Moulton Seas End book swap club is booming
An idea by a Moulton Seas End mum-of-three has grown into a pandemic boredom buster and spawned a new club for book lovers.
When Sarah Hollowell put a small basket of her old books out for anyone to help themselves she never imagined the lockdown success story it would become.
Donations to the book swap club meant an original small plastic storage unit was soon outgrown and has now been joined by a wooden book hut. Members can help themselves to any of the hundreds of books free of charge. They return them for others when read, and, if they have any of their own to give, just leave them for Sarah.
There is now a companion club, for readers to discuss a chosen book which they all read at the same time. Sarah said: “Quite a few have joined the new club and, when the shops open again, we’ll meet to talk about our books and enjoy socialising with coffee and cake.”
The Facebook-based Moulton Seas End Book Swap (and surrounding villages) began life during the first lockdown when Sarah (38), of Pipwell Gate, started to put books out the front of her house for people to help themselves.
She said: “When talking to my sister on the phone about it she mentioned how she had seen some old phone boxes turned into book swaps. So I looked on Facebook Marketplace and came across a garden store which had a large crack in the top, but I thought it was something we could work with. We taped up the top of the store and it was perfect. With my children we made up some posters to go on the book store, to make it clear it was a book swap.
“It meant others would get an opportunity to read books without it costing any money, especially as people were starting to lose jobs and Covid restrictions were really putting pressure on people. I then started advertising it and I started to take book donations.
“The only condition to the book swap is that people aren’t greedy. If people don’t have anything to swap to start with that’s fine, take a couple of books and go from there.
“Anyone is welcome to use the book swap at any time – not only from Moulton Seas End – the name was just something I created when it first started.
“People can put donations in the store or in my porch. I publicise a lot of the books on the Facebook group, so people can see what’s available and what’s new. I put to one side any which are requested.”
The group has now grown from a few passers-by to 230 members, with more joining every day.
An online funding campaign soon had enough donations to be able to purchase the book hut, equipped with donated shelving, and free up the original smaller store for the children’s section.
“I will continue it after the pandemic is over. Reading is great for bringing people together, for people’s mental health and much more.”
New members are always welcome and can join the Facebook page at any time by searching ‘Moulton Seas End book Swap (and surrounding villages) ‘.
The new book discussion group can be found by searching ‘For the love of books book club (MSE, Moulton, Weston and surrounding villages)’.
Busy Sarah is mum to Lewis (8), Caleb (6) and Abigail (4). She is looking forward to getting back to work as a teaching assistant now her youngest is at school. Husband Gary is an engineer at Peterborough Hospital.
Sarah is also a football coach for Holbeach United under-sevens.
