Ros established Burway Books a few months after the Three-Day Week and as such resilience has always been a critical feature of her business model. How can an independent bookshop in a small town in Shropshire be resilient? Through awareness, through flexibility, and through community engagement.
After Covid: We have gone to considerable efforts to make it as safe as possible: screens and copious supplies of hand-gel, we make sure that the shop is well-heated during the winter months, and that it is well-ventilated at all times.
Little things can matter we have created elaborate, informative and, above all, jolly window-displays. These are changed on a frequent basis, usually multiple times each week. ‘Community’ however, does not just mean that of Church Stretton and environs, but a wider ‘community of readers’ across the entire country, and we have made an effort to reach out through social media – in particular Instagram, Twitter and Facebook– with some success.
We believe that our resilience in the face of crises over the past few years demonstrates the importance of a community ethos: of the idea that a bookshop is not merely a business that sells books, but an amenity; a space – and it turns out that this space does not have to be physical! – that also deals in solace, enlightenment, entertainment and even friendship. The independent bookshop is an institution and, as the response of our community to our efforts has shown, a valued one. We have developed our online bookshop burwaybooks online shop
We deliver books nationwide and worldwide where we can from the UK.
Burway Books Book Group
Our Book Group -will resume on the last Friday of the month from Friday February 24th at 4pm in Berry’s Coffee House – please contact Ros on 01694723388
Ros will always chat to customers over a cup of coffee or tea in the bookshop too.
The countryside and ecology are of upmost importance and the books we have selected in our Conservation/Countryside shelves reflect this.
After 37 years at No 10 Beaumont Road, the shop moved to spacious new premises in March 2011, just a few doors along from its original home. We are now happily settled in to our “new” premises and enjoy greeting customers – old and new.
“No 10 Beaumont Road – Anecdotes of a Bookseller”
Read extracts from the talk that Ros gave to the local Literary Society in 2010 about her life as a bookseller.