The BookVault

The Book Vault opened in Barnsley in 2019, run by a mother-and-son team, Ivy Doherty and Keith Cowans, who built it from a start-up loan into the town's independent bookshop — new titles with a soft spot for small and independent publishers, plus a programme of author events and book clubs. Barnsley is not a town that had an independent bookshop to spare, which is rather the point: a family shop backing books in a place the trade often overlooks. Market Street, and worth the visit for the welcome as much as the stock.