Astley Reading Room, Castle Drive, Astley

Image: © A J Paxton Taken: 6 Aug 2021

Astley Reading Room is dated 1914 on the sandstone block that can be seen to the right of the door, above the noticeboard. It still functions as a community centre, though more as a village hall and event space than as a library. Reading Rooms were established in many villages in Britain in the later 19th and earlier 20th centuries, though they declined later, as more opportunities for leisure and self-improvement became available to country people. A brief Google search reveals many websites maintained by village reading rooms that still exist, but little general historical background, and they seem under-researched. A brief overview can be found in this abstract https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/rural-history/article/abs/rise-and-decline-of-village-reading-rooms/883CCF1843389DEC057D887C2A8AD13C of an article entitled 'The Rise and Decline of Village Reading Rooms' in Rural History, Vol. 20, issue 2, October 2009, pp163-186. "Reading rooms were originally imposed upon the working classes by the upper classes, mainly the church and local landowners. Their establishment reflected contemporary attitudes to philanthropy, recreation and self-help and confirmed the great class divide.... Reading rooms offered a much needed alternative to the public house for the working classes, although they tended to appeal more to the lower middle classes, and membership was mostly restricted to males."

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