Book Dealers & Associated Businesses in Sedbergh Book Town

Sleepy Elephant Bookshop

Sleepy Elephant is housed in the ground floor of Tower House, which dates from the 14th. century and was formerly the chemist's shop which featured in the BBC television series "The House Detectives".

Customers can browse among a wide range of books including:

• Scarce books on art &design, textiles, needlework, interiors, etc.
• Selections of children's books
• Local interest
• Performing arts
• Cookery
• Poetry & literature
• Folio Society

Plus a selection of garments, textiles and a fine and unusual range of Moroccan and world craftsmanship.

Henry Wilson Books

Henry Wilson has been established as a specialist dealer in transport books since 1983 and has been trading from his shop in Sedbergh's Main Street since 2008 with a large range of new and second-hand books covering most aspects of railways at home and abroad. Stock ranges from fine antiquarian items contemporary with the beginnings of railways to many more recent out of print titles. Most current UK railway titles are carried with an emphasis on specialist publishers such as Oakwood Press, Irwell Press and Wild Swan. Railway titles are complemented by books on canals, shipping, trucks, buses and trams, motor cars in addition to many books on industrial and social history.
The shop is open on Tuesday afternoons and all day Wednesday to and Saturday and at other times by arrangement. A selection of Henry Wilson's books is also available in Sedbergh's Dales & Lakes Book Centre, 72 Main Street, open daily.

Patch and Fettle

The name 'Patch and Fettle' has caused some amusement but is appropriate for the times (Patch and Fettle = Make do and mend!). The idea is that they re-cycle useful and often beautiful older items: bric-a-brac, books, vintage clothing and jewellery, kitchen equipment, sewing aids, quilts and eiderdowns, pictures and small antiques, all at eminently reasonable prices.

Dales & Lakes Book Centre and Tourist Information Office

The Dales & Lakes Book Centre has a number of book dealers offering a wide range of quality secondhand books on many subjects. See the Dales & Lakes Book Centre web site for more information.

The Tourist Office carries a comprehensive range of maps guidebooks, postcards and souvenirs. The Tourist Office would be happy to help you with your telephone, written or email enquiries and supply any items you require so you can find out about the area before you visit. Payment can be made by credit card.

Westwood Books

Very large stock of new, secondhand and antiquarian books on all subjects. Sitting area, coffee & toilet.
Open 10:30 to 17:30 seven day a week.

Avril's books at Farfield

Avril's books at Farfield is a specialist textile bookshop on Level Four of the Mill. You'll find a broad selection of second hand textile books and if you can't find what you need, Avril can usually source it.

Barry McKay Rare Books

Located in Appleby, about 23 miles north of Sedbergh, Barry McKay Rare Books specialise in out-of-print and new books from the 15th to the 20th Centuries on all aspects of the history and arts of the book.

• Rare & Interesting Books on a variety of subjects.
• Printed Ephemera.
• Maps & Prints.
• Books on the history and techniques of:
  • Printing & Typography.
  • Bookbinding.
  • Calligraphy.
  • Papermaking & Decorating.
  • Etching, Engraving, Lithography & Photomechanical Graphic Processes.

Catalogues are available by email and customers are always welcome to visit the book-room, which is usually open Monday to Friday 10am to 5pm and Saturday mornings. However, please phone first to ensure we are available.

The Book House, Brough

The Book House started life in Shepley, Yorkshire, in 1963 when Mary Irwin put out books for sale on the wall in front of her house. The initial stock was about 20 books and she had 2/6d (12½ pence) as a float.

The Book House is now based in Brough, which is just off the A66 Scotch Corner to Penrith road. There is a large selection of second-hand and out-of-print books on railways, steam engines, engineering history, canals, road transport, mining and similar topics in the history of technology. They also carry a wide range of books on more general subjects, both fiction and non-fiction, with large sections of gardening, language, and Old Girls' books.

The Book House is open 10am to 4:30pm daily except Tuesdays & Sundays. Sometimes we could be away at book fairs or echibitions so please phone first if coming from a distance.

The Book House also exhibits at many conferences and events organised by bodies interested in industrial and transport history and also at several northern book fairs, Holker Hall Garden Festival, Cumbria Industrial History Society and Kendal Model Railway Exhibition..