Subject strengths: General, Classics

The Sandes Library is the library of Kendal Grammar School and is made up of books which were originally given to the Blue Coat School and Hospital in Kendal by their founder Thomas Sandes (1606-1681), a local cloth merchant and former mayor of Kendal. The Blue Coat School was amalgamated with the Kendal Grammar School in 1887, and the library was eventually deposited with Newcastle University Library in the 1960s.

The collection consists of 350 volumes, ranging in date from the Fifteenth to the Nineteenth Century, and includes some notable examples of early printing and binding. There are many volumes relating to Theology and Ecclesiastical History, but there is also a work by Galen, Clavdii Galeni Pergameni De sanitate tuenda libri sex (1559), a translation into English of The recouerie of Iervsalem by the sixteenth-century Italian poet Torquato Tasso (1624) and a small amount of legal and classical books.

As with the other school libraries in our collections, the Sandes Library is a valuable example of the kind of material which might have been found in a school library of the Seventeenth to Nineteenth Centuries.

Collection Name and Collection Reference Code:

Collection Name: Sandes Library

Library Search Collection Ref Code: Sandes

Date Range of Material

1489 - 1854

Type of Material

Rare book collection

Size of Collection

23 Linear Metres of shelving 

How To Order Items From This Collection

The books within this collection are described within the Newcastle University Library Search and can be ordered directly from the catalogue.

This link to the Library Search will show a list of all the items within the collection. Please note this link is available to members of the public as well as University staff and students.

You can then place your order by linking to our Request Form. 

Unable to visit our Reading Room?

If you are unable to visit our reading room, we also have a virtual reading room service and a digitisation service.