Opening 1914, the story of our own library by the Edge Theatre Company tonight until November 29

Now I first came across Miss Clara Atkinson while doing some research at Central Ref and I was drawn to her story.*

From 1901 and perhaps earlier she was living on Groby Road and was buried in Southern Cemetery on September 3rd 1942.

I came across her in one of the Corporation employment registers detailing those who worked for the library service in the years up to 1914.

So I know that Miss Clara Atkinson was born on May 29 1877, began work as a Library Assistant in the September of 1900 on a weekly wage of ten shillings and that by 1914 she was receiving £1.4 shillings.

She started at Chorlton Library on Rusholme Road. The Library and the road have long since gone but the road ran from Ardwick Green to Oxford Street and the library was on the corner where it crossed  Upper Brook Street.

And in the way of these things she will no doubt have visited our own library which opened in 1914.

I have no idea what she would have made of the changes to libraries in the century that has elapsed but if she were as forward thinking as the Lord Mayor who opened our Library in 1914 she would have been impressed with the computers, the e books and above all the friendly open atmosphere.

The Lord Mayor had expressed a hope that “every library would have a kineograph installed which would make learning more relevant to young people."

Either way I shall be thinking of her when I go to see Opening 1914 at the Library which  is the new production by the Edge Theatre Company and runs from November 19 till 29.

Janine Waters who co wrote the production writes

“Opening 1914 is the new show from the creative team at The Edge (Spinach, Dreaming Under a Different Moon).

A dip back in time, to the Chorlton of a hundred years ago when there was an ice rink on Oswald Road, too many picture houses and a brand new public library just about to open.

Clara, Fred, Lucy and Eddie are just some of the characters who take us on a countdown to the opening of a beloved library and to the start of a war that would change the world forever.”

 Now what I also like is that you have the chance to see the production at either the library or the Edge Theatre.

So those like me who want to sit in the very spot where the story unfolds the Library performances are on Wednesday the 19th  through to Saturday 22nd and then at the Edge Theatre from Tuesday November 25 till Saturday the 29.

Tickets according to Janine will cost “£5 for a special centenary price & site specific performances at Chorlton Library £8/£10 performances at Edge Theatre. All tickets from: www.edgetheatre.co.uk . 0161 282-9776."

The production is supported by the Arts Council and Manchester City Council and is part of the Chorlton Book Festival

*Miss Clara Atkinson of Groby Road, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/miss-clara-atkinson-of-groby-road.html