A VISIT TO THE BOLTON BOTTLE COLLECTORS FAIR IN CLIFTON

You may have heard me waxing lyrically about my time spent at Eccles Sewage Works, Peel Green in the mid 1970s and how my life was changed by the accidental find of a Victorian bottle found on an old tip on the works land.....been well dug out since I hasten to add,

I saw a flyer from the Bolton Bottle Collectors Club which is managed by Joe Clarke a well known and respected bottle digger, advertising their annual show to be held in the Clifton Community Centre, Bolton Road. today.

Carl and I drove up there and for that split second I was back in the mid 1970s as there were rows of tables laden with all kinds of bottles, brewery collectibles, ashtrays, match strikers, trade cards etc.

The following words will probably not mean much to you unless you are/were a bottle collector but here goes, Codds Heads, embossed ginger beers, Warners Safe Cure, Hamiltons, Skittles, cobalt poisons, Hop Bitters, castor oils, cream jugs, flagons, spirit flasks, crown cap, Rylands patent, hybrids...no I am not making these words up, to the bottle collector these are the names for the many varied types of bottle to be found.

Possibly the most common found is the humble Codd bottle, the one with a marble inside which was used as a closure. and used for pop, the name Codd comes naturally enough from the inventor of this type of bottle, Hiram Codd who in 1872 patented the Codd bottle as it has become known.

The Salford company Groves and Whitnall had a soft drink division called Globe from the nearby Globe Works, they manufactured their Codd bottles in rich shades of amber, dark green, brown making them highly collectible and I have dug many of them up over the years..

I only collect embossed stone ginger beer bottles and cream jugs these days with a collection of about 130, and today I happily purchased a "Farmers Milk Supply Association Ltd, The Creamery Walkden" cream jug, they are quite rare and it looks a treat in my collection, and that's all that matters!

Why not have a look in your cellar or outhouse there may may still be a few old bottles in there, I would be delighted to see them.

Cheers.