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Promoted book excellence

Recently opened in the north west corner of Newark Market Place is a new pub called the Sir John Arderne.

It occupies a prominent position in a building which many people will remember as Wilkinsons furniture store (pictured) or, more recently, Ritz Video.

For almost 100 years after it was built, however, the building was home to one of Newark's first true libraries, the Newark Stock Library.

The Newark Stock Library was established in March 1825, more than 50 years before (Sir) William Gilstrap gave his Free Public Library to the town.

It was set up as a private venture whereby the right to borrow books was paid for through a subscription of five guineas a year.

A committee made up of 20 members oversaw the day-to-day running of the Stock Library and it was they who defined its purpose as being to provide books of "established character and excellence in all the main fields of human knowledge."

For the first three years the Stock Library occupied premises in the Market Place which had previously housed a millinery business.

In 1828, however, an offer was received from Henry Willougby, 6th Lord Middleton, to take over the upper floor of a building he had recently erected in the north west corner of the Market Place (pictured).

The ground floor already housed a separate institution known as the Middleton Newsroom which was a sort of gentleman's club where members could meet, talk and peruse copies of the lastest newsheets from London.

It was felt the Stock Library, with its high degree of respectability, would make an ideal tenant for the rooms upstairs. The building had been designed by the architect William Fowler of Winterton near Brigg (1761 - 1832).

He had previously been responsible for designing the original buildings at the Mount School in Newark and was further known for his solid and dependable work on houses for affluent farmers in a number of nearby Lincolnshire villages.

With the Stock Library happily ensconced in its new premises it embarked on what turned out to be almost half a century of growth.

Annual reports show a small, but loyal membership of about 200, sufficient to bring in money to build a collection of about 5,000 books.

In 1861 the committee agreed to build an extension to their premises eastwards onto Church Street, bringing the building to the size and dimensions we see today.

The new accommodation allowed a new reading room to be established on the first floor with the ground floor of the extension being let out as a shop (to Mr Upton, a jeweller).

The announcement in 1881 that William Gilstrap, a successful local maltster, intended to donate a new Free Public Library to the town appears, initially, to have caused the Stock Library only minor concern.

Ultimately, however, with no subscriptions and free access for all, it was the advent of the Gilstrap, and others like it across the country, which sounded the death knell for private subscription libraries.

In Newark, in an effort to compete with the new institution, the Stock Library initiated a frantic resuscitation of its collection. Bookstock was increased to about 16,000 volumes and it began to feature many of the new popular novels in a blatant attempt to attract new subscribers.

By the late 1880s, however, it was clear that the Gilstrap was out-performing the old Stock Library and with subscriptions falling and inadequate funds to purchase new books, a spiral of decline became inevitable.

Economies were sought and a policy of buying second-hand books was implemented wherever possible. In 1918 costs were reduced still further when the librarian, Mr J. Buxton, retired.

The committee found it could replace him with a female librarian who it was only obliged to pay around half as much.

Such cost-cutting exercises allowed the Stock Library to continue for a further five years, but by 1923 the decline in membership had reached such a level that the committee was faced with no other option than to bring its business to a close.

The building was sold to Messrs. Wilkinsons furniture store (who was already tenanting the ground floor), in whose hands it remained until the early Seventies.

The present renovation of the old Stock Library building by J. D. Wetherspoons has seen a thorough overhaul of the structure, conserving much of what remained of the original fabric.

The pub's new name - the Sir John Arderne - also recalls something of Newark's past, being named after one of the town's most famous medieval citizens.

During the 14th Century he spent 21 years of his professional career practising medicine in Newark. In an age when medical diagnoses could be based as much on unfavourable alignments of the stars as any appreciation of physiology, Arderne's humane approach to his patients, and his insistence on such things as aseptic surgery were, quite literally, centuries ahead of their time.

He was born in 1307 and while details of his early life are scarce, he is thought to have come to Newark around 1349.

It was while living in the town that he developed the medical procedure that was later to form the basis of his most successful and lucrative career.

Arderne's ultimate standing in medieval surgery was based on his success in treating the various fistulae and cysts that were apt to break out on parts of the body - particularly in the form of haemorrhoids.

It has been suggested that haemorrhoids were especially common among medieval knights being the result of long, cold hours in the saddle, weighted down by heavy armour.

With a regular fee of 100 silver shillings, Arderne's clientele was limited almost exclusively to the wealthier classes and he earned many valuable testimonials for his services. As his fame spread it became only a matter of time before he would leave Newark for London.

He was in London by 1370 when he is thought to have been admitted as a member of the Guild of Surgeons. By the end of his life he had achieved the status of Master Surgeon.

It is not known precisely when Arderne died, but it is certain that it was during his time in Newark that his celebrity was founded.

ABOVE: The old Stock Library building in Newark Market Place, built by Lord Middleton in 1828. It is seen here in its new guise as the Sir John Arderne public house.

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