Cloé Puts Her Feet Up
As you know, we have a cracking good Library in Thames Ditton. It is not just a dull repository of books, but a living Library that buzzes - well, hums softly - with useful activities and is well embedded in community life. This is in no small measure to the credit of Cloé Dwelly, who retired in early May after a decade as Library Manager, and her excellent and enthusiastic team.
Cloé was neither bred nor called to library work but came to it serendipitously. She was born at home in Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire, during an air raid that prevented the midwife from arriving. Her father, who celebrated his 100th birthday this April, was in the Royal Catering Corps. After the war, he rose in the hotel business via the former Southampton Hotel in Surbiton to the Grand Hotel in Scarborough where the family lived from 1947 to 1963: "A calendar hotel," Cloé explains, "with four turrets for the seasons of the year, and 365 rooms - one for each day of the year". The young Cloé was schooled in Scarborough and trained as a primary teacher in Ripon, when in her last year her father was made manager of the Spiers and Pond group that was eventually taken over by Grand Metropolitan Hotels, and the family moved to the London area, ending up in Esher.
After a spell at a school in Hendon Cloé taught at Hampton Wick. But in the first week after moving to Esher, Fate appeared in the guise of a Young Conservative collecting jumble. Her mother told him she had a daughter interested in joining - although this was news to Cloé. The following Monday Jim rolled along to pick her up in a Jaguar. Now Mother had consistently warned her about 'young men with Jags' - one suspects that such warnings stem from some intense personal experience - and it does not take an expert in female psychology to conclude that this only makes them more interesting. Further encounters followed, some in the unimpeachable surroundings of All Saints Weston where the pair were married four years later. They celebrate their fortieth anniversary this July. Both subsequently became churchwardens of All Saints, and their three children were baptised there, so we may deduce that any off-road tendencies of the younger Jim were not the kind that a mother should necessarily fear, and have been thoroughly expiated.
The arrival of children from 1968 onwards interrupted teaching. Cloé eventually returned to the profession as a part-time supply teacher in 1985 at Thames Ditton First (now Infants) School and also the Middle (now Junior) School, of which she is still a Governor. She felt unsatisfied "borrowing other teachers' classes." Then, passing the Library one day, she saw an advertisement for a part-time Library Assistant, and applied for it. "I hadn't been all that avid about books before," she confesses disarmingly, "although I had read some."
She didn't get the job: nor when she applied for the next one, for Saturdays only! No doubt impressed by Cloé's persistence, however, the manager subsequently offered her a further part-time post. She started work in the Library in 1987, and within five years became Assistant Manager, later taking over the top job in 1998. Managing the library is not to be confused with librarianship. Surrey's central Librarians handle the ordering of books for libraries throughout the county; Library Managers and staff are responsible for keeping the library and the stock in good condition and order. The libraries of Surrey are administratively stratified into five bands, from the largest in Guildford and Woking to the smallest in the likes of Virginia Water. The Dittons Library, categorised as band 3, is in fact the busiest of all libraries in that band and issues more books than some of the libraries in the next band up. There are about 8,000 registered readers, a growth of 30% since 2001, of whom roughly two thirds are adult, one third children. There are some two and a half thousand visitors each week and during the first quarter of this year over 31,000 books were issued.
Our Library, built in the early 1970s along with the Youth Centre (now Thames Ditton Hall) and the Junior School, has come a long way from the original small hut over the road. Cloé has accompanied some very significant changes. Computerisation over a decade ago was a huge task. All books had to be bar-coded, all readers entered in the system. There is free internet access, much used; fax and photocopy facilities are available; and Cloé is justly proud of the naturally-lit reading area, a former unused 'courtyard' that she had Surrey glaze in. It now offers a highly civilised area for lounging with book or newspaper, and a desirable coffee machine. The walls are lined with paintings exhibited by local artists for a nominal tenner a week hanging fee, or if greater, ten per cent of any sales, accruing to the Library. This exhibition space provides beautiful visual stimulation, makes at least £500 each year for the Library, and is much sought-after by artists who have booked up well into 2008. Young children are offered free Rhyme Time on Monday afternoons and Story Time on Thursdays. A room is available for hire when the Library is closed, and is used for many activities ranging from
Spanish classes to music and reading groups. "It's not a whispering Library," says Cloé, "but a community resource and meeting place".
Asked why the Library is so successful, Cloé singles out the availability of convenient free parking, its proximity to schools (including children trekking back from Hinchley Wood) and the work that she and her staff put in to attract children to the world of books and libraries. Those things are undoubtedly important, and certainly any loss of parking, for example, would be a blow. Yet if you asked me, I'd say it is the people, and Cloé's cheerful and pragmatic leadership, that have made this a living Library, not a dying one. Cloé and her staff are full of fun. Indeed I can assure you that the sole copy of a calendar that the staff prepared as a surprise parting gift to Cloé presents an eye-opening view of Library personnel that perhaps the wider world is not yet prepared for!We now welcome our new Library Manager, Liz Harding - a former Assistant Manager here and latterly the Manager of Molesey Library - as with gratitude we wish Cloé well in retirement. What will she do? Her first grandchild is expected shortly. She will continue on the Board of Governors at the Junior School. She's set the ball rolling to raise funds to re-frame the unique Silver Jubilee tapestry that hangs on the Library wall and is in need of care and attention. And although she is prudently resisting offers to take on commitments immediately, perhaps she can be coaxed to write occasionally for Thames Ditton Today.
Our reporting staff