Colin
Burgon MP, cuts the ribbon, 27th October 1997............
CLICK ON PICTURE TO ENLARGE
...........whilst Leeds City Council re-surface the road outside the new Garforth Bookshop - WHAT A DAY!
Of course a speech was inevitable...
Well lets face it, this was the dawning of the 1st National Year of Reading.
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CLICK ON PICTURE TO ENLARGE
Colin Burgon MP, together with Roger Bernard Crossland - founder of the business............
..........ENJOYING A GLASS OF HOUSE OF COMMONS CHAMPAGNE!
Jack Downing - front left (valued customer and helper), followed by: Roger Bernard Crossland, Colin Burgon MP, the late Martin Anthony Crossland and late Greta Crossland.
1999.....
The Garforth Bookshop website was launched - the 1st ever website selling books and book tokens from Garforth. This has recently been restored & given a retro re release. It is now selling books again & featured on the town's official website Garforth Net the very first Bookshop domain name being 'garforthbkz.com'
YEAR 2000.....
In 2000 we were the 1st Bookshop to get world wide publicity for selling BOOK TOKENS on the internet before anyone else!
a new web address reflected this achievement :
This service has now become a GLOBAL HIT:
The Times London: August 16, 2000, Wednesday, 'Web World' " www.firstbookshop.com This enterprising bookshop has gone online to provide Book Tokens - seemingly an Internet first. The tokens can be exchanged at over 3,000 bookshops in Britain and Ireland "
LATER :
The Independent London: August 10, 2002, Saturday, FEATURES; WORLD WIDE WEB: 10 BEST SITES OF THE WEEK. www.firstbookshop.com " This is currently the "only bookshop to offer book tokens online" (the national book gift voucher scheme). Originally a small-town bookshop, it claims to be "beating the big boys at their own game", and while it doesn't quite match Amazon for size or quality of presentation, book fiends are bound to unearth something here that appeals "
We were thrilled to have been the first Bookshop in the world to fulfil orders for National Book Tokens with free delivery, securely via the internet and redeem them online, long before anyone else! Today our free Royal Mail Special Delivery service is still unmatched by any other company (minimum order applies) GO HERE FOR SITE FEEDBACK
'NATIONAL BOOK TOKENS ARE THE BEST WAY TO SEND A GIFT TO THE UK FROM ABROAD & HERE IT IS THE EASIEST WAY & CHEAPEST WAY TO BUY THEM ONLINE'
LOVE BOOKS, LOVE BOOK TOKENS:
GARFORTH BOOKSHOP ALSO WAS FIRST TO PRICE MATCH WITH
'Amazon.co.uk'
2001.....
WE BECAME THE FIRST BOOKSHOP TO LINK TO THE NEW HARRY POTTER WEB SITE.....
AND WE ALSO BECAME THE FIRST BOOKSHOP WEB SITE TO BE ACCREDITED BY THE
GUILD OF MASTER
CRAFTSMEN
and also the proud recipient of a Golden Web Award for the creation of:
FirstBookshop.com - FirstBookshop.co.uk - FirstBookshop.net
One of the most successful proceeding developments was
our business expanding to sell UK Theatre Tokens online
IN 2004 THE WEB BUSINESS RELOCATED TO NEW PREMISES IN BRIDLINGTON, 'TOKEN HOUSE'
EAST RIDING OF YORKSHIRE, UK.
We embarked at that point on extensive advertising and marketing campaigns with the likes of Vogue magazine, GQ magazine and GOOGLE, for this website.
3 NEW OPERATIONAL WEB BUSINESSES WERE ALSO ADDED TO OUR MAGICAL KINGDOM:
2005: bridjobs.com the 1st dedicated East Yorkshire jobsite.
2006: bookpage.co.uk The perfect place to spend a National Book Token online.
In 2007 the national UK shopping site was launched at: www.retailtherapy.info
And on 4th May 2007 Garforth Bookshop was 20 years old !
