Preston booksellers Halewood and Sons are – like most businesses – currently in coronavirus lockdown.

Despite the shop being closed to browsers they are delivering online and phone orders.

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Halewood and Sons is a family business now run by the fifth generation of Halewoods, Mike and his wife Carolyn. The shop is over 150 years old and sells fine and rare books.

The shop was founded by Mike’s great-great-grandfather, William Halewood.

William moved to Rossendale from Liverpool working as a lay-preacher but then decided that bookselling was the future. He thought that Friargate was the place to be and opened the bookshop in 1867.

Specialising in second hand and antiquarian books on all subjects, today the business continues in its traditional family way.

Mike has inherited his late father’s love of books and hard work ethic and the shop is an oasis of all things literary.

Read more: Memorial to Preston soldier in Friargate bookshop

Mike said: “The business has built up a worldwide reputation for supplying and buying fine books, it is a founder member of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association, and is one of Preston’s oldest surviving family businesses and as such merits the title of a pillar of Preston society.

“We rely on regular customers and these days embrace competition from the internet with increasing online listings and the emphatic promotion of the value and aesthetic appeal of a real book as opposed to a Kindle or the like.”

Halewood and Sons are offering free home deliveries for orders of £10 and over to help readers get through these days of isolation.

For book orders, contact Mike by e-mail halewoodonline@gmail.com or mobile 07837 747048.

Read more: New directory aims to connect Preston and South Ribble businesses with people in self-isolation

Have you shopped at Halewood and Sons? Are you reading more to get through lockdown? Let us know in the comments.