Chester Cathedral Library the Heritage Lottery Fund. The new Song School was opened in October 2003 and the choir moved out of the Upper Library. While the choir had been in occupation, additional bookcases had been acquired, including some from Knutsford Public Library, together with some display cases from John Rylands Library, Manchester. Work then took place to reorganise and refurbish the Upper Library, which was renamed the Exhibition Library, with the intention of re-opening it in 2007. A special opening event took place on 10 February 2007. Professor Philip Alexander of Manchester University gave a talk about notable people associated with the
John Rylands He employed 15,000 people in his 17 mills and factories, which produced 35 long tons (39 short tons) of cloth a day. From 1857, John Rylands lived at Longford Hall, in Stretford, an Italianate mansion he built on the site of an earlier house. In 2009 the local council placed a "blue plaque" at the site of Longford Hall to commemorate John and Enriqueta Rylands. He was a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Curriers. Rylands was retired and reserved except in the company of his friends, and always shrank from public office of any kind, although he was not