Scarthin Books: The Peak District’s Worst-kept Secret

Tucked away in the scenic village of Matlock in Derbyshire, there is a well-loved and even better-stocked bookstore that has survived the decline of the High Street and the rise of online bookselling and cemented its place as a staple not only of its town but of its customer’s hearts.

50 Years Of Bookselling

Scarthin Books was once a family home. Then, in 1974, one room of the home was transformed into a local bookstore. At the time, there weren’t many bookstores outside of cities, and so for Matlock to have one was a brand new and exciting addition to the village. Despite starting with no capital and no experience, the bookstore and its owner, David Mitchell, were welcomed into the community. 

Only a small store, Scarthin Books has always been bound by tight financial constraints, and its saving grace in those early days came in the form of a contract with Matlock Training College. Through working alongside the college, Scarthin Books made enough money to become a fully self-sufficient business. 

In 2006, David Booker took the helm of the store as the general manager. Two years later, in 2008, Scarthin Books was rated one of the best in the world by The Guardian. Since then, the store has only gone from success to success, surviving the COVID-19 lockdowns, opening more rooms, buying more stock, and serving more customers both in person and online than David Mitchell would ever have dreamed all those years ago. 

50 years later, Scarthin Books now has 12 rooms of stock split across four floors, a vegetarian cafe, and is even home to bookish events, talks, and meetings on a regular basis. Having just celebrated its semicentennial birthday, it is clear that the team behind the beloved bookstore has no intention of letting the store go anywhere. 

Held Up By Community

With an estimated 100,000 items of stock across its legendary four flours (including along the staircase!) the old home started to struggle in 2015. Customers and staff started to notice cracks in the walls and the floor of the staircases began to bow. After assessing the situation, it was determined that the store needed about £10,000 of structural work done in order to stop the building from completely collapsing under the weight of the stock. 

As an independent store, there was no way that the bookstore could fund this work. With the hopes of some financial support, they put out a request for donations. The staff of Scarthins only hoped to generate around 50% of the money needed to keep the store open and have the building work done.

Only months later, to their surprise, the store had made nearly £12,000 from customers both in Matlock and as far as overseas. People from all over the country and the world came together to ensure that the community bookstore could stay open. Manager David Booker spoke to the press, saying he was “humbled” by the response that allowed the building to be strengthened with four steel columns.

In addition to the donations, some of the loyal customers and fans of Scarthins Books also left comments to those who run the store. One customer, who donated anonymously, said that: “the bookshop deserves to go on. It would be a real tragedy for the community if it couldn’t go on because we all love spending time there. Places like this are dying out and Cathy and Dave are very special people.”

More Stock Than A Chain Retailer

It is becoming increasingly hard to run in-person stores as many of us flock to the internet for our purchases, and it’s even harder for independent stores like Scarthin Books who have to compete with big chain stores that can afford to make mistakes and losses in a way that they simply cannot. But this hasn’t stopped Scarthin Books. 

On their website, the Matlock store estimates that they compare directly with other chain bookstores in the sales they make per square foot and per staff hour worked. The place where they differ, Scarthin’s owner David Mitchell writes, is that they easily have three times the stock of your average chain bookseller, in what is probably half the space. 

The bookstore stocks everything from children’s books to travel books, fiction, non-fiction—even sheet music. There are bookshelves on every single wall of the building. Even the stars aren’t safe from holding stock! 

A Pledge To Stay Standing

Having received such a phenomenal response, Scarthin Books was able to do all the work they needed to rebuild and correct the issues with the old building’s structure. The bookstore was able to stay open, and, according to David Booker, they hope that the work they did to the Scarthin Books building will allow them to keep the legendary and clearly globally beloved house-turned-bookstore open for at least another four decades.