Books were silent flood victims (From Witney Gazette)

Books were silent flood victims

2:47pm Friday 18th July 2008 in Witney By The Page Turner

FLOOD victims from West Oxfordshire and other parts of the county are turning to an Oxford bookbinder to help them save their precious collections.

Ian Barnes, who owns Temple Bookbinders, in Headington, said flooding in the county had created extra business.

Following the floods in July last year, the firm was contacted by a number of residents, whose books ended up water-damaged.

Mr Barnes, 45, sent the books to Harwell Laboratory, near Didcot, so that they could be frozen and dried as part of the repair process.

Mr Barnes said: "The books are put in polythene bags, and then put into the freezer, before being carefully dried out.

"We were called to a house in Witney following the floods in July, and hundreds of books were damaged - they had been submerged under 3ft of water.

"But if the books are handled in the right way, many of them can be restored, and we are in the process of doing that now.

"This is going to happen more and more with flooding, and we advise people to keep their books at least 12 inches above ground level.

"They should also put the more valuable stuff a bit higher up. I'm not necessarily talking about monetary value - books that have a personal value are also important."

Mr Barnes said the collection taken from the Witney home included a number of valuable items, including Annals of the Reformation, from 1713, Disclosures Historiques, from 1720, and the Stephani Thesaurus, from 1819.

Mr Barnes said the older books survived the flood better than the more modern books, some of which were paperbacks.

He added: "The owner of the Witney collection was very upset when he phoned, but we are trying to do everything we can to help."

Mr Barnes estimated it would cost £400 one book to be freeze-dried and fully restored, although the freeze-drying process alone costs a lot less.

Kathryn Rodgers, a director of Harwell Document Restoration Service, said the Witney resident had 'an enormous collection of very valuable antiquarian books'.

She added the books were frozen before being dried in a large vacuum chamber.

Mrs Rodgers said: "In the vast majority of cases, following the restoration process, most books do not require re-binding.

"If paper-based items - books, photographs, or documents - do get wet, the damage can be minimised by freezing them, and then they can be dried at a later date."

In December, Mr Barnes was at Sotheby's to bid for JK Rowling's The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a 160-page Harry Potter spin-off of five wizarding fairytales, that relate to his final adventure.

Temple Bookbinders had been the under-bidders for the book, on behalf of a private collector in the south east, who was trying to start a library.

When the bidding reached £1.9m, Mr Barnes's buyer pulled out, because he realised £1.9m could buy a lot of other books.

A book collector himself, Mr Barnes began his career as a 16-year-old apprentice, and then worked for many years at one of Oxford's oldest bookbinders, before setting up on his own.

"It's hard to get trained bookbinders, and we are always looking for new recruits," he added.