Awen Meirion

Awen Meirion has traded from 25 Stryd Fawr in Bala since 1972, when eleven local people formed a co-operative to keep a Welsh-language bookshop on the high street. It still stocks books in Welsh and English, cards, CDs, Welsh crafts and, more unexpectedly, Cowbois band shirts and Cyw children's television merchandise, alongside a worldwide postal service for customers further afield. The shop opens Monday to Saturday and closes on Sundays. Regulars single out the owner's patience and enthusiasm for Welsh history, and the shop has built a reputation for making learners of the Welsh language feel welcome rather than out of their depth. More than five decades on, it remains one of relatively few dedicated Welsh-language bookshops still trading in Gwynedd.