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 other benefactions he established and maintained orphanages, homes for aged gentlewomen, a home of rest for ministers of slender means, and he provided a town hall, public baths, library and a coffeehouse in the town of Stretford, where he lived. He also built an institute for the benefit of the villagers of Havenstreet on the Isle of Wight, where Rylands passed some of his later years from 1882, having built a house named Longford there after his mainland estate. His donations to the poor of Rome were so generous as to induce the king to decorate him in 1880 with