Gladstone's Library Archives

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    • Address
      • Gladstone's Library, Church Lane, Hawarden, Flintshire, CH5 3DF, Wales, UK
    • Opening Hours
      • Monday-Friday: 930am-100pm, 200pm-430pm
    • Access Information
      • If you would like to use an archival collection, you must make an appointment at least 14 days in advance. Information about how to make an appointment can be found on our website at https://www.gladstoneslibrary.org/reading-rooms/the-collections/archives
    • Photographs Allowed
      • Depending on the material
    • Accessible
      • Yes
      • The main entrance to Gladstone's Library and its Reading Rooms is accessible. Disabled parking spaces are available in our on- site carpark. Accessible toilets are provided.
    • Archival and Other Holdings
      • Gladstone’s Library’s Archives Service has significant holdings related to nineteenth-century history and politics, nineteenth-century and contemporary literary culture, Anglical liberal theology, and the history of Gladstone’s Library.
      • The archives service was created in 1908 with the deposit of the Glynne-Gladstone Archive. This contains the correspondence and papers of several generations of the Glynne and Gladstone families from c.1550 to 1973 including those of the four-time Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, the business papers and correspondence of Sir John Gladstone, 1st Baronet, including papers relating to his enslaved labour plantations and later indentured labour plantations in former British Guiana and Jamaica, and papers related to the Gladstone family’s business affairs in India through the companies Gladstone, Wyllie and Co. and Gillanders, Arbuthnot & Co.
      • Today Gladstone’s Library’s archives service collects in the main areas of its founder’s interest: literature, history, and theology. It also collects material that helps us to understand and provide a balanced viewpoint of William Gladstone, his life, and his work. As a result, it holds a large collection of nineteenth-century memorabilia and other material culture related to Gladstone.
      • A particular strength of the archives service is its collection of records related to Anglican liberalism, which includes the Movement for the Ordination of Women Archive and the archives of the liberal theologians Anthony Freeman, Alan Marshall Fairhurst, Don Cupitt, Eric James, Jim Cotter, John Robinson, Lloyd Geering, and Robert Jeffery. Other theological archives include the Archbishop Charles Alfred Howell Green Archive, the Cowley Fathers Archive, the Bishop John Moorman Archive, the Arthur Macdonald Allchin Archive, and the Esther de Waal Archive.
      • In literature, its holdings include several archives relating to nineteenth-century literary culture, including the papers of Gladstone’s cousin, the literary editor and translator Anne Ramsden Bennett, and papers of John Ruskin. It also holds the archives of the two largest organisations for crime writing in the United Kingdom, the Crime Writers’ Association and the Detection Club.
      • In addition, it holds the archives of several other nineteenth-century figures related to William Gladstone, including Sir Stephen Richard Glynne, 9th Baronet, Louisa Gladstone, and William Steuart Gladstone.
      • Since its creation Gladstone’s Library has also collected and preserved its own institutional records from its inception by William Gladstone to the present day in the St Deiniol’s Library Archive.
      • The archives at Gladstone’s Library complement, support, and build on its printed modern and special collections, of which the Library holds 27 distinct collections. Most notably this includes the Foundation Collection, containing William Gladstone’s books that founded the Library, many of which are annotated. The Glynne-Gladstone Archive and St Deiniol’s Library Archive detail the deposit of this collection and, in some cases, describes how Gladstone came to own the books. Other special collections include a large collection of pamphlets, ephemeral items relating to Gladstone and Hawarden Castle, the research collections of specialists in the field of Gladstone and the nineteenth century, the private collections of several theologians or clergy which often partner the Library's theological archives, and focused collections of primary and secondary sources relating to, for example the Franciscan Order, and the Order of St John the Evangelist. The Library's collection of 6000 rare books printed before 1800 contains many books collected by members of the Glynne and Gladstone families whose records are held in the Glynne-Gladstone Archive. The Library also holds a large contemporary research collection which reflects the same areas of Gladstonian interest as are represented in the Foundation Collection, and which provides context to many of the archives and special collections.
    • History
      • Gladstone’s Library is a residential library in Hawarden, North Wales, and is the UK’s only prime-ministerial library.
      • It was founded in the late nineteenth century by four-time prime minister, William Ewart Gladstone, with a collection of 20-30,000 printed items from his personal library which now make up the Library’s Foundation Collection. Its current Grade-I listed building was designed by John Douglas, and constructed as the national memorial to Gladstone in 1902, shortly after his death. Along with the British Library, the National Library of Wales, and Lambeth Palace, it is one of the principal sites for research into William Gladstone and his family.
      • Gladstone’s Library was created ‘for the purposes of learning, education, literature, and instruction’, and particularly for the ‘pursuit of divine learning’. Today the Library continues to uphold these aims as a place for research, discussion, reflection, and learning. As well as caring for and providing access to its nationally significant collections, the Library hosts a lively programme of events which include talks, workshops, masterclasses, and residential courses. It has an active Writers’ in Residence programme and provides scholarships to people wishing to conduct research using its collections.
      • The organisation is an independent charity that relies on the kindness of friends, funders, and donors who share our values to ensure that this nationally important institution can continue to grow and prosper.