Archer Cowley’s work at AERE’s new library at Harwell in 1960:

The typewritten caption (perhaps written by WGRA)  on the LHS says: “April 1960: we supplied 300 boxes for packing and removal of books and papers, 450 skips of 7 cubic feet, and 250 filing cabinets, to new library a quarter mile away in 7 days.” 

The Newspaper cutting is from the Oxford Mail of Thursday September 8th 1960 and is headlined: “£200,000 library helps AERE scientists keep informed” and is about the opening of a new library at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment (AERE) at Harwell, near Didcot. 

There does not appear to be any reference in the Oxford Mail item to AC&Co’ s role in the setting-up of the new library. 

I paste below Wikipedia’s item (on 14.4.17) on AERE’s founding to give some historical background to this important job by AC&Co, which shows that they were the firm of choice for important work by such local famous name organisations as The Bodleian Library (in 1934) and AERE (in 1960):

Founding[edit]

In 1945 John Cockcroft was asked to set up a research laboratory to further the use of nuclear fission for both military purposes and generating energy. The criteria for selection involved finding somewhere remote with a good water supply, but within reach of good transport links and a university with a nuclear physics laboratory. This more or less limited the choice to the areas around Oxford or Cambridge. It had been decided that an RAF airfield would be chosen, the aircraft hangars being ideal to house the large atomic piles that would need to be built. Although Cambridge University had the better nuclear physics facility (the Cavendish Laboratory), the RAF did not want to abandon any of its eastern airfields because of its potential involvement in the Cold War, therefore Harwell was chosen when the RAF made the airfield available. RAF Harwell was sixteen miles south of Oxford near Didcot and Harwell (at this time in Berkshire), and on 1 January 1946 the Atomic Energy Research Establishment was formed, coming under the Ministry of Supply. The scientists mostly took over both accommodations and work buildings from the departing RAF.

qaa© Philip B Archer 2014