ECCLES PUB BOOK LIMITED EDITION TO BE PUBLISHED FOR LOCAL CHARITIES?

Over the past few weeks we have telling you about Sue Richardson and the excellent work she has been doing for over 40 years in publishing local history books that cover both Salford and Manchester at affordable prices.

I first met Neil in 1977 and together we set about doing extensive research into Salford pubs, photographing them, chatting to customers and Landlords alike, and yes we did imbibe quite a few pints, but serious research can be thirsty work.....I digress.

Looking back, I am so glad we did the Salford pub books,because as you know Salford has lost so many pubs for so many reasons, and we managed to document their history's for posterity.

In 1981 I branched out on my own when Neil went full time as a printer/publisher and author, I decided to write a history of the pubs of Eccles from 1772  onwards, some 40 pubs.

Only 1.000 were run off and quickly sold out I'm happy to say, the printing plates were never used again and have been lost over the years.

I have been asked many times to do an up to date version, but to be honest I haven't the inclination and things are moving so fast the new updated book would soon be redundant, and I am a lazy sod.

You can imagine my shock when I saw a copy for sale on the Amazon site for a staggering £500 a few years back, my spirits were lifted when I was told there was a copy on sale in an Oxfam Charity Shop in Cheshire, for the knockdown price of £250...well if you are daft enough to pay that, good luck to you, I wouldn't.

However I was chatting to Sue at weekend and I mentioned that I usually do a history walk around Eccles twice a year to raise both money and food for the Mustard Tree Foodbank and Broughton House, the nursing home for armed forces veterans.

The Covid crisis has wiped out one of the walks for certain, however.

With advances in printing techniques, Sue has told me that we can now reprint A History Of The Pubs Of Eccles, be still my beating heart!

I have decided if enough people are interested in buying a copy, we can run off a strictly limited number of the book, each one numbered and signed, and the profits to be shared between above named charities.

The sticking point is how many to reprint and how much to charge?

I think 100 to be published and charge a £10 a copy is about right, and yes I know it was originally only a quid but that was nearly 40 years ago and the money is for charity and not for my Swiss bank account or for paying for the upkeep of Alma Towers, West Wing.

So there you go, so if you are interested  in purchasing a valuable piece of social history which is bound to increase in value over the years, an ideal gift for your grandchildren. a talking point when left on your smoked glass coffee table, you know the dance, let me know?