Postal Service Available

Hartland Lighthouse, shown above, is one of the forty-five centres in the north-west part of Devon which is supplied with collections of books from the Torridge Regional Branch of the Devon County Library at Torrington. The Regional Librarian (Mr. P.A. Drake) is seen at the lighthouse as the fresh collection of books is delivered for the use of the lighthouse staff and their wives, who read more than 400 books during the past year.

Altogether people in the Torridge Regional area (including the town of Torrington) read about 101,000 books during the year just ended, and a greater percentage of non-fiction is included in this total than ever before.

Books are delivered to the library centres three times a year, where they are distributed by voluntary librarians to whom thanks are due for making the scheme possible in so scattered an area. More than 23,000 books are exchanged during the year with the village libraries, and 2,700 are exchanged with headquarters library at Exeter.

Much more use is being made of the postal service both at Torrington and in the villages and more than 200 requests for books through this service were made for readers and 42 were sent from the Torrington Library to other parts of the country. Some 930 people belong to the Torrington Town branch, and 2,360 to the village and school libraries in the regional area.

Gazette article dated 14 May 1954