South Yorkshire Times April 25, 1964
Denaby Library is Vandals Target.
Almost a year ago, retired glass blower 81 years old. John Whitaker, took his first part-time job as a watchman in Denaby Main, but it will be years last because of local vandals.
Mr Whitaker’s job is to keep an eye on the new County Library, where construction work is nearing completion, and which has been the target for several outbreaks of vandalism during recent weeks, a culminating on Wednesday when an 8 ft.² plate glass window and a door panel at the front of the £11,500 building were shattered by stones.
“This has made up my mind… I’ll never take another watchman’s job,” Mr Whitaker, who lives in Firbeck Street, Denaby, only 30 yards from the library, declared yesterday (Thursday).
“You will feel personally guilty about this kind of thing, although I couldn’t be there all the time, of course,” he said. “I was told to leave at dark. The damage must have been done after that.”
Mr Whitaker continued. “My idea is that it is the drunks who have done this. They must have stood in the nearby market and hurled stones. They ought to be ashamed of themselves, who ever it is.”
The damage was discovered by workmen arriving at the almost completed building in School Road, Denaby, early on Thursday morning. They reported it to police.
A representative of the main contact us, C. Mollekin Ltd., of Maltby, said the library was due to be completed by the end of may, but this damage together with other attacks made during recent weeks, could possibly hold up the opening.
She added that some contact us would have to travel all the way from Leeds to carry out the repair to the damaged door. Estimates of the cost of the damage were being prepared.