AN historic Lakeland bookshop that has been operating for 136 years has a new owner. 

The future of Grasmere’s beloved independent bookshop Sam Read is safe in the hands of Will Smith and Polly Atkin, the seventh generation of owners.

Sam Read’s was established in Grasmere in 1887 and November 2023 marked 128 years of continual business from the current premises in Broadgate House.

Ownership has passed to Will, who is Cumbria Life’s books reviewer, and writer Polly on the retirement of Elaine Nelson, who succeeded Margaret and Dan Hughes, who retired in 2000.

Under Elaine’s stewardship the shop won the 2006 Times/Independent Alliance Competition for best UK independent bookshop and made the regional shortlist for Independent Bookshop of the Year four years running from 2020.

Will is a familiar face to customers, having worked at the shop since 2012.

Like Sam Read, Will is originally from Suffolk and began his bookselling life at Ottakar’s in Bury St Edmunds. Before moving to Grasmere in 2010, he worked at Blackwell’s in Nottingham while studying for his PhD in Canadian literature.

He has been a judge for the Costa Book Awards and the Nature Chronicles Essay Prize. In 2020, Will set up an online shop to reach Sam Read’s customers in lockdown, a service that continues to thrive.

In September this year he was one of ten UK booksellers named in a shop floor roll of honour by the Booksellers Association.

Polly moved to the village in 2007 and soon became a fixture in Cumbria’s literary landscape.

The couple plan to bring their enthusiasm for books, witnessed by attendees of Sam Read’s regular book events and members of Grasmere Book Group, to readers in the shop, which sells books of all genres for adults and children, with special focus on the Lake District, nature writing and poetry.

Will said: “With a shop with such a long legacy as Sam Read’s there’s a responsibility to uphold both in the service we offer our customers and the breadth and depth of books on our shelves.

"Some of our customers remember Helen Read, Sam’s daughter, who followed on from her father to run the bookshop until 1950.

"It’s a unique shop which has added to the vibrancy of the village over generations and we see how much it means to our customers every day.”