THE LOCAL HISTORY BOOKS THAT DEFINED BOTH SALFORD & MANCHESTER: AND HOW YOU CAN BUY THEM

I have heard the saying that if you go in somebody's you can guarantee there will be a glass from a local pub in there, I think this saying can be extended to a copy of a Neil Richardson, local history publication.

We visited Sue Richardson's house in Ringley Village to see a truly amazing collection of books, Trade Directories, