£15,000 in six days: how Hawarden’s famous library saved its Victorian weathervane
Gladstone’s Library in Hawarden has raised £15,000 to restore its Victorian cupola and weathervane after donors hit the target in six days, the library has said.
The appeal had been expected to run for six weeks.
The Grade I listed building is currently under scaffolding as part of the first major repair work to its roof in 125 years, funded in part by the National Heritage Memorial Fund.
Gladstone’s Library is Britain’s only Prime Ministerial library, built as the national memorial to William Ewart Gladstone, the four-times Victorian Prime Minister who founded it.
Gladstone, who lived at Hawarden Castle, began the project in his eighties by personally wheeling thousands of books from the castle to a temporary corrugated iron building on the site, aided only by his valet and one of his daughters.
Following his death in 1898, a public appeal raised £9,000 for a permanent building, designed by Chester architect John Douglas, whose other works include the city’s Eastgate Clock.
The Reading Rooms, the oldest part of the current building, opened in 1902.
Closer inspection during the works revealed that the cupola, which sits on top of the Reading Rooms, required specialist restoration of its original timber vents, lead details, and Victorian weathervane.
The cupola also functions as the original air vent for the Reading Rooms, and the library said it was essential that it remained watertight to protect the 150,000 books and more than one million archival items held inside.
The library had launched the appeal on 20 March with a deadline of 30 April 2026.
Revd Canon Dr Andrea Russell, Warden of Gladstone’s Library, said the response had gone beyond what the charity had anticipated.
“Our aim was to raise £15,000, and we thought it might take around 6 weeks to reach this target — and it has taken 6 days,” she said.
“A huge thank you to you all — we are so grateful, not just for your donations but also for the kind messages of encouragement and support we have received.”
Restoration work is being carried out by Grosvenor Construction Ltd, with a heritage roofing specialist brought in for the cupola work.
The library said having the scaffolding already in place made this the most cost-effective point to carry out the cupola repairs.
Work is expected to complete by June 2026.
The library has remained open throughout the construction period.
Donors were told their names would appear on a supporters’ wall of thanks at the library and on its website until January 2027, and that they would be invited to a celebratory event led by the Warden once work is complete.
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