This collection represents the historical portion of the Library of Appleby Grammar School in Cumbria (formerly in the old county of Westmorland) and has been deposited on indefinite loan. The nucleus of the collection was the personal library of an early headmaster of the school, Reginald Bainbrigg [1545-1612?].Books in this collection range in publication date from the Fifteenth Century to the Twentieth Century. The collection can be searched on the library's catalogue and there is also a printed catalogue by the late Edgar Hinchcliffe, formerly a master at the school, available from the Special Collections reading room.The collection contains predominantly classical, theological, literary and historical works, as well as a number of early sixteenth-century English bindings. There are many sixteenth-century editions of works by classical authors, such as Cicero, while other highlights include several works by the English philosopher and enlightenment thinker John Locke and a 1561 Basel imprint of Martin Luther's Quaestionum Sacrarum.

Kepier Grammar School was opened by Queen Elizabeth I in 1574 and closed in 1933. The books from its library consist mainly of seventeenth and eighteenth-century works on classics and theology. As well as the classical authors (Euclid, Homer, Cicero, Tacitus, Plutarch, Xenophon et al.), many of the stock authors of the Eighteenth Century are represented: David Hume, Tobias Smollett, Joseph Addison, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, George Lyttleton, Jonathan Swift, Matthew Prior, Alexander Pope and (from the Seventeenth Century) John Locke. Several volumes bear the bookplate of Thomas Griffith, whilst one of the school's governors, Ralph Robinson, presented sixty six volumes to the school in 1742. Valerius Maximus' Cum commento Oliuerii Arzignanensis Vicentini (1500) contains the inscriptions of several former pupils with the dictum: “when you see this remember me“.

The Robinson Collection comprises incunabula, medieval manuscripts and books so the material ranges from a fourteenth-century gradual to items published in the Nineteenth Century. The collection was bequeathed by Marjorie Robinson (d. 1998), widow of antiquarian bookseller, Philip Robinson. It includes early editions of works by Dante, Boccaccio and Tasso; rare pamphlets by Daniel Defoe and Jonathan Swift; and is a good resource for travel literature.

Highlights include an original Gutenberg Bible leaf [1400]; a book of hours which is printed on vellum, in a brown cloth binding with blue velvet spine and metal centerpiece, corner-pieces and ornamental clasp; presentation copies of Alexander Pope's works as well as books which he formerly owned and A letter from South Carolina, 2nd ed. (1718) which provides first-hand information on the pioneer settlement of that state.

The Library of Heversham Grammar School in Westmorland. The Library was intended for the use of neighbouring clergy as well as for the masters and pupils of the School, and books were also given by local gentry and former pupils. Two MSS. Catalogues, compiled abound 1800, show that the Library then consisted of 600 volumes, of which about 450 survive. The collection consists mainly of editions of classical or theological authors, with approximately half of the volumes having been printed before 1700 and a few before 1600.

This collection of approximately 1500 nineteenth-century novels consists almost entirely of the works of lesser-known This collection of approximately 1500 nineteenth-century novels consists almost entirely of the works of lesser-known writers, such as Rosa Carey, Emma Warboise and Alexander Grant. Scottish writers are also well-represented in the collection.

The Burman-Alnwick Collection was brought together by Dr. C.C. Burman and presented to Alnwick U.D.C. by his son, Joseph Burman, to later be deposited in the Library on long-term loan.It consists of books, pamphlets, broadsides and other material printed in Alnwick 1700-1917 and is chiefly a local history collection, containing such items as An address to 'the four and twenty' of the borough of Alnwick: on certain improvements in the plan of education, pursued in the borough school [1839], The Alnwick Mercury, Northumberland Advertiser, and entertaining miscellany (1854-1859), The Journal of the Northumberland Agricultural Society (1850) and the Alnwick Mechanics' Institute's Annual Report [18--]. It is also something of a literary collection, containing Alnwick printings of well-known tales such as The babes in the wood [18--] and The ballad of Chevy Chase (1800) as well as children's literature and educational tools like The child's battledore [c.1830], works by James Beattie and Thomas Percy and various chapbooks and ballads. Published sermons and letters also appear.

The Chorley Collection, presented by Sarah Chorley, comprises children's literature chiefly from the Nineteenth Century and first decades of the Twentieth Century. Highlights include Kate Greenaway's Almanack for 1884 (1883) R.M. Ballantyne's The Coral Island (1876) and The Giants and How to Fight Them (1904) by the Rev. Richard Newton. There are also several works by the highly influential children's book illustrator Randolph Caldecott (1846-1886).

St. Bees School, Cumbria was founded by Queen Elizabeth I in 1583 and its library was developed through donations from local gentry and clergy in the Seventeenth Century. The collection comprises mostly classical literature and theology, including 102 volumes which were printed in the Sixteenth Century, with several titles in Latin or Ancient Greek.

Alongside the classical authors sit Martin Luther's sermons; works by William Gilpin, John Ruskin, Oliver Goldsmith, Izaak Walton, James Boswell and Francis Bacon; there is a copy of Roald Amundsen's The South Pole: an account of the Norwegian Antarctic expedition in the “Fram”, 1910-1912 (1912) and C.G. Bruce's The assault on Mount Everest, 1922 (1923), as well as W.R. Calvert's Family holiday: a little tour in a second-hand car (1932).

The White Collection, named after Robert White (1802-1874) was presented to King's College (now Newcastle University) by his great nephew George White Pickering. It is a rich source of literature as well as being strong in ecclesiastical and local history such as James Raine's writings on local history and antiquities.

There are works by John Dryden, William Hazlitt, Thomas Hood, James Thomson, Robert Burns, Mark Akenside, Thomas Chatterton, John Gay, H.W. Longfellow, Matthew Prior, John Keats, John Milton, James Hogg, John Clare, Edgar Allan Poe, George Herbert, William Cowper, Thomas Gray and the poems of Ossian as well as several works by S.T. Coleridge, including Aids to reflection (1848), Biographia literaria (1817), Confessions of an inquiring spirit (1849) and The friend (1850). Alongside the work of these distinguished authors sit English and Scottish ballads, garlands and chapbooks including some which were printed in Newcastle.

Previously, the Library housed a printing room, with working presses, which operated as a small publisher under the imprint 'Eagle Press'. The Eagle Press Collection contains facsimile reprints of printing manuals dating from the 18th and 19th centuries, together with the press' publications.