The Christian Heritage Centre

The Hardwick Library

The Collection

The Collection currently consists of over fifteen-hundred books, under the following catergories:

  • Philosophy
  • Theology (Scripture, Patristics, Apologetics, Dogmatics, Sacramental, Moral, Special Moral, Liturgical, Spiritual)
  • Saints’ Lives & Writings
  • Christian Art, Architecture, Painting & Literature
  • Church history
  • Biographies

An online catalogue can be viewed on LibraryThing: please click on the link at the top of the preview on the right.

Access

The CHC’s library is accessible to participants of the charity’s courses and retreats. For access to the library outside of the CHC’s events, please contact [email protected]

Donate books

Please consider supporting the library by purchasing one of the titles in our wish list:

About the library

The Hardwicks

The library owes its name to Peter and Brigid Hardwick, well-known as pillars of the Stonyhurst community, who brought the benefits of their wisdom and learning to the school for over 50 years. The Guardian’s obituary described Peter as “an English teacher of exceptional brilliance and inspiration, despite a complete lack of pedagogical training or qualifications”, and Brigid was the first woman on Stonyhurst College’s staff. The library was named after them for their profound influence on generations of Stonyhurst students, and for the kind bequest made of some of their books to the charity. Lord Alton paid tribute to them in this article, in which he noted the importance of books for education, whose ultimate aim is to prepare us for death – and the life to come!

Stratford Caldecott

In 2021, the CHC acquired the personal library of Stratford Caldecott, which forms the backbone of the CHC’s Collection.

Caldecott was a gifted academic and a faithful Catholic, arguably one of the most powerful advocates of Catholic culture in recent times. His love for both the Catholic faith and English literature is evidenced in his many books and articles exploring the influence of the former on the latter, especially in his perennial favourite, Tolkien’s Middle-Earth sagas.

His books are identified within the CHC library by a “Caldecott Collection” stamp.

For more information about Stratford Caldecott, read our blog post here.