The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
New chapter for bookshop
Flooding: Reopening speaks volumes for owners’ efforts to refurbish
Hundreds of people visited a popular Deeside bookshop on Saturday after it reopened, following last year’s devastating floods.
Ballater’s Deeside Books lost more than 8,000 books when the deluge ravaged the Bridge Street premises last January and a third of their stock had to be binned.
Well-wishers came along to give support to owners Bryn and Marilyn Wayte, who have taken the opportunity to fully refurbish the shop and their upstairs living accommodation.
Mr Wayte spoke of the substantial loss of resources which included many out of stock and rare books. He said: “There were bags and bags of books we just had to throw away, they were irretrievably damaged.
“It was a case of having to try and move as much as we could out of the shop, but we basically lost all the lower shelving – the first three to four shelves were completely under water.
“Of the books we lost, some were rare and many were fairly scarce – we are still in the process of resourcing.”
The Waytes also operate the adjoining outlet as a gift shop and have recently welcomed granddaughter Megan Taylor as their newest recruit to work alongside the couple to rebuild the family business.
Water levels rose 3.5ft in the shop at the height of the floods, meaning the whole shop had to be gutted.
Trying to add a positive spin, Mr Wayte has “moved around” some of the lay-out on the ground floor which now no longer includes any of the couple’s living accommodation.
Mr Wayte added: “Our kitchen used to be downstairs, and our storage room was upstairs – we have moved that around now, so we have separated the two.”
The bookshop had moved to more online selling since the forced closure, but is now back open for business and passing trade.
Specialising in out-ofprint books, Mr Wayte has also re-published some local scarcities through his North-East of Scotland Classic Series.
Mr Wayte thinks it will be several months before the stock levels are back to normal, but is confidently sorting through the remaining 15,000 books to add to the refurbished premises.
“Of the books we lost some were rare and many were fairly scarce”