Sedbergh Book Town

Facts:

• Sedbergh is England’s only book town
• Sedbergh has the most books for sale per head of population anywhere in England
• Westwood bookshop was voted one of the Guardian newspaper’s top ten second hand bookshops in England
• Sedbergh is listed as one of 45 book towns around the world in a recent publication – ‘Book Towns’ by Alex Johnson (published by Frances Lincoln)

So where are all of our books? Some shops may have closed, but many outlets stock a range of very interesting second-hand books amongst their wares. The Sleepy Elephant isn’t just for walkers, nor Farfield Clothing. Our local Charity Book Shop has shelves of differing topics and the Information Centre has a vast range of books. Farfield Mill has two excellent sections and, of course, the biggest of all outlets is Westwood Books. Most visitors spend many hours in there. Thank goodness they also serve coffee!

We now have a high reputation as England’s Book Town and many visitors come to Sedbergh from far and wide in order to view our books. It has been a while since we have had a festival, but this is soon to be rectified. A small weekend event will take place in October 2018. Our theme will be ‘Landscape and Wellbeing’, and who best to talk about this than Amanda Owen – the Yorkshire Shepherdess. She has often appeared on TV documentaries and her books are on sale at the Information Centre. The remainder of the weekend will host other local authors. Details of events are available on our events page.

We know that we are a Book Town but we need to celebrate and develop our literary visibility more. Our disused bus shelter on Main Street is now a ‘Book Shelter’. Many of our cafés have added bookshelves and turned into book cafés. More is in the pipeline.

We residents are lucky to have such a unique asset, and should you wish to help spread the word further, do look at the Sedbergh Book Town website, or share Sedbergh Market Town and Sedbergh Book Town Festival Facebook and Twitter pages (‏ @visitsedbergh & @SedberghBooktwn ). We have leaflets in the Information Centre, telling you where to find our outlets. These aren’t just for visitors. We would be thrilled if our local residents wished to come and browse. Hope to see you soon.

Click on a photo below to see larger images

Photos © Caitlin Lynagh