Barry
Stephenson, a former BHRS Council member, and Local Studies Librarian at
Bedford Central Library for over 25 years, retired on 16 August 2012
after working for 50 years for Bedfordshire Libraries.
Bedford born and bred, he started at as a trainee librarian with
Bedfordshire County Council on 10
September 1962, working at the old County
Library, the former Town and County Club
building on the Embankment in Bedford
(now the site of the Swan Hotel car park entrance). He was then sent on a two year course at
Loughborough to gain his professional librarianship qualification before
embarking on a career which took him to several posts and locations in the
county. The first professional post was
at the old Dunstable Library in 1966 as Readers' Advisor, but within 12 months
there was a move to the new, present Dunstable Library.
In 1970 he moved to the
County Library
in the Riverside Building at County Hall [now Borough
Hall] as Assistant Reference Librarian and he became Local Studies Librarian in
1974. He had meanwhile become one of the first part-time students of the new
Open University and had gained his BA in History in four years.
When the
County Hall Library closed in 1986 he moved to Bedford Central Library and
served there until his retirement, albeit becoming part-time from 2008 when he
reached pensionable age.
His proudest
moment was in May 2000 when the Bedfordshire Heritage Library was opened within
Bedford Central Library which allowed much historical material, previously in closed
access, to become available to the public.
One of Barry’s
greatest achievements was in the creation, over three decades, of the extensive
newspaper cuttings collection which has enabled countless thousands of readers
to answer their queries regarding local history. When the Virtual Library came
along he was able to enormously extend access to enquirers from around the
world. Over many years he created online chronologies for Bedfordshire’s villages and towns, based on the incomparable collection of local histories he
had helped to build up in the Local Studies section of Bedford Central Library.
A quiet and
unassuming man, he is known for the diligence with which he answered the many postal (and, later, online) enquiries from around
the country and abroad, as well as the face-to-face assistance to both local
and family history researchers, and to international scholars who came to
consult the famous Bunyan Collection. As a native Bedfordian, he loved
researching Bedfordshire’s past.
Outside
work, his abiding passion has been for Bedford Town Football Club which he has
supported all his life. He served as Secretary from 1989-2002 and from 2002 as
Company Secretary, a post he still holds. He writes a Memory Lane page for all ‘home’
programmes, so still visits his former library to do his research in local
newspapers. His other interests are gardening
and attending tea dances.
Contributed by Stuart.
