Galloway Library, Colinsburgh, Fife

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The Galloway Library in Colinsburgh was built in 1903, at the bequest of Thomas Carstairs Galloway, a rich linen merchant, He was born in Kilconquhar, Fife, in 1846, and died at the beginning of the 20th century. He left a large Trust fund to the village. The money from the Trust was to be invested in railways and coal, and to be used to build a public library for Colinsburgh, and to provide for a librarian/caretaker who would live upstairs.

The Galloway Library in Colinsburgh, Fife

The Galloway Library in Colinsburgh, Fife

 

The library was still in use in 2009, at which point it was run by Fife Council. In 2013, Fife Council put all of Fife’s libraries into the control of the Fife Cultural Trust, and then slashed the funding to the Trust!!! The Trust has since been seeking ways of saving money, and this includes the closure of 16 of Fife’s libraries. Diana Jackson, whos website is https://dianamj.wordpress.com/ , has been actively campaigning to save Kinghorn Library in Fife, I believe they have succeeded in setting up a community project to run the library themselves 🙂

Getting back to the Galloway Library in Colinsburgh, it appears that it has been turned into a private residence, at some point over the last 18 months 😦

Whilst checking up on this, I found a Fife Council document dated 24th October, 2007, that states

“The Galloway Trust provides funds towards, amongst other things, the Galloway Library in Colinsburgh, bursaries for the local school, and poor relief for residents of the Colinsburgh area. The original trustees are no longer in existence and the Council has administered the trust for many years. The proposal is to ask the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) to reconstitute the trust in a way that allows joint community and Council membership on it.”

It appears however, that the library was instead sold off, instead of being kept for the local residents.

 
If anyone knows something different, please let me know

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40 thoughts on “Galloway Library, Colinsburgh, Fife”

  2. Great photo! My family have been telling me about the scandal with the libraries in Fife. It really is pretty dismal of any council to cut funding and support for libraries. I’ve always been a frequent library user and libraries were absolutely essential to my education. To opt out of supporting libraries is to denigrate education. Good to see you back posting again. I feel like I hadn’t seen a post from you in a while.

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    • It has been really bad what the council are doing Laura………….what I really don’t understand is that it’s a labour council, you would think they would be totally for free education and reading etc etc. And it’s good to be back on wordpress again Laura 🙂

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  3. Its such a shame when they close libraries and this is such a lovely building. We have a wonderful one in Kings Lynn, I think if they tried to close that one, the council would be lynched 🙂

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    • It is shocking Anabel!!! I find many of the planning decisions very short sighted in Scotland as a whole, many decisions seem to be made based on how to make a quick buck, rather than looking at the long term benefits to the local community. Your Maryhill Halls is a good case in point, it seems like if it hadn’t been for the community stepping in and running the place, that it would now probably be ‘luxury’ flats/apartments 😦

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      • True. I hadn’t realised how bad the Fife libraries case was – I used to think Scotland was more enlightened than England where 100s of libraries have closed but it’s catching up. Maryhill might even have been demolished. There is a beautiful Carnegie library opposite the Halls which closed for a while last year because the roof leaked and I thought the council might take the chance to find it untenable – but kudos to Glasgow, it’s fixed and open again.

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      • That would have been the ultimate ‘kick in the teeth’ if the Glasgow City Council had shut a Carnegie Library,,,,,,,,,,,,,but thankfully not 🙂 Andrew Carnegie must have been one of the worlds great philanthropists (hopefully I spelt that right, and haven’t just said that he liked stamp collecting!!). It’s a shame there aren’t more people like him around today!

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  7. Haven’t seen you around for much too long, so welcome back! What a lovely building, although I’d love to see the color of the stone. Libraries are my favorite buildings for what’s inside, but if the outside can be this stately, even better. What a shame that the locals can’t use it, but at least it’s still there.

    janet

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    • Thank you for the ‘welcome back’ Janet, it’s really appreciated 🙂 🙂
      Like you Janet, I love what’s inside libraries, before the internet came into being, when I was still living in Cornwall, I had over 10,000 books at home, mainly non fiction from various charity shops 🙂
      I’m glad to say, since writing that post, I’ve found out that a local community group are looking at taking over the building, to use it as a library/reading rooms/community rooms 🙂

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      • You’ve made me SO happy with that 10,000 book figure! I have masses of books but no dedicated room in which to put them, so many are in boxes in the basement and, as you can imagine, not easy to get to. I buy almost all my books at the thrift stores, library sales, or a great chain here called Half Price Books. I’m trying very hard to cut back on what I have, but it’s so difficult. The books seems to stick to my hands when I try to put them in a box to donate. 🙂 As for the library, I rarely have less than 15-20 books from there and as they’re no cost, I have no regrets!!

        Glad to hear about the community group. I hope that works out.

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      • That’s brilliant Janet, a fellow book fiend!!! 🙂
        Unfortunately, I had to give away most my books to move up to Scotland, I kept about 500 (mainly geology and natural history books) 🙂
        I ended up getting banned (not really banned – just told not to come back with more books) from 4 charity shops in Penzance and St Just! LOL! It was a shame I had to get rid of them all in the space of one week, otherwise I could have spent more time sorting through them (mind you, maybe that wouldn’t have been very good, I would have been like you and got rid of none of them!!).
        The one complaint I have about our local library, is that it has very few books in it, well non fiction books 😦 But the staff are always so friendly and helpful, it’s a pleasure to go in there 🙂

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      • When we moved from Cleveland to the Chicago area, we only had a week to get ready, so although I got rid of many, many things, I simply packed the books and brought them. (The movers were amazed!) I did give away about 15 boxes of homeschool books, but that still left many, many others.

