Cranston Lecture

The annual Cranston Lecture is the main source of income to provide for the continual professional restoration of the books and the upkeep of the library. It is usually held towards the end of October in St Mary’s Church, Chart Lane, Reigate. There is a display of books, including those that have been recently repaired.

Recent lectures have included:

2013
Giles Mandelbrote, A Tale of Two Libraries: Lambeth Palace and Sion College in the 17th century
Sean Hawkins: The Rev. John Newman Harrison (1815-1901): a Quest
2014
Hilary Ely, “…a Guinea with which was bought …”: Subscribers to Andrew Cranston’s Reigate Publick Library
Dr Keith Manley, Bodies in the Library: the Family Library of Agatha Christie
2015
Penelope Horsfall, William Penn, Quaker (1644-1718): a visitor to Surrey, especially Reigate
Michael Heneker, “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers” – a Legal Romp
2016
Christianna Thompson, The English Atlas of the Late Seventeenth Century
Dr Andrea Thomas, A Historical Calumny: George Buchanan’s ‘Detection of Mary Queen of Scots’
2017
Dr Andrea Thomas, Martin Luther and the Reformation after 500 Years
Sean Hawkins, Thomas Martin and Reigate’s Second Public Library
2018
Margaret Willes, John Evelyn’s Polyglot Bible
Hilary Ely, Gutenberg’s Revolution: manuscript to print on the shelves of the Cranston Library
2019
Penelope Horsfall, John, Lord Somers (1650-1716): Our Number One Trustee of 1708. Lawyer, Politician, Statesman. Lord Chancellor 1697-1700
Nick Cowlishaw,  The Binding And Decoration Of Early Books
2020 – no lecture owing to the COVID-19 pandemic
2021 – Click here for recording.
Hilary Ely Early English Printing and the Cranston Collection
Dr Andrea Thomas Early Scottish Printing and the Cranston Collection
2022 – Click here for recording
Sean Hawkins The Knight Bible and the ‘Speckled Monster’
Andrea Thomas Pandemics in History

To see a full list of all previous Cranston Lectures please click here.

The Cranston Lecture 2023 will take place on Monday 23rd October 2023 at 7pm for 7.30, at St Mary’s Church, Chart Lane, Reigate. Details will appear here in due course.

If you would like to be included on our mailing or emailing list for the lectures, please contact:
Mrs Hilary Ely
cranstonlibrary@gmail.com

Open Days

The Library opens to the public every year on a Saturday of the Heritage Open Days weekends in September.  It will be open on Saturday 17th September 2022 from 10am to 4pm.