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England's National Book Town!
What is a Book Town? It's usually a small rural town or village in which there are a high number of second hand and antique book stores to be found. These small villages are more often than not set in some of the most beautiful scenery and have a fascinating history surrounding the area. Sedbergh, in Cumbria, definately conforms to this. It is situated in the Yorkshire Dales National Park and near to the Lake District National Park.
Sedbergh is 'England's Book Town' and this title has attracted many more visitors to it. There are thought to be around twenty book towns in the world today with another twelve or more propsed. These range from a town called Stillwater, in Minnesota, USA, to Kembuchi Children's Picture-Book Village, in Hokkaido, Japan.
Sedbergh's Book Town project was started after the Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak of 2001. The outbreak had a devastating effect on local businesses and the project aimed to increase the number of visitors coming to the area.
Sedbergh Book Town began in 2003, with a mission to developing a community of businesses involved in selling, writing, publishing and designing books and other publications. There already existed a small number of book shops in Sedbergh, and with several writers and a print finisher (book maker) to boot, it seemed that Sedbergh was made to become a Book Town.
Since then three more bookshops have opened and, in May 2006, Sedbergh was oficially recognised as England's Booktown when it was elected into the International Organisation of Book Towns.
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