Bowes & Bowes

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title: "Bowes & Bowes" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1581-establishments-in-england", "book-publishing-companies-of-the-united-kingdom", "companies-based-in-cambridge", "history-of-cambridge", "mass-media-companies-disestablished-in-1986", "bookshops-of-england", "publishing-companies-established-in-the-16th-century", "organizations-established-in-the-1580s"] description: "Former publisher in Cambridge, England" topic_path: "history" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowes_&_Bowes" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Former publisher in Cambridge, England ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Cambridge_University_Press_shop.JPG" caption="1 Trinity Street, site of Bowes & Bowes, now Cambridge University Press"] ::

Bowes & Bowes was a bookselling and publishing company based in Cambridge, England.

History

The firm was established by Robert Bowes (1835–1919), a nephew of Daniel Macmillan (1813–1857) who, with his brother Alexander, founded a firm which by 1850 was a thriving bookshop with the official name ‘Macmillan & Co.’ The same bookshop was eventually owned by Alexander Macmillan in partnership with Robert Bowes. The company became known as ‘Bowes & Bowes’ in 1907, after George Brimley Bowes (1874-1946, Robert Bowes’ son) became a partner in the business in 1899. The firm continued as a family business until 1953 when it was acquired by W H Smith, who continued to operate it under the original name until 1986. In that year the business’s name was changed to Sherratt & Hughes.

The Bowes & Bowes site at 1, Trinity Street, Cambridge has a claim to be the oldest bookshop in the country, books having been sold there since 1581. Since the closure of Sherratt & Hughes in 1992, the site has been the home of the Cambridge University Press bookshop.

The firm’s backlist included titles by Erich Heller, who was also the general editor of a series of books published by Bowes & Bowes (Studies in Modern European Literature and Thought, some of which were printed in the Netherlands).

Sherratt & Hughes

In 1898 John Sherratt and Joseph David Hughes opened a bookshop in Manchester. Sherratt was in charge of the printing and publishing, whilst Hughes was in charge of selling books. Before 1913 Sherratt & Hughes did printing and distribution for the University of Manchester and the Publications Committee of the University. Sherratt & Hughes was taken over by W H Smith in 1946; in April 1992 the subsidiary Sherratt & Hughes ceased to operate.

References

References

1. "Macmillan & Co. Ltd. Archive".
2. "George Edmund Brimley Bowes (7 February 1874 – 7 December 1946)". Parochial Burial Grounds Management Committee, Mill Road Cemetery, Cambridge.
3. "History [of the Bookshop]". [[Cambridge University Press]].
4. Hayes, Louis M.. (1905). "Reminiscences of Manchester and Some of its Local Surrounding from the Year 1840". Sherratt & Hughes.
5. Ball, Graham. (3 August 1996). ["Sherratt & Hughes Collection"](https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/a6a580cf-4ce8-3532-bbd8-8a3902302db2}}
   {{cite news). The Independent.

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