Barneys News Box

Barneys News Box: jigsaw puzzles and games from Grasmere

Barneys News Box is a shop in Grasmere, in the Lake District area of Cumbria, selling jigsaw puzzles alongside toys, model cars and games. Its online catalogue is organised around puzzles, with the shop's own description summarising the offer as jigsaw puzzles, toys, model cars, games and much more.

A catalogue built around piece counts

The puzzle range is sorted by number of pieces, from small formats of 0 to 249 pieces up to very large puzzles of 6,000 pieces and above. Intermediate bands cover 250 to 499, 500 to 999, 1,000, 1,500, 2,000, 3,000 and 4,000 pieces, as well as a 5,000-piece category. This structure lets buyers choose by the scale of the challenge rather than only by brand or image.

Brands stocked

The shop lists a long roster of puzzle and game makers. Among them are Ravensburger, Gibsons, Clementoni, Educa, Heye, Jumbo, Schmidt, Trefl, Cobble Hill, White Mountain, Springbok, Eurographics, Piatnik, Castorland, Bluebird, eeBoo, Galison, Pomegranate, New York Puzzle Company, Otter House, House of Puzzles, Laurence King, Flame Tree and Winning Moves. Wooden puzzles appear through Wentworth Wooden Puzzles, described on the site as exclusive to the shop, alongside a Wentworth Standard Range. Model cars are represented by Brooklin Model Cars and the Lansdowne Model Cars line by Brooklin Models, plus the Buick Collection. Other names in the catalogue include Cheatwell, Crown and Andrews, Kidicraft, Lanka Kade, Toyrific, Wrebbit, Mud Puppy, Batsford, Birlinn and Chronicle Books.

Themes and artists

Beyond piece count, the catalogue is browsable by theme. Categories include landscapes, cottages, castles and buildings, lighthouses, harbours, maps, transport (boats, cars, motorbikes, planes, trains and trucks), wildlife (big cats, birds, British wildlife, cats, dogs, farm animals, horses, marine life and wolves), dinosaurs, space, sport, Christmas, shaped puzzles, 3D puzzles, panoramic formats and multipacks. A separate section covers accessories and storage.

A large part of the range is grouped by artist or artwork, with names spanning classic painters and illustrators as well as contemporary puzzle artists. The list includes Van Gogh, Monet, Renoir, Degas, Cezanne, Klimt, Mucha, Frida Kahlo, Edward Hopper, Norman Rockwell, Beryl Cook, Jan van Haasteren, Colin Thompson, Mike Jupp, Aimee Stewart, Dominic Davison, Chuck Pinson, Thomas Kincade, Terry Redlin and many others. Country-themed puzzles cover destinations such as Great Britain, Scotland, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the USA, Canada, Australia, Japan and New Zealand, among others.

Children's puzzles and other lines

The shop keeps a dedicated children's section for jigsaws and games, and also lists gift certificates, new arrivals and a wishlist function. A 'Great British Jigsaws' feature highlights locations such as Snowdon, the Scilly Isles and the Cotswolds. The site also carries a COVID-19 notice stating that, due to high demand, orders were taking longer than usual to process and that the shop was working to dispatch them as soon as possible.

Visiting the shop

Barneys News Box trades from Broadgate in Grasmere, Cumbria. The shop can be reached by telephone on 015394 35627, and the website provides pages for delivery and returns, about us and contact.