FRYERS OF ECCLES SOUVENIRS REUNITED WITH THE FAMILY

You may recall that I have written several articles about the demolition of the top end of
Church Street, Eccles and mementoes I saved from Fryers Store which became Booths.
Initially I was contacted by Josephine Garty who is a niece of Max Fryer who in turn is the
one of the grandsons of the founder of the business, William Fryer, he then in turn contacted
me with a view to obtaining the mementoes as a reminder of their family history.

I arranged to meet him and his sister, Josephine’s mother, Elizabeth today in Eccles to hand
them over and so they drove from Goosnargh just outside of Preston for a chat, I had
suggested that perhaps they would like to make a donation to our local foodbank appeal.

We met for a coffee and they told me more about their Grandfather, William who founded
the Eccles store at the turn of the last century, he came from Derbyshire to set up a shop
dealing in furniture in one of the shops on the row where Fryers stood and as his business
flourished he extended the premises into adjoining shops, until it became the largest
household supply shop on Church Street selling only high quality goods for which he earned
a good reputation.

William lived on Bindloss Avenue, Eccles where this family photo was taken in their garden,
he had 13 children, six boys and seven girls, James one of the boys was Max's father and if still alive would be 113! James is in the centre of the photo between four ladies.

One of the son's Leonard joined the family firm and worked in ran the Estate Agent shop,
does anybody remember the shop? All of the second generation of the Fryer family have now
passed away as have several of the third generation.

We chatted about the Eccles they remembered as children when they said it was known as
"the village" Waddilove's cake shop which Elizabeth remembered sold the best rum 
truffles "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 were 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 shall be distributing shortly, I really enjoyed chatting to them about old Eccles and
Salford and I was delighted when Elizabeth told me that she had been an art teacher who had
taught in several schools in Salford, a few years back.

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