Hereford Cathedral Library: Largest Surviving Chained Library in the World

The largest surviving chained library in the world is at Hereford Cathedral.

All the books are still kept under lock and key in their original chains, the system helped prevent theft around 400 years ago.

In the Middle Ages, books were a relatively rare and therefore valuable commodity.

Chaining books to shelves became the most wide-spread and effective security system in libraries across Europe.

Arguably, Hereford Cathedral’s most famous treasure is the Mappa Mundi, a medieval map of the world created around 1300 by Richard of Holdingham.

The map is listed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register - it measures about 64 x 52 inches and is drawn on a single sheet of vellum.

It is one of the last known examples of an ecclesiastical map; that is, a map created from a religious perspective rather than a strictly geographical one.

It shows Jerusalem at the centre of the world, and known (or supposed) geographic regions arranged about it.

The Chained Library at Hereford Cathedral is a unique and fascinating treasure in Britain’s rich heritage of library history; there were books at Hereford Cathedral long before there was a ‘library’ in the modern sense.

During the reign of Elizabeth I, in 1582, a commission investigating Hereford cathedral found that the collection, gathered since the 12th century, was poorly organised and poorly kept.

In 1590, the whole library was moved to the Lady Chapel, and in 1611 the Chained Library (with books in manuscript chained to their places) was established by Thomas Thornton.

The cathedral’s earliest and most important book is the 8th-century Hereford Gospels; it is one of 229 medieval manuscripts which now occupy two bays of the Chained Library.

But most of the books in the collection date to about 1100.

The chaining of books was the most widespread and effective security system in European libraries from the Middle Ages to the 18th century, and Hereford Cathedral’s Library is the largest to survive with all its chains intact.

A chain is attached at one end to the front cover of each book; the other end is slotted on to a rod running along the bottom of each shelf.

The system allows a book to be taken from the shelf and read at the desk, but not to be removed from the bookcase.

The books are shelved with their foredges, rather than their spines, facing the reader (the wrong way round to us); this allows the book to be lifted down and opened without needing to be turned around – thus avoiding tangling the chain.

The specially designed chamber in the New Library Building not only means that the whole library can now be seen in its original arrangement as it was from 1611 to 1841, but also allows the books to be kept in controlled environmental conditions according to modern standards of presentation.

Librarians in the Middle Ages often invoked curses as well to keep books from being stolen - once such curse written into the books was:

Steal not this book my honest friend. For fear the gallows should be your end, and when you die the Lord will say - and where's the book you stole away?

For several centuries, books were previously stored in cupboards or wooden chests until the first library room was established, in the south-west cloister of the cathedral, in the 15th century.

Another treasure is an ancient reliquary of oak, bequeathed to the cathedral by Canon Russell, said to have been obtained it from a Roman Catholic family in whose possession it had long been.

It is covered with copper plates overlaid with Limoges enamel representing the murder and entombment of St. Thomas of Canterbury.

There has been a working theological library at the cathedral since the 12th century, and the whole library continues to serve the cathedral’s work and witness both as a research centre and as a tourist attraction.

The Cathedrals’s library has excellent reviews on TripAdvisor, one recent visitor said: “The chained books library took you back many centuries and you can imagine how valuable the written word was and how difficult it must have been reading them by a candle or rush light!”

The practice of chaining library books became less popular as printing increased and books became less expensive.

Wimborne Minster in Dorset, is another example of a chained library - it is one of the first in England and the second largest.

Marsh’s Library in Dublin, built 1701, is another non-institutional library which is still housed in its original building.

Here, it was not the books that were chained, but rather the readers were locked into cages to prevent rare volumes from 'wandering'.

Reconstructed in a Romanesque style following the invasion of William the Conqueror in 1066, Hereford Cathedral was once an important national centre of learning and scholarship, yet also a magnet for turpitude.

Having already experienced a turbulent history that continued following its Norman reinvention, the cathedral has been the site of both saintly and sinful deeds, including murder most foul. 

Despite its unsettled past though, Hereford Cathedral has remained a focal point for religious worship over the centuries and is also home to an array of fascinating historical documents and artefacts.

Of these, an 8th century illuminated Gospel Book, a relic of the murdered archbishop St Thomas Becket and Hereford Cathedral’s 1217 copy of the Magna Carta along with the King’s Writ are but some of things you can see.

Today, the library is open to visitors free of charge.

If you’d like to visit, it’s open on: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 10am–4pm; 1st Saturday of each month 10am–1pm.

The Cathedral is located in the centre of Hereford, and there is ample paid and free parking close by - the address is: 5 College Cloisters, Cathedral Close, Hereford, Herefordshire, England, HR1 2NG.

If you enjoyed this blog post, please follow Exploring GB on Facebook for daily travel content and inspiration.

Don’t forget to check out our latest blog post below!

Thank you for visiting Exploring GB.