Bus Stop Book Swap

08/04/2026

📚✨ School Half Term = Story Time! ✨📚

Looking for something easy, fun and screen-free this week?

We’ve got some brilliant children’s books at the Bus Stop Book Swap just waiting to be taken home — from picture books to early readers and little adventures 📖

Perfect for:
🌧️ Rainy afternoons
🛋️ Cosy sofa time
🌿 A quiet moment in the garden

Just pop by, pick a book, enjoy it… and return it when you’re ready, or keep for your little library at home!

💛 No cost
💛 No sign up
💛 Just sharing stories

Come on down and find your next favourite read!

📖 Read • Reuse • Share

29/03/2026

📚 Please don’t use the Bus Stop Book Swap as a dumping ground

This is what our volunteers are having to deal with 👇

The Orchard Lane Book Swap is for books only —
📖 Children’s books
📖 Educational
📖 Fiction
📖 Autobiographies

It is not a place for general items, toys, clothes or unwanted household goods.

When things like this are left, it doesn’t just “disappear” — it means our volunteers have to sort it, dispose of it, or take it to recycling or charity shops themselves.

That isn’t fair, and it isn’t what the space is for.

💛 This is a community space run on goodwill
🚫 Please don’t leave your unwanted items here
♻️ Please take responsibility for your own recycling and donations

Let’s keep the book swap what it’s meant to be — a place for sharing stories, not sorting rubbish.

Thank you to those who respect and look after it 📚

Read • Reuse • Share

11/03/2026

📚 A big thank you to our wonderful Bus Stop Librarians!

Look how beautifully tidy the Orchard Lane Book Swap is looking. It takes a small team of kind volunteers to keep the shelves organised, books stacked neatly, and the space welcoming for everyone who stops by.

Your quiet acts of community care really do make a difference — and the swap only works because people look after it so thoughtfully.

So if you’ve borrowed a book recently, do pop it back when you’re done… and maybe take a moment to admire the handiwork of our brilliant Book Swap Guardians.

Thank you all 💛📖

Read • Reuse • Share

18/02/2026

👍Help needed…

📓Get in touch if you can help he a Book Swap Librarian - just one hour a month maximum

dM or email ….

15/02/2026

📚✨ Half Term = Story Time ✨📚

If you’re looking for something simple (and screen-free!) this half term, why not pop down to the Orchard Lane Book Swap and let the kids choose a new adventure?

Dragons or detectives.
Robots or rainforests.
Funny stories or faraway lands.

There are brilliant children’s books waiting to be taken home, plus plenty for grown-ups too if you fancy your own quiet chapter with a cuppa ☕📖

No cost.
No sign-up.
Just take a book, enjoy it, and return it when you’re ready.

Let’s keep stories moving this half term 💛

📖 Read • Reuse • Share

10/02/2026

Just 🌱 planting an idea here…

Who would like a seed swap box inside the Bus Stop Book Swap ?

Let us know below …

People have been saving and sharing seed for thousands of years. It’s a free, ancient tradition, and it’s great fun! There’s something special about caring for a plant through its entire life cycle, from sowing the seed to saving it for the future.

Much of the seed sold to home growers in garden centres are F1 hybrids. These are created by crossing two very in**ed parent plants. While these F1 seed plants often grow well, you can’t save seeds from them, so you have to buy new seed every year. F1 seed is bred in industrial conditions, often involving chemical methods of pollination and heavily reliant on chemical fertilisers and pesticides

By contrast, I’m really excited about the variety of open-pollinated and home-grown seeds I’ve picked up at recent seed swaps. Open-pollinated seed is bred from a broader range of plants rather than from close relatives, and as a result they contain greater genetic diversity. This makes them more resilient to whatever life throws at them, be that drought or pressure from pests or disease. And at the end of the season, you can save seeds from your favourite plants for use the next year!

Open-pollinated plants are also great for biodiversity! They encourage and support beneficial insects and pollinators, whereas many F1 plants have been bred to favour other traits, often deprioritising the production of nectar and pollen.

Another benefit of home-grown seed from the community is that the parent plants have already survived (and even thrived) in local conditions, so their offspring are likely to do well too.

So, if you can, get hold of some home-grown seed from a neighbour or local seed swap this spring.

We plan to give away some open-pollinated seedlings later in the season, and will post about seed saving when the time comes too!

Written by Sophia

Hendreds Environment Group

31/01/2026

✨ Step out of the real world for a while… ✨

If today feels a bit grey, why not disappear into a good book instead?
A place where dragons roam, adventures begin, and the only thing you need to do is turn the page.

The Orchard Lane Book Swap is full of stories waiting for their next reader — from magical children’s tales to books that let your imagination wander far beyond the village.

📓Take a book.
📚Lose an hour (or three).
📕Then send it back out into the world for someone else to discover.

📖 Read • Reuse • Share
Because every great adventure starts with opening a book 💛✨

25/01/2026

🌧️ Rainy day reminder 🌧️

If it’s tipping it down outside, maybe today’s the day to put the phone or tablet down and lose yourself in a good book instead 📖

The Orchard Lane Book Swap is full of stories waiting to be taken home — children’s books, autobiographies, easy reads and proper curl-up-on-the-sofa ones.

No rules, no fees.
Just borrow • read • rehome

Perfect weather for turning pages 💛☔📚

22/01/2026

We have plenty, pop on by!

We all need a bit of a giggle in January!

So for our first book mission of the year, we're suggesting you find a book that makes you laugh. What will you choose to read? 🤣

14/01/2026

📻 Just heard on the radio that 2026 is the National Year of Reading — and honestly, we couldn’t be more ready for it!

If you’re passing the bus stop, do pop in and borrow a book, swap a book, or rehome one that’s ready for its next adventure. No rules, no pressure — just good stories being shared.📕

📚We’ve currently got a brilliant selection of autobiographies (perfect for a bit of inspiration or escapism) and lots of lovely children’s books too — ideal for bedtime stories, rainy afternoons, or budding little readers.📚

Reading is for everyone, and this little book swap only works because people use it 💛
So take a book, leave a book, tell a friend… and let’s make 2026 a year full of stories.

📖💫

05/01/2026

📚 Reading fiction increases empathy by helping us understand other people’s emotions and perspectives.

05/01/2026

📖 Reading for just 6 minutes can reduce stress by up to 68% — more effective than listening to music or taking a walk.