Plymouth Proprietary Library

Wednesday 11th November at 2pm.

FREE for members. £5 for non-members.

From a dream and a walk across Devon to an unexpected role in a Dartmoor village play, Laurence Shelley's journey to writing Visions of Wilderness is as remarkable as the novel itself. He shares how real-life experience of brain injury, homelessness, and recovery shaped his fiction, offering a moving exploration of resilience, creativity, and the power of storytelling. 

To guarantee a seat, contact the library at least 24 hours before the event. Otherwise, simply turn up on the day.

Wednesday 25th November at 2pm.

£5 for members. £8 for non-members.

Nancy Astor (1879-1964) was an American-born politician who became the first woman to sit as a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons, representing Plymouth Sutton from 1919 to 1945. This talk by Chrissie Le Marchant (South West England Blue Badge Tourist Guide) will explore her life with particular emphasis on her time in Plymouth. 

To guarantee a seat, contact the library at least 24 hours before the event. Otherwise, simply turn up on the day.

Saturday 12th December: 10.30am - 12.30pm.

£4 each (for homemade cakes and hot drinks).

The PPL are very pleased to welcome back the Devonport Park Community Choir. They will be singing carols at 11am for half an hour. Participation is welcomed!

At noon, the raffle draw will take place - have your tickets ready!

Tuesday 15th December: 9.30am - 12pm.

The PPL is a member of Plymouth Octopus (POP), a group of people dedicated to supporting communities, citizen action, and grassroots activity.

The POP team will be at the PPL on 15th December from 9.30am - 12pm for their monthly POP-IN.

If you're curious about funding and development advice, networks & initiatives and city-wide coversations around social change, or just want to catch up; drop in and see the team any time for a drink and a chat. 

Our last day of opening for 2026 is Saturday 19th December.

Our first day of opening for 2027 is Monday 4th January.

[The image is of the PPL building when it was a doctor's surgery.]

Wednesday 13th January at 2pm.

FREE for members. £5 for non-members.

A presentation by author Julian Mitchell. He moved to Devon in 2005 and began writing in 2017. He has had four books published and is currently writing his fifth.

Join Julian for a personal literary journey. He will share the trials and tribulations of writing and getting his novels printed and published.

To guarantee a seat, contact the library at least 24 hours before the event. Otherwise, simply turn up on the day.

Wednesday 27th January at 2pm.

£5 for members. £8 for non-members.

This talk by Robert King will take a short look at how the ecology of the island developed, then takes a tour around the island where the various flora and fauna are found using a mixture of photos and short videos before finishing with a brief consideration of the future for the wildlife of the island.

To guarantee a seat, contact the library at least 24 hours before the event. Otherwise, simply turn up on the day.

Wednesday 10th February at 2pm.

£5 for members. £8 for non-members.

Andrew Young's illustrated talk will explain why this expansive, unassuming greenspace in the heart of a busy city deserves to be more widely appreciated.  He will describe its special qualities, some of the interesting episodes it has seen and how local people have responded. He will propose what is needed now as the park approaches its centenary in 2031.  

To guarantee a seat, contact the library at least 24 hours before the event. Otherwise, simply turn up on the day.

Wednesday 24th February 2027 at 2pm.

£5 for members. £8 for non-members.

At the end of WWII, Government financial assistance helped Plymouth to attract new industry to the area in the form of Tecalemit, Bush and Berkertex but when that assistance was withdrawn in 1948, Plymouth was still heavily reliant on the dockyard for employment. However, the appointment of Stuart Lloyd Jones as Town Clerk of Plymouth in September 1953 saw a concerted campaign to secure new industry and jobs and over the following decade major new players including Clarks Shoes, Brown & Sharpe and Ranco Controls set up factories and provided much needed work for the people of Plymouth. 

This illustrated talk by Alan Bricknell covers some of the stories behind Clarks, Brown & Sharpe, Ranco Controls and Tecalemit in Post War Plymouth. 

To guarantee a seat, contact the library at least 24 hours before the event. Otherwise, simply turn up on the day.

Wednesday 24th March 2027 at 2pm.

£5 for members. £8 for non-members.

William Honnywill kept a book of 'accompts and remembrances' in which he details shopping trips to London, meeting with friends for a game of bowls, and interspersed with details of his income and expenses from moneylending to the price of livestock and crops. Little details give an illustration of life in this quiet rural area of Devon, some six miles from Exeter.

The accompts (accounts) only survive in a series of newspaper articles published in late 1832 to early 1833; this is also about the search for the missing transcript of his book of accompts. A talk by Dr Lynda Pidgeon.

To guarantee a seat, contact the library at least 24 hours before the event. Otherwise, simply turn up on the day.

Wednesday 28th April 2027 at 2pm.

£5 for members. £8 for non-members.

In February 1817, Jane Austen wrote to Fanny Knight: “You are worth your weight in Gold, or even in the new Silver Coinage” (20-21 February 1817 ), referring to the exchange of all the old silver coinage for new, which had taken place during the previous two weeks over the whole of Britain. If Jane Austen had emptied her purse at any time before February 1817, what history would she have seen? 154 years later (February 15 1971), Britain again changed its currency, this time to a decimal system. Throughout time coinage has been changed periodically, because integrity is lost with reduced quality, wear and counterfeiting. Join David Brandreth as he takes us through this history.

To guarantee a seat, contact the library at least 24 hours before the event. Otherwise, simply turn up on the day.

Wednesday 23rd June 2027 at 2pm.

£5 for members. £8 for non-members.

There are many curious and intriguing things to see on Dartmoor.  If you stroll from The Two Bridges Hotel along the public footpath which follows the Cowsic River you will go through the delightful woods and reach Beardown Farm Bridge. The public footpath goes over the bridge up past the farm out to the Devonport Leat and onto the moors, but as you reach the bridge in the trees if you look around at the boulders there you might see carvings and dedications to Spencer, Burns, Shakespeare and Milton etc. These are just a few of the carvings within the publicly accessible area. But away from footpaths and access land there is a multitude lying within the private grounds of Beardown Farm, in the woods and fields. 

Simon Dell's talk describes the story of how these stones came to be in the Cowsic valley and the intriguing life of Edward Atkyns Bray - the Vicar of Tavistock.

To guarantee a seat, contact the library at least 24 hours before the event. Otherwise, simply turn up on the day.

Wednesday 22nd September 2027 at 2pm.

£5 for members. £8 for non-members.

From the 1790s into the first decades of the 1800s, contemporary travellers were discovering a patriotic enthusiasm for their homeland. With time, leisure and money they set out from their estates, parsonages and town houses to throng the turnpike roads and mail coach routes on their various ways to showpiece houses, watering places, sites of industry and beauty spots. En route and on arrival, they settled themselves into inns or lodgings and planned outings to accessible places within a day's ride or carriage drive ...

Discover more in this illustrated talk by Hazel Jones.

To guarantee a seat, contact the library at least 24 hours before the event. Otherwise, simply turn up on the day.

Wednesday 13th October 2027 at 2pm.

£5 for members. £8 for non-members.

A talk by Elaine Henderson.

More details to come.

To guarantee a seat, contact the library at least 24 hours before the event. Otherwise, simply turn up on the day.