The Story of Cheadle Community Library
- 7 days ago
- 4 min read
Events and Activities | Visits and Partnerships | Encouraging Young Visitors | How the Space is Used | Our Incredible Volunteers |
Events and Activities
The library is always trying to provide innovative events and activities that attract a wide range of community members to use the library. Some are more traditional events, such as Baby Bounce and Rhyme, and Jigsaw loans, but also a more varied range of initiatives, such as the Lego Club, Deaf Signing classes, and both IT and Ancestry buddies.
The library has also provided organizations space to support the wider community. The Citizens Advice Bureau and Everyone Health provide services in the library for pre-booked sessions with clients.
One-off events are also held in the library and many are organized by the library team. Children’s activities include themed craft sessions, story times, and adult-themed events include poetry and local interest talks including one about Lord Lichfield.
Open days also feature in the library's calendar. These help promote the services on offer, allowing the public to try new things and discover new ways their library can help them.
Volunteers and trustees have recently developed and hosted their first-ever Cheadle Literary Festival. A huge amount of time was invested in the planning, preparation, and delivery of the event. The day itself delivered a children’s story-time, fancy dress, communal never-ending story activity, presentations by local authors, and more. The festival gained recognition and included an official visit from the mayor, who reported to the council the brilliant work the volunteers had achieved as a community-managed library.
The second Book Festival is planned for 22nd August 2026.
Information about our events and activities can be found on the
Visits and Partnerships
With the number of events and initiatives, the library has seen the annual number of library visits more than double since 2021-22, with 39,772 visiting last year.
To promote the library and its services, the volunteers and trustees have always been keen to attend outreach events. They have attended festivals and pensioners' events, both in Cheadle and in the
wider area of Staffordshire.
Staffordshire County Council also hosts district-wide CML network and peer meetings, and Cheadle is always represented in those meetings, networking and sharing best practices with other local CMLs.
The library has been instrumental in promoting local heritage and arts. It has partnered with Cheadle Discovery (heritage) Group, leading to many displays and exhibitions. Similarly, Cheadle Arts Festival and Cheadle U3A are supported in the library by displays of art in the windows and book club meeting space.
Encouraging Young Visitors
The library recognizes the importance of children being the future of the library. An important part of this is the introduction of a specially created red Cheadle Community Library bag, which is given to each new child library member. It has been well received, and children have learned to look after and respect their library books and hopefully their own in years to come.
A dedicated schools liaison volunteer has been recruited to work with local schools and encourage visits to the library.
About the Library
Cheadle Library has been a Community Managed Library (CML) since 2019. Enthusiastic members of the community in Cheadle came together to form a group with a committee of trustees when the opportunity arose to manage the library. Starting out as a constituted charity, last year they progressed to registered charity status. They achieved this with the strong support of Staffordshire County Council library service.
How the Space is Used
The trustees continue to ensure that the library is fully utilized as a community space. It is made available for local community and charity groups in the evenings for their meetings for a small fee. The library has also created a reading room where the elderly can relax and catch up with local newspapers, magazines, and each other.
Our Incredible Volunteers
The trustees recognise the importance of their dedicated team of volunteers and are grateful for all their hard work, which makes the library thrive.
Volunteer get-togethers, Christmas and summer thank-you events, with refreshments and activities, recognize their contribution and bond the team. Many volunteers have been part of the library's journey from the start, and the library has a very good retention rate for its volunteers.
In recognition of this, volunteers have been awarded pin stars and a special community library bag based on their years of service.
Our success is due to the diligence, hard work, and expertise of the trustees and volunteers - Ivan Wozniak Chair Person
How the Library Came to Be
The Community Group started operating independently as a CML in late summer 2019. It was a daunting task. In the first few months, trustees not only had to learn how to manage a busy town library but faced the challenge of recruiting enough volunteers to cover their lengthy opening hours of 44 hours per week.
Just as the library was starting to find its feet, 6 months in, the country went into Covid lockdown. It was a massive challenge, even for the most experienced council-run libraries. When Cheadle Library re-opened, they had lost over half their volunteers. They persevered, recruiting more volunteers and, with their support, quickly recovered their opening hours.
Since then, the library has gone from strength to strength. They currently have about 35 volunteers, including a very strong committee of 8 trustees.
What Next?
The trustees are a business-savvy group and understand that without a vision for the future, they will struggle to deliver what's needed. They have recently developed a 5-year strategic plan, highlighting their long-term ambition for the library. Cheadle is a remarkable community library, and the plan along with the vision statement will help them focus on the future. The vision is:
“To provide a welcoming, supportive, and inspiring library service by being the welcoming heart of our community where all can come to learn, discover, create, and connect.”
The Story of Cheadle Community Library created 11th April 2026
