This year’s David Vaisey Trust Awards, which celebrate projects that help more people to read more books, were given on 12 October. The Honourable Company’s Charitable Trust supports the Awards with a grant of £2,000 per annum over three years. The Company and the Trust were represented at the ceremony by Michael Jones, Warden & Trustee, his wife Elizabeth, Andrew Tabor, Chair of the Trust, and Trustees Bill Armiger and Mark Hurrell.
The Awards were announced at the Cheltenham Literature Festival and presented by Cressida Cowell, author of ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ and other children’s books. Coleford Library, in the Forest of Dean, scooped the top £5,000 prize for bringing the joy of books into the wards of the new Forest of Dean Community Hospital. Two other Gloucestershire libraries – Oakley Library in Cheltenham and The Library Adventurers League – received £1,000. The Young Person’s Award was shared by Emily Stevenson (16, Coleford Library) and Ted Holloway (15, Dursley Library), who each received £100 for their outstanding volunteer contributions. In the Schools category, Farmor’s School in Fairford received £4,000 and Severnbanks Primary in Lydney was awarded £2,000; Kingswood Primary in Wotton-under-Edge and Tredworth Infants and Nursery Academy in Gloucester each received £1,000.
This year’s ceremony was poignant as it followed the death earlier in the year of David Vaisey, CBE, former Bodley’s Librarian at Oxford and lifelong champion of libraries.
