Villagers to celebrate 25th anniversary of saved Adderbury Library
07/08/2025
The library in its old building had been threatened with closure in 1997
Villagers in Adderbury are about to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their library being saved and relocated to Church House – a converted old schoolroom.
The library was threatened with closure in 1997 when it was based in a building on Cross Hill Road, but two local councillors, Keith Mitchell and John Harper, began a campaign to save the service. They set up the Friends of the Community of Adderbury Library – known as FOCAL – and raised £70,000 to pay to move the library to a new home at Church House, close to St Mary’s Church.
This had been built as a Sunday School in 1831 and housed a Girls School until 1962, when it was purchased by the Church. The money raised by FOCAL, along with contributions from local councils, was used to refurbish the building to the required standards for a library.
The transformed Church House Library was opened in 2000 by the Bishop of Oxford.
The 25th anniversary of the move will be celebrated at an event in the Library on Saturday August 15 between 10am and 3pm with guest speakers, a cafe, entertainment, children’s activities and a raffle. A fish and chip lunch will also be served.
Money raised by the event will go to FOCAL to help them keep the library open.
Published: by the Banbury FM News Team
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