Most of the books in the collection date to about 1100. The oldest volume in the library, the Hereford Gospels in Anglo-Saxon characters, dates to around the year 780 and was the only book to survive the 1055 fire.[11] Many of the books and manuscripts were collected from Herefordshire, with many of those from the 14th century onwards related to county law.[3] For several centuries books were stored in cupboards or wooden chests until the first library room was established, in the south-west cloister of the cathedral, in the 15th century.[3]