read, chat, play board games or knit. I wonder what those people who put the 1850 Libraries Act together would think of our carelessness or rather our lack of care, which is not quite the same thing, in risking the loss of such a precious amenity.