Countrybookshop

Countrybookshop is an award winning independent bookshop operating from the old Hassop railway station in the Peak District National Park outside the town of Bakewell. Country Bookshop organises Peak Literary Festival and the Peak District Book of the year award.Countrybookshop launched its online opration in 1997 and is one of the oldest online shop in the country offering over 3 million titles.

Countrybookshop has hosted events for various authors including Kate Adie,Dame Ellen McArthur, Boardman - Tasker Award winner, Joe Simpson, Millers Antiques founder, Judith Miller, Whitbread biography award winner Amanda Foreman, Film Director Ken Annakin,Late Television presenter Richard Whitely Berlie Doherty, Roy Hattersley, Gordon Stainforth, Gervase Phinn , Dowager Duchess of Devonshire (Chatsworth), Dickie Bird,Clare Short, Tariq Ali, Matthew Parris, Gervase Phinn, Brian Turner, Clive Aslet (Country Life Editor), James Geary (Editor of Time Magazine), Roger Protz (Editor of CAMRA), Jane Fearnley Whittingstall, Colin Tudge, David Rothenberg, David and Ben Crystal, Martin Gurdon, Mark Gwynne Jones, E A Markham, Meg Hutchinson, Wendy Holden, Dugald Steer, Martyn Ware (Human League), Russel Senior and Nick Banks (Pulp), Mark Waddington (CEO of Warchild), Nick Temple (Editor of Global Ideas Bank), Susanne Garnett (Director of Village Aid working in Africa),.

The Hassop station is situated at a distance of 153 miles from St Pancras Station in London was built in 1863 on the Manchester to Derby line. As well as being one of the stations for the Duke of Devonshire it was busy with Cotton and Yarn associated with Calver Cotton Mill and Spa,Stone associated with the quarrying industry. It was also used for Coal,Grain and Cattle traffic.

The Railway line from Matlock to Buxton passing through Hassop was closed in the railway re-organisation of 1968 and was later bought by the National Park Authority and opened to walkers and cyclists as the Monsal Trail.