Chertsey Book Barn

Part of the joy of travelling back to Mid-Canterbury is the opportunity to call at the Chertsey Book Barn.



The building is an old railway goods-shed.  In earlier generations fertilizer, coal and bagged seeds would have been unloaded here, and wool and bagged grain loaded onto railway wagons for ports at Timaru or Lyttleton.

Today it houses second hand books.

The view at the door - half of it is stacked to the rafters with boxes of books

Indoors is a kind of Aladdin's Cave


Complete with Cobwebs (and a view of the rafters under that cavernous roof)


If that isn't enough, I understand that all these containers are also packed to the gills with books
Zag is part of the attraction
and I left with a pile of rainy day reading material


And I'll leave you with this verse from Sussex

Comments

  1. Aladdin cave, oh yes. I want all those books you've e photoed and several hours to to browse.... Regularly! That verse at the end reminds me of my father. He loved odd bits of verse like that and would recite them

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  2. Organising so many thousands of books is a true labour of love.

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  3. Zag is a definite attraction!

    But those books....❤️❤️❤️oook!!!
    I return with a book or two....or three..every visit to NZ....

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    1. Zag has the softest ever fur and is a real people cat. On my first visit I came out and found him sprawled by my car door. I had to ask him if Angel Tigger had sent him to see me for my kitty-fix.

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  4. OH wow, nobody light a match!!
    Your choices are intriguing- LOVE the insert of mother of seven. I would have been a child joining the mother!
    What a place to have found- that warehouse, Crazy having that many books in one spot. Abuilding of books could be constructed to house the books!

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    1. when you look up the roof is full of holes, like stars in a black sky, but it doesn't seem to have any damp inside.

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  5. Oh wow. What a fantastic place. I would spend days and days in there!
    Is your Chertsey named after our Chertsey in Surrey?

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    1. Chertsey - almost certainly (unless there another better known one 🤔). Admirals, Dukes, explorers, and places in the 'auld country' account for most of our non-Maori place names.

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  6. Hari OM
    Ah, now, you see, that's the sort of place one could park up and linger forever plus! YAM xx

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  7. Ooh I’d love a few hours in there….trouble is I’d be sorting/rearranging/tidying it all up up.
    That’s a great selection- different subjects for different moods. I found the Mona Anderson book is available through Libby as an ebook.

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    1. I'm not much of a fiction fan (never say never) but love stuff about cultures, places, history - all three together even. Currently working my way through The Last of the Plantagenets.

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  8. Wow! What a wonderful place to lose yourself on a rainy day....I would be in BIG trouble if a book haven like that was near me!
    hugs,
    Beth

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    1. It is virtually in the middle of nowhere (but the centre of the universe for the handful of people who live within a mile or so of the big old shed). It is right beside state highway 1 between Rakaia Bridge and Ashburton.

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  9. Oh wow. You could spend hours in there and maybe not ever come back out lol
    Definitely a place to visit on a day too cold and wet to work outside

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  10. If The Last of the Plantagenets is by Thomas B. Costain, it's excellent. The Xenia book looks interesting.

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    1. That is indeed the one. I shall properly sit down with it next rainy day. I picked up Xenia because a Russian princess (daughter of Alexander II) lived and died (and was buried) on Hayling Island.

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