‘On her birthday my daughter gets a book’
In 2018, a programme of cuts led to the closure of Ore Library in Sussex. But with funding from Big Local North East Hastings, volunteers were able to reopen the space – bringing joy and connection to local residents of all generations.
It is 11 o’clock on a Tuesday morning and seven mothers and their babies and toddlers have congregated on colourful beanbags in Ore Community Library, North East Hastings, for their weekly Storytime session.
Library volunteer and retired teacher Caroline Cook is singing ‘The Wheels on the Bus’, as babies bounce on their mothers’ knees and the older children totter about shaking bells and tambourines.
A little boy determinedly drags a picture book almost half his size across the room to show his mother, as four more smiling volunteers look on from behind the library counter as they rearrange shelves.
It is a warm and vibrant scene, full of baby giggles and squawks, relaxed parents and children, and contented volunteers.
Storytime is an interactive story session for mums and their children at Ore Community Library, Hastings. Photo: Local Trust/Ben Langdon, Mile 91
Cost cutting across the county
Rewind five years and it would have been hard to imagine such a morning taking place at Ore Library.
Formerly run by East Sussex County Council, the library was closed in 2018 as part of a cost-cutting exercise that saw the closure of seven branch libraries across the county.
Despite a hard-fought campaign to keep it open, the council announced they were going to sell the building.
The bus ride to the main library is too expensive and difficult an activity for families to organise.”
“It would probably have been knocked down and sold for development,” explains Ore Community Library trustee Jim Breeds, one of a group of local residents who were determined to keep the library going.
Now 70, Jim grew up just a mile away from the library and remembers walking there as a child with his mother to borrow Enid Blyton books.
“The council said closing the library wasn’t going to be a problem for the community because Hastings main central library is just a bus ride away, ignoring the social and economic deprivation in the area,” says Jim.
Hastings is the thirteenth most deprived town in England, with parts of North East Hastings amongst the most deprived 0.5 per cent.
“Ore in particular has its own sort of problems,” explains Jim. “There are primarily two large housing estates and those in particular are quite poor.”
To Jim, it was obvious that closing the local library would create too big a barrier for people to overcome, meaning residents of all ages would miss out on the literacy-boosting community hubs that libraries are.
“Research has shown that many of the children living on the estates have never visited the seaside, which is shocking if you realise it is only two miles away. The bus ride to the main library is too expensive and difficult an activity for families to organise.”
A new lease for Ore Community Library
When the campaign to keep the library was unsuccessful, Jim and the other members of the campaign team had to think again.
“We had done the usual things – petitions, demonstrations, placards and writing to the interested parties – but that didn’t work. So we said, ‘What do we do now?’”
Their next idea was to ask the council to allow the community to run it on a peppercorn rent.
“They said, ‘Come to us with a business plan and we’ll talk about it’, so we had to think about how we might raise money to fund it and how we might find volunteers to run it.
“We looked into a number of avenues and Big Local was one of them. By the time we submitted the business plan to East Sussex County Council, we already had a nod of agreement from Big Local North East Hastings that they would give us a grant of £6,000, and because of that we got match funding from a local housing association.”
To their delight, the council agreed to their plan and gave the renamed Ore Community Library a three-year lease.
(Left to right front) Lynne and Jim are two of 23 local volunteers at Ore Community Library. Photo: Local Trust/Ben Langdon, Mile 91
A welcoming place to be
Despite setbacks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the library reopened in May 2021 and has gone from strength to strength.
Open three days a week, it now has more than 1,000 members – more than half of whom are under the age of 16 – and a rota of 23 eager volunteers, including Storytime volunteer, Caroline.
Local primary schools visit regularly and the library hosts a book club which is so oversubscribed they have had to start a waiting list.
Trustee Lizzie Sargent, who coordinates the volunteers, explains: “It is making a lot of people happy. It’s lovely to hear the children having fun and people coming in and chatting.
“We’ve got one elderly gentleman who comes in at the time we make a cup of tea, and he brings a packet of biscuits. It brings the community together and that is very rewarding.”
Emma Nyss, who walks 10 minutes to Storytime at the library every week with her three-year-old daughter, shares how valuable it is to have somewhere so local, filled with friendly faces, to visit.
“The volunteers are really welcoming. My daughter gets to stamp her books and they all know her by her first name. On her birthday she gets a book and at Christmas she gets a little present.
“It’s quite small so it’s intimate and you get to know the other mums. It’s just a really nice place to come.”
A lasting legacy for North East Hastings
The library has been such a success that in early 2024 the council granted it a new lease, this time for 20 years, meaning that it will continue to serve the community for years to come.
Since it reopened, Big Local North East Hastings has been its primary source of funding, donating around £11,500 in total. This has gone towards a range of outgoings including the start-up costs; a new computer, printer and signage; and replacing old fashioned fluorescent strip lighting with LED bulbs to reduce the electricity bill.
Big Local North East Hastings is due to close in October 2024 but now that the library is up and running, and clearly so loved by the community, securing grants and support from other sources has become more achievable.
It receives new books from the National Literacy Trust and has had funding from the local post office, the Co-op Local Community Fund and other small organisations, including a recent £5,652 grant that will cover the building’s roughly £500-a-month utility bills for the foreseeable future.
“Without the initial grant funding from Big Local, quite honestly we would have struggled to get started,” says Jim. “I’m not saying it would have been impossible, but it would certainly have been very difficult.
“The library is a shining example of the legacy of Big Local North East Hastings. We are all immensely proud.”
By Sarah Raymond
Top photo: Mother and baby clapping at Storytime session in Ore community library, Big Local North East Hastings. Photo: Local Trust/Ben Langdon, Mile 91
