From next month the central library on Wren Square will stay open until ten on weekdays, in a two-year trial paid for by a local trust. The reading room was full most evenings last winter.

Why do the bells of St Anne's ring at quarter past nine on Sunday mornings, when the service starts at ten? (Asked by Pat, Chapel Row.) Because quarter past nine is when the ringers arrive, Pat. The bells are rung by a team of eight volunteers who climb sixty-one steps to the ringing chamber, and they ring for forty-five minutes…