THE community-owned Crediton Community Bookshop (CCB) has revealed its brand new name and look, devised and designed by the celebrated children’s illustrator Sarah McIntyre.

Newly named "The Bookery", Crediton’s community bookshop is an independent bookshop at the heart of the community in Crediton.

It has been in community ownership since 2013 when more than 300 shareholders came together to create a social enterprise to maintain an independent bookshop in the town and to pioneer programmes supporting literacy, community wellbeing and access to cultural opportunities.

Illustrator and writer Sarah McIntyre, who co-authors children’s books with The Bookery patron Philip Reeve said: “I’m thrilled to work with the team on coming up with a new look for The Bookery.

"Bookery makes me think of rookery, and it’s lovely to think of the bookshop as a place where people can flock together and feel they’re at home with the wonderful collection of books.

"And after this Covid bookshop drought, I look forward to visiting the shop in person!”

The bookshop was recently shortlisted in the 2021 Independent Bookshop of the Year Awards.

The team work in partnership with local organisations to provide wellbeing services in the community and have also developed a successful schools’ programme which won a Prince of Wales Award for outstanding services to the community.

Like many third sector organisations as they responded to the impact of the Covid 19 pandemic on the communities that they serve, CCB reviewed its governance and structures with a view to future-proofing the organisation to be able to continue its work in a changing world. The result of this is rebranding to The Bookery.

“As a non-profit social enterprise we work to deliver meaningful activities that support our community, and sales from our bookshop and website help to fund the provision of pioneering programmes supporting literacy, community wellbeing and access to cultural opportunities,” said The Bookery’s Dee Lalljee, who added: “We work with people from a diverse range of ages, backgrounds and abilities. It’s a win-win – ‘buy books, grow community’.”

She continued: “We’ve had huge support from the community for this rebrand, and are thrilled to have such a distinctive design created for us by Sarah McIntyre. It was inspired to incorporate rooks into the design, and we were delighted to discover a collective noun for rooks is a storytelling!”

With a mission to create an environment for enterprising, resilient and creative communities inspired by books and stories, the team continues to develop services to schools, pioneer wellbeing projects in the community and constantly strive to improve the customer bookshop experience.

In addition, a vacant building behind the bookshop has been refurbished into a large, light shared workspace for creative professionals designed to motivate and inspire.

You can find out more by visiting the shop at 21 High Street, or new website at: www.thebookery.org.uk .