In the 1990’s Shirley Methodist Church had a difficult decision to make. Masonry started falling down and it was discovered that insufficient foundations had been laid when the church was built in the 1930’s. The church council decided to demolish and re-build.
Fund-raising became vital and Jean and Martin Merrett, a retired couple then in their late 60’s, decided to arrange a book sale and turned their garage into a book-sorting area. Books arrived from all over Shirley and beyond and the first sale at the church in 1997 raised a good sum towards the re-building fund. Another book sale was held the following year and this time sorting took place on the church premises. Once again it was very successful, but a great deal of work too - so the biennial Great Book Sale was born.  Sorting is carried out by a team of volunteers, including church members & friends, every Wednesday morning during the two month collection phase.

We held the fourteenth Great Book Sale in March 2020, when an estimated 40,000 books together with DVDs, CDs and records were available for sale. We raised over £7,000

Proceeds are for church maintenance & improvement projects but SMC also gives to selected charities & good causes - in 2019/20 the total given was £15,800.

Whether you were one of our contributors, customers or helpers, we thank you all very much indeed.

Let's hope our first post-COVID book sale in March 2023 is just a successful and ... just as much fun!