Gloucester, the cathedral city on the Severn in England, spreads its own second-hand finds out from the Gate Streets: an antiques centre on Westgate Street, the Emmaus superstore out on Chequers Road and the car boot sale on Hempsted Meadow. For bookshops proper, head south to Stroud, where Fireside Bookshop on Rowcroft, R and R Books' pitch in the Shambles Market and Scroll Eaters on London Road lie within 350 yards or so of one another. Sums mentioned here are pounds sterling (£).
Around Stroud, the PDSA shop on the High Street keeps shelves of books, and Stonehouse, a little to the west, has a canal charity's book and music shop beside its library. Closer to the city, Sue Ryder's branch in Brockworth lists books in its stock, while Newent, out in the Forest of Dean to the north-west, has the Old Shambles with a second-hand book section of its own.
Charity superstore (Emmaus)Emmaus Gloucestershire Chequers Road Superstore
Chequers Rd, Gloucester GL4 6PN
About 1.4 miles south-east of Shire Hall, the Chequers Road superstore is the hub of Emmaus Gloucestershire, combining the shop with the charity's head office and an electrical testing workshop. Its shop page slots books in between clothes and DVDs in a range led by furniture and white goods, and the Internet Archive's capture of 19 January 2026 has the same list. Customers get a free car park, and the charity's vans handle collections and deliveries around the county.
Hours: Mon–Sat 9am–5pmWebsite Second-hand and antiquarian bookshopFireside Bookshop
8 Rowcroft, Stroud GL5 3AZ
In Stroud, about 8.5 miles south of Gloucester, this family business sells second-hand, academic and antiquarian books on Rowcroft, with in-store paperbacks from £2 and more than 25,000 titles listed online, by its own account. SoGlos, in a June 2025 guide to the county's independent bookshops, noted that the family has run it since 1980 and put it a short walk from Stroud station. Much of the cheaper fiction and non-fiction never reaches the website, the shop's FAQ explains, so browsing in person pays.
Hours: Tue–Sat 10am–5pmWebsite Second-hand book stall (indoor market)R and R Books (Shambles Market)
Shambles Indoor Market, The Shambles, Stroud
Also in Stroud, R and R Books shut its Nelson Street shop on 17 January 2026 when the lease ended, having traded in the town for over three decades, the Stroud News and Journal reported, but kept the stall it already ran in the Shambles Indoor Market. The market's own list of who's in puts R and R Books there on 23 and 24 October 2026, then again the following Friday and Saturday. Their stall page covers second-hand books, comics and magazines, with pop culture, music and entertainment mainly from the 1950s to the 1970s, British comics, postcards, theatre programmes and local interest.
Hours: Fri–Sat 8am–3pmWebsite Charity bookshop (Cotswold Canals Trust)Cotswold Canals Trust Stonehouse Book & Music Shop
6 Queen's Rd, Stonehouse GL10 2QA
In Stonehouse, roughly 8.4 miles south of Gloucester, the Cotswold Canals Trust opened this second charity book and music shop in September 2022, next to the library on Queen's Road, to help pay for restoring the canals. Volunteers staff it, and the trust's price list puts paperbacks at 80p each or three for £2, hardbacks at £1.50 and most children's books at 50p, with vinyl, CDs, DVDs and jigsaws on sale too. The Wayback Machine's 30 August 2026 snapshot of that page shows the same Wednesday-to-Saturday opening and the same prices as the current one.
Hours: Wed–Sat 10am–4pmWebsite Charity shop (Sheppard House)The Old Shambles Charity Shop
22 Church St, Newent GL18 1PP
In Newent, a Forest of Dean town 8 miles or so north-west of the city, the Old Shambles raises money for the Newent Association for the Disabled and its Sheppard House day centre. The charity's website describes a second-hand book service in the shop, good for bargains and specialist limited print books, and says the floor space given to it has been extended. "Books Galore" was the whole headline of a Facebook post the shop published on 1 October 2026. Visit Newent and the charity both list Monday-to-Saturday opening but disagree on Saturdays, 9am to 4pm in one, 9.30am to 4.30pm in the other, so ring 01531 828060 before a late visit.
Where can I find cheap used books in Gloucester?
The canal trust's Stonehouse shop has the clearest prices around: 80p for a paperback, three for £2, or £1.50 for a hardback. Fireside's shelves in Stroud start at £2 a paperback, and nearer the city the Emmaus superstore on Chequers Road and Sue Ryder in Brockworth put donated books out among everything else. The Hempsted Meadow boot sale is more of a gamble, since its organiser says nothing about books.
Where do I sell used books in Gloucester?
Fireside Bookshop in Stroud buys good-quality books in most subject areas, from a handful up to a whole collection, and prefers a first contact by email, ideally with photos; it will travel to view a library that interests it. Ordinary titles generally fetch better money sold direct, whether listed on Amazon.co.uk, posted to Vinted or put up on eBay.co.uk, or from a £5 bay at Hempsted Meadow on a Wednesday or Sunday. Before deciding, line the books up and photograph the row in BiblioScan: from that one shot of their spines it names the titles and prices each one on the used market; the handful worth emailing to Fireside then stands out.
Which day is best for book hunting in Gloucester?
Pick Friday or Saturday. Every shop with published days opens on both, and the R and R stall keeps to those two. Monday is thin, with Fireside, Scroll Eaters, the Stonehouse bookshop and the Shambles stall all closed. On Sunday, among the places with published times, you're down to the antiques centre and the boot sale.
Which charity shops have books in Gloucester?
Inside the city, Emmaus's Chequers Road superstore lists books in its stock, and Sue Ryder's Brockworth branch does likewise just over the line in Tewkesbury borough. Further out, the Cotswold Canals Trust runs a charity bookshop in Stonehouse, PDSA on Stroud's High Street keeps shelves of them, and the Old Shambles in Newent offers a second-hand book service.