In Reference Too

Thu 6th Aug 2026

In Reference Too

The Willoughby Memorial Trust Library and Art Gallery

Moreley’s Lane, Corby Glen, Lincolnshire NG33 4NL

Open Tuesdays to Sundays and Bank Holiday Mondays 12 to 5pm

Exhibition open Wednesday 12th August to Wednesday 2nd September 2026

This exhibition is inspired by the library that has been housed on the ground floor of this building since 1965. Ten contemporary artists have made work in response to The Willoughby Reference Library while also exploring the enduring importance of libraries in general and their place in the community. 

Among the ‘topics’ considered by the artists are:

· The history of this collection of books and documents

·      An individual book or set of books on particular subject matter 

·      Collections of periodicals, journals and maps

·      The use of Reference Libraries for reading and research

·      Reference Libraries as quiet spaces

·      Time-capsule collections

·      Physical books in the digital age

·      Libraries under threat of closure

The Willoughby Memorial Trust Art Gallery and Reference Library was endowed by Lord and Lady Ancaster of nearby Grimsthorpe Castle to preserve the memory of their son Timothy, Lord Willoughby de Eresby, who died in a boating accident in 1963, aged 27. Lord Willoughby had been part of the London art scene from the late 1950s. The Art Gallery and Library at Corby Glen reflects his interest in art, but it also reflects beliefs about what a library should contain at the time it was created; the complete works of Shakespeare, Winston Churchill’s The History of the English-Speaking Peoples and novels by the likes of Charles Dickens and Walter Scott are among them. There is also much on local and rural history, British wildlife, fauna, geology and a number of periodicals such as those of the Lincoln Records Society. It is a kind of 1960s time capsule. Libraries are depositories of histories of their time of creation and spaces of possibilities for the future. This exhibition celebrates books and the voyage of the ideas, imagination and information they contain. 

Exhibiting artists:

Andrew Bracey, Andrew Falconer, Caroline Penn, Claire Morris-Wright, Kate Fortune-Jones, Kate Genever, Meredith Kenton, Serena Smith, Soraya Smithson, Sue Baker Kenton