WE PAID A VISIT TO THE AMAZING ECCLES HOUSE OF MILITARY HISTORY

Last week we payed a visit to see, David Jones in Eccles who contacted us with a query regarding a vast collection of books at his late Father's house, so we called in, and we were staggered at what we saw.

Inside the house we were met with pile upon pile of books, on such diverse subjects as World War One, World War Two, coal mining, engineering, mills, canals, buses, and many books on the history of Eccles, Salford, Leigh, Worsley, Wigan, Bury, far too many to count.

Our collective jaws dropped as we were invited to look at the collection in the back bedrooms, once again row upon row of books, mainly about World War One, but what a fantastic collection, Rolls of Honour, for Salford and Manchester soldiers who fell in the war,  bound volumes of The Great War published by the Sunday Times from 1914 - 1918, bound volumes of, Source Records of the Great War, Illustrated War News, books on every major battle on land, sea and air, newspapers, medals, badges, an amazing collection.

Not only books on militaria there are books on virtually anything you can think of, I could live in that room for a month just reading and reading.

David told us, more about his Father and how the collection came about,

Quote

 

"My Dad, Alan Jones was a lifelong collector of anything military related and would visit the battlefields of Belgium and France to help his meticulous research into that conflict.

"He was a well known figure at the Salford Shows in the 1980s when he would exhibit his uniforms, medals, cap badges, photographs and books on his Local History stall.

"He sadly died a few years back and we have decided that however much we love his collection, we have to declutter and move on, there is just too much for us to store, the uniforms, medals etc have gone into a specialised auction to be held in September in a Cheshire auction house.

"We still have the bulk of his books, which I would say runs into the hundreds easily, and I would like them to go to local history groups or societies who can make use of them for research purposes, as this would mean the books have a lease of life and will help further historians"

 

This is where, salford.media step in to help David, I have contacted one or two local history groups who have shown a keen interest in acquiring some of the books, however we don't want individuals taking books and then selling them on Ebay or wherever, that is totally wrong.

If you are a genuine historian or preferably a member of a Local History group in Greater Manchester, please contact me for a chat and I will see about putting you in touch with David, this is a once in a lifetime chance to acquire some, rare and unique books, pamphlets, badges, newspapers, maps etc.

Contact me on either tony@salford.media or salfordreds1950@gmail.com