To celebrate our online voucher shop being recognised as the leading worldwide provider of both Book Tokens & Theatre Tokens for July 2007 this popular service was re-launched under our latest global brand: tokenline.com
For 2008 we were selected for the 6th year running, as a 'specialist' in the books section of
'THE GOOD WEB SITE GUIDE'
this is for our online book vouchers service, as we were the FIRST BOOKSHOP to get world wide publicity for selling Book Tokens - the first ever book gift vouchers - on the internet and the service very quickly became a global hit
MORE 2008 DEVELOPMENTS:
The ball started rolling online for 'The Employers Agency' at
employersagency.co.uk
The very first of our agency offices opened Tuesday 5th May 2009 at
92, St John Street, Old Town, Bridlington YO16 7JS
At 12.01am on Monday 1st February 2010 we became the very first online retailer in the world to offer for sale the new National Book Tokens Electronic Gift Card, replacing the traditional paper official book vouchers for the first time in more than 75 years!
BUY NEW BOOK TOKEN GIFT CARDS BY CLICKING HERE
For 2011 we can confirm that to help reduce our company carbon footprint, the webhosting we use to get our bookshop online today, operates with 100% wind turbine power
4th MAY 2012 THE 25th ANNIVERSARY OF GARFORTH BOOKSHOP WAS CELEBRATED.
May we take this opportunity to inform you, that previously and for several years, although the Garforth Bookshop premises in Main Street had been run by Byron & Louise Godfrey, they never took over the lease from us. That lease on 15 Main Street was in our name right up until the closure (soon after to become purely run as a Bookshop online). Byron & Louise never had any financial involvement with the firstbookshop.com website, the original Bookshop website garforthbkz.com or the new domain which was purchased by us for them, but they failed to develop (even though we offered to assist) and that was booksgb.co.uk (later therefore incorporated by us along with booksgb.com). All the above domains have always remained under the full control of Roger Crossland and still are today.
2013 WAS ONE OF THE MOST PROLIFIC & CHALLENGING YEARS FOR GARFORTH BOOKSHOP, AS IT SHUT ITS DOORS FOR THE VERY LAST TIME IN MAIN STREET & BECAME A PURELY ONLINE BUSINESS RUN ONCE AGAIN IN ITS ENTIRETY BY FOUNDER ROGER CROSSLAND.
APRIL 30th 2013 : Our websites became the very first online retailers in the world to sell the new ebook card from Book Tokens Limited.
2014 : new free telephone number for customers in the UK on 0800 6125350.
ALSO THEATRE TOKENS CELEBRATED 30 YEARS (1984 - 2014)
During 2015 we actually at last found a little spare time to develop a FACEBOOK profile, however due to security issues, that has since been deleted.
Now visit our blog page at : www.tokenhouse.blogspot.com
to find out what was happening during 2016 to 2022 (discontinued).
2017 WAS THE GLORIOUS CELEBRATION OF 30 YEARS SINCE WE OPENED
THE FIRST GARFORTH BOOKSHOP :
Also we acquired during 2017, for the future expansion of Yorkshire's recruitment services: northyorkshirejobs.co.uk and southyorkshirejobs.co.uk plus westyorkshirejobs.co.uk These and our already popular regional jobsite located at eastyorkshirejobs.co.uk are all now available for lease.
ROGER 2018. MARTIN 2019.
Summer 2019 we celebrated 20 years of selling tokens online, what a party that was!
Summer 2020 we completed the upgrade of our websites, to enable every single page to become totally secure.
Autumn 2021 our book pages were enabled, to accept National Book Token Gift Cards live online at the checkout.
Spring 2022 was the 35 anniversary of opening Garforth Bookshop.
2023 The Token House Co. reached their 40 years milestone!
We would like to take this opportunity to wish all those right now reading this, a very happy and prosperous 2024.