FRYERS HISTORY HELPS LOCAL FOODBANK

A meeting today with Max Fryer and his sister Catherine whose grandfather William started the Fryers store on Church Street, Eccles over a 100 year ago resulted in a cash windfall for a local foodbank.

I retrieved two sign from the demolition site courtesy of the site foreman, one a perspex light box from above a fire door and a cast iron ventilation vent which was at floor level.

Max's niece Josephine saw the article that I had written about them and contacted me, saying that her family would love to have them as mementoes of the family business and they were prepared to make a donation to the local foodbanks.

I was more than happy to hand them over today and as we had a coffee we chatted about their memories of the store and what they called, "Eccles Village".

We chatted about Waddilove's cake shop which Elizabeth remembered, sold the best rum trifles in the "world", Eccles Pet Shop, Eccles Swap Shop facing the Cross Keys pub, the old wooden Railway Station, and other long gone shops and stores, this was followed by a walk around the grounds of Eccles Parish Church where Elizabeth got married, sadly closed to the public today.

As we left Max very kindly gave me a generous cash donation towards our foodbank appeal which I took to the Mustard Tree shop and handed the much needed money over to Jonathon the store manager who assured me that the money would be spent on food for the emergency foodbank, which has seen a dramatic rise in the numbers of people requiring food and assistance in the past month.

So the Fryer's store mementoes have gone full circle and returned to their family and for me, more importantly the money they kindly donated will help feed less fortunate people this week, all in all a wonderful day.