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May 15th, 2008

Former SPCK shops must remain Christian bookshops

From last week’s Church Times: Bookshops withdrawn from sale. An extract, talking about the reasons that the four shops that were to have been auctioned this week were withdrawn from the sale:

There are thought to be two reasons for the halt. One is that the transfer of ownership to SSG has not been completed. The other is that the Brewer brothers, who run SSG, have been reminded of a seven-year restrictive covenant that accompanied the transfer of all the freeholds from SPCK in October 2006. This states that the shops can be used only as Christian multi-denominational bookshops. The covenant would apply to any prospective purchaser.

As an aside, the Church Times feature from a week or two back about Thomas Bray, the founder of SPCK is online here: Leaven in the Anglican lump

People have written in the comments about a number of the SSG / former SPCK shops: It is rumoured that Lincoln might reopen and that Carlisle might close again.

It was great to see so many people at the gathering on Wednesday. From my point of view it was great to meet some of the faces behind the names, and I know others found it useful for a variety of reasons. Phil Groom has written about the gathering, as has Phelim McIntyre in the comments below.

I might go back to the CRE tomorrow, this time to do some drawing. It depends whether I get all of my work done this evening.



This is a single Cartoon Blog entry, posted by Dave on Thursday, May 15th, 2008 at 8:23 pm.

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21 Responses to “Former SPCK shops must remain Christian bookshops”


  1. dyfrig says:

    Sorry, I’m a bit lost - there’s this trust run by two lawyers who hadn’t checked the details of their land holding before they tried to sell some buildings?

  2. veritas says:

    dyfrig, one is a lawyer and the other is the manager of all the bookshops and the President of the Orthodox Charity Trust. They change names frequently.

    I’m hoping that somebody who reads this blog can say for certain that this is an urban myth: At the beginning the Brewer’s sent an e-mail to all the shops showing themselves in pilot gear next to a plane they were going to use to fly from shop to shop. I haven’t seen the e-mail.

    Thanks Phelim and all those who were able to go to the “Bear” meeting. Injustice has to be exposed.

    Has anybody seen Annie’s comment re the Carlisle and Exeter shops. It appears under “Bristol, Cardiff and Carlisle shops to close.” The one with the 40 comments - I’m a techno freak - can’t do links etc.

  3. Phelim McIntyre says:

    Veritas - we were told that they would fly to the shops but we never got an email with a picture of their plane. What they did do was create a virtual office and have a photo part which did have photos of them in planes. The myth part is, as far as I can remember, the email. But much of it was on virtual office.

  4. Phelim McIntyre says:

    Re Phil Brewer, last year I was told by someone involved with the original consortium that they thought he had run a chain of pizza palces. Beyond that not much is known.

  5. ken says:

    Veritas- the last thing we heard about the plane was that Phil flew it to Bodmin and then promptly lost the key to it whilst visiting the Truro shop—not guilty–honest! So he had to travel back (as far as we know) on the train!

  6. veritas says:

    Ken - how do the keys to a plane get lost? Isn’t that just plain stupid?

  7. ken says:

    veritas-duh–yup!!!

  8. Jim says:

    Bearing in mind these two used to be in the US AirForce, could this be considered another case of ‘friendly fire’?!

  9. veritas says:

    Jim - they might be stupid, but they’re not friendly.

  10. Thomas says:

    Ken, Phil Brewer has gone up in my estimation. He can can travel from Texas to Bodmin by plane, but does the return journey by train :-)

    Jim, I think events have shown there is nothing “friendly” about these two.

  11. Phelim McIntyre says:

    So is the plane still sat there at Bodmin or did he return with a spare? And how do you loose a key - was it packed up with all those wondeful icons that were recieved?

  12. ken says:

    Phelim- I have no idea what appened to the plane! presumably there was a spare key at home! Thomas sorry to burst your bubble, but he only flew to Cornwall from Poole in Dorset –how he got the plane to Dorset I haven’t a clue!

  13. ken says:

    Phelim-thanks for organising the meeting it was good for us to put faces to names and to know that there is support for the poor souls who are still struggling on. Good luck to all those who go to tribunal! We’re all rooting for you!

  14. Pax Vobiscum says:

    I believe the plane was built in 1948, or some other period before many of us were born. I think the story of the keys was that Phil was fiddling with change to feed the meter for his hire car outside one of the shops, took the keys out of his pocket, dumped them with his coffee carton on top of some nearby piece of street furniture and forgot to pick them up again. When he went back they were gone. Now, come on - which of us hasn’t done something similar (although not with keys for a plane…)? The spare was with a friend in the UK who was away at the time.

  15. rob says:

    The Carlisle shop has indeed closed (again) and all the stock has been removed. There is now a message in the door directing customers to the SSG shop in Durham.

  16. Valiant for Truth says:

    For those interested in the background to Mark Brewer, the Brewer and Pritchard (bplaw) website seems to be back up and running again.

  17. veritas says:

    Rob - when people call the Durham shop about SSG owing them money from the Carlisle shop, the workers will no doubt be delighted to say, “we are a new company!” Any customer who might want a book will supposedly have to fly to Durham.

    Valiant for Truth - I looked at the bplaw website. None of their areas of practice are certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization! Maybe it’s difficult to get certified. Any which way SSG should have been “certified” at its inception.

  18. veritas says:

    Forgot to ask - Pax was he drinking (coffee) and driving?

  19. Phelim McIntyre says:

    Pax - I was just trying to work out what happened to the plane key. And yes I have lost things in a similar way. But I have a fired who flies planes for a living and he doesn’t have a key for his plane. But then it is a 737 size plane not a private plane.

    Veritas - I to noticed that BPLaw is not certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specalization. But as they are members of the Texas State bar this si not really a problem.

  20. Jim says:

    Is this a new project for easyjet assisting hapless pilots who have lost the keys to their planes - c’mon Stellos get your finger out, there’s clearly a a market out there ;-) !

    Thomas - I think our poor soliders in the tanks / landrovers who have been unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of various American muntions would have ever thought them friendly!

  21. Former SPCK shop roundup » The Cartoon Blog by Dave Walker says:

    in YorkFormer SPCK staff gatheringSSG sells four shopsRob Frost’s vision for the Pentecost FestivalFormer SPCK shop roundupGetting lost in the Barbican / The Italian sausage stall Progress updateSSG London shop closed?Whowill be exhibiting at the Lambeth Conference?My Spring Harvest diarySSG / SPCK bookshop reportsUnholy row erupts over bookshop jobsNote about comments etcHas Winchester SPCK / SSG gone independent?Bristol, Cardiff and Carlisle SSG / SPCK shops to closeGreenbelt communion service movedRubbing sultana woundStand Firm comments on SPCK / SSGBBC blogging guidelinesDate for SPCK bookshop tribunal announcedDrawingSSG / SPCK in the TimesSSG / SPCK in the Lincolnshire Echo …

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