        In Cleveland, we were blessed with two gigantic library systems, each with a branch about 5 minutes from our house. There was scarcely ever a book I couldn’t get. Here in Naperville, we have a good library system for a city this size and access to libraries in about 5 or 6 other suburbs, but nothing like that. I must confess that access to lots of good books is a priority when we look at places to retire. If I had to buy all the books I read, my husband would have to have three jobs and I’d have to work full time, leaving me no time for reading. 🙂

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      • That was fortunate that you were able to take your books with you Janet, it was gut wrenching to leave mine all behind. But I bet the movers weren’t so happy about it! LOL! 🙂
        Cleveland sounds like an amazing place for it’s libraries, far better than anywhere here in Scotland, or the rest of the UK! And Naperville sounds quite good too…………it must be good if you have 15-20 books out at any one time 🙂
        Definitely a library is a must in the area you retire too Janet, I’d hate to think of your hubby working 24/7 to keep you going in books!!! 🙂
        Are you a fiction, or non fiction reader?

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      • I tend to be a fiction reader, mostly mysteries, but I’ve gotten into more non-fiction in the last years. Of course while I was teaching, had my personal training business, and then while home schooling our girls, read a lot of non-fiction as well. 🙂

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      • Most my books were either science, history or wildlife books, but of the fiction, my favourite is mystery and crime too Janet 🙂
        I recently read a good selection of mystery by Mo Hayder, and of course the now local writer, Ian Rankin (The Rebus crime novels).

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  8. Lovely photo of a magnificent building! I had no idea Scottish councils were decimating libraries as well (knew it was happening in England). It’s one of the most short-sighted and evil acts against the community. But I guess educated people are more likely to question the status quo! I’m so grateful that our council seems to recognise the value of culture and heritage and has actually built a whole bunch of new libraries.

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    • You’ve hit the nail on the head Su, it is a most short sighted and evil thing to do to a community!!! I’m glad to say, I’ve since found out that a local community group is taking over the ground floor, as long as they can get enough financial support 🙂
      All UK goverments/councils seem to take very short sighted decisions about many things, a lot of the time 😦
      But Kirkcaldy Town Council has done something brilliant recently, they are spending what is probably a small fortune putting in granite pavements and parking bays at the southern end of the High Street, but these will now last for the next 200 years or more, so saving them a fortune in the long run!!! 🙂

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      • Thank goodness for community-based organisations! Though it would be nice if governments stopped taking so much money in taxes since they are shedding so much responsibility. Buy yay for Kirkcaldy Council; that is a really good idea. Hopefully it works out. I’m constantly surprised that our Council — which seems idiotic in many ways — does seem to “get” the importance of culture and heritage.

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      • My thoughts exactly Su 🙂
        Kirkcaldy Council sometimes get it right with regards to heritage and culture, some of the planning decisions over the ladt few years have been pretty dire!!! 😦
        I’m all for affordable housing, but not on the sea front of some of our prettiest villages, Dysart and West Wemyss spring to mind!

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      • Aagh! New housing can be such a blight. I’ve watched with increasing distress over the last few years as swathes of coastal land — rich native bird habitats — have been bull-dozed and covered with high-density housing of dubious quality. Ghettos in the making. I hate the idea of lovely Fife villages being despoiled. Post-war estates already rendered a lot of countryside and towns quite ugly.

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      • I would have thought that somewhere like NZ would have had more sense!! It is terrible to see prime wildlife habitats getting destroyed just for the sake of a few people getting nice views, and builders maximising their profits! 😦
        I wouldn’t mind an occasional new property going up on the seafronts of some of our villages, if only they would keep them in character with the other older buildings……………what I hate seeing in some modern concrete block of flats placed between two 17th century cottages!!

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      • I’m so with you on that. I do wonder if planners ever actually visit neighbourhoods they approve building in! As for NZ being sensible; ‘fraid not. We like to tell everyone we are “clean and green” and “100% pure” but that’s far from true. We’re a nation reliant on exporting primary produce, especially dairy produce. Cows are king, no made how terribly farming degrades the environment. 😦

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      • Your last two comments have been real eye openers Su, I knew that NZ was known for it’s beef and dairy products, but I had no idea that they too (governments/big businesses) put money over the needs of the environment!! It sounds like it’s one of the issues you feel quite strongly about, and quite right too – our environment is very important, not just to us, but more importantly to future gererations!!! 🙂

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      • I’m afraid intensive urbanisation and industrial farming are two of my pet hates! We have had too many years being governed by myopic vested interests who haven’t figured out that we can neither breathe nor eat money!

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    • It’s okay Jo, I had no idea where Fife was, ten and a half years ago!! LOL!! And I’ve now been living up here for ten years, this coming weekend! 🙂
      As you said, follow the east coast, you’ll finally hit Fife, between Edinburgh and Dundee 🙂

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