A pretty North Yorkshire town has so many charity shops that they've created a trail to help locals and visitors explore them all. Selby is a historic market town on the River Ouse, some 19.3km from York.

The small settlement has a population of around 17,000 and is known for being the home of Selby Abbey, one of the largest in Britain, and bigger than some cathedrals. The town has rich historical roots dating back to Roman and Viking times, and is also closely associated with the nearby Drax power station with its vast cooling towers dominating the landscape.

But in recent times, Selby has also become known as a charity shop hotspot, boasting six on the high street alone.

These include:

• Martin House - which provides free family-led hospice care for children and young people with life-limiting illness


• RSPCA York, Harrogate & District - a self-funded and separately registered charity to the national RSPCA that supports the York Animal Home and local animals in need


• A branch of St Leonard's Hospice's charity shops


• A branch of Scope


• A branch of the British Heart Foundation's shops


• The Big Store - the charity shop of The Big Communitea, which supports mental health and wellbeing in the town through drop-ins, therapy, and practical help

Among the other charity shops in the town are:

• A branch of the children's charity Bernardo's


• A branch of Cancer Research UK


• Mama Na Mtoto - which works to save the lives of mothers and babies in the UK and Kenya


• Selby Hands of Hope, which provides help to alleviate financial hardship in Selby and the district branch of Yorkshire Cancer Research


• Selby Community Furniture Store - which collects furniture for free and upcycles and refurbishes it before selling it on


• Shelby Scrap CIC - which provides low-cost source materials for local groups and people

However, they've all struggled to deal with unsuitable donations, which result in waste and additional costs for the volunteer-led outlets.

To help these local institutions, the charity Up for Yorkshire launched The Shop for the Future project, which is part of its Zero Shelby initiative.

It aims to assist the shops in sorting through unsuitable donations and disposing of waste in a sustainable manner, while also celebrating their contributions to the community and raising awareness among visitors and locals about the work they do.

It began with the creation of a Trail Map that lays out the constellation of charity shops across the town, allowing you to do a crawl of them all.

As part of the project, a Sustainable Fashion show is also set to take place in Selby Abbey on November 12.

Matt Fisher, community development lead for Up for Yorkshire, told BBC News that they believe the town's second-hand shops are a "strong starting point for change and an exciting opportunity to create a sustainable and vibrant high street to be enjoyed by everyone".

Among the other retail opportunities are various gift shops, homeware stores, vintage and antique outlets. For literature lovers, there's The Book Circle, an independent bookshop on Finkle Street.

And if you're feeling peckish, local favourite Mister C fish and chips shop is hailed as one of the best in the UK.