About Us

Excellence in book selling since 1981

The Guisborough Bookshop was established in 1981 and within only a few years had grown to be the largest independent bookstore in the region. In 1990 we opened a card shop in the town, which has since moved to larger premises next door to the bookshop.

Shop Front 1

We are proud to be a local company employing around 20 people but look forward to offering our unrivalled service for the supply of books and gifts to a wider audience.

Inside Shop

Listed on this site are only a small number of the 30,000 titles we carry in stock. Meanwhile we can obtain any of over 2,000,000 titles in print which are listed on our British and international databases.

Let us do the searching for you, just e-mail, phone or fax us and we will get back to you with information as soon as possible.

HISTORY

The history of the name "Guisborough" is an interesting one, dating back to the year 1086, when it appeared in the Domesday Book in such forms as Chigesburg, Ghigesburgh, Ghigesborg and Ghigesbore, and in a record of a grant made to Robert de Brus at Giseborne. The registers of the Church date from 1661 and reveal yet another variation. In this instance Gisbrough. The actual derivation of the name is still somewhat obscure, but according to expert etymologists, means "the town of Gisi" or "the fort of the Watchman. Although the name first appears only in Domesday Book, several historians have come to the conclusion that Guisborough was in existence before the compilation of that great record, quite probably in Saxon days.

The town is set in a fertile valley, approximately two miles wide and 300 feet above sea-level, (amid the rich ironstone hills which characterise this district.) Prior to the Norman Conquest, under the ancient name of Ghigesburgh, it was made up of three manors; one a Royal Demesne, the second of Uchtred and the third of Lesing, but after the Conquest William bestowed the three properties upon his follower, the Earl of Moreton, from whom they passed to Robert de Brus, ancestor of the Scottish House of Bruce and already owner of a vast amount of land in the north of England.

A point of historical interest is that the first alum works in England were set up here in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the guiding spirit of this venture being Sir Thomas Chaloner.

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