18/06/2026
We’ve realised that not everyone sees all of our posts, and not everyone will be aware of our plans moving forward, so we thought we’d share a quick guide to what’s happening in our building on Commercial Street, Hereford.
For the last 11 years, The Children’s Bookshelf has been much more than a bookshop. We’ve run hundreds of subsidised pop-up book sales in schools at our own expense, given away thousands of free books, distributed over 5,000 donated books through our book hunts, donated hundreds of raffle prizes, supported community groups, and helped countless local children and families access books and reading opportunities.
Now we’re taking that community work a step further.
📚 The Children’s Bookshelf remains our independent bookshop downstairs, continuing to inspire a love of reading through carefully chosen books, school book fairs and author events.
📖 The Manga Shelf is a dedicated manga space within the shop, helping us welcome new readers, communities and interests into the world of books. This space is still a work in progress, and we’re excited to see it grow.
🧸 The Fidget Factory is a new project currently being created upstairs. It will be a sensory and fidget pop up shop, with profits helping to support the work of The Herefordshire Reading Trust CIC.
❤️ The Herefordshire Reading Trust CIC will be our community hub upstairs. Its aim is to create opportunities, remove barriers, and support local children and families through reading, creativity, learning and community activities.
Some of you may see us asking for donations of books, teddies, craft materials or other resources. These donations are for the community projects and activities run by the CIC, not for the retail business downstairs.
To help make this vision a reality, we’re applying for grants and seeking support from organisations that share our belief that every child should have access to books, learning opportunities and supportive community spaces.
For now, we’ll be sharing updates and opportunities to get involved across both The Children’s Bookshelf page and The Herefordshire Reading Trust CIC page, so our existing community can follow the journey as the CIC grows and more people discover what we’re building together.
We’re incredibly grateful to everyone who has supported us so far. The encouragement we’ve received from local people, schools, organisations, volunteers and businesses has been amazing, and we’re excited to share more as everything develops.
One building. Four purposes. One community. ❤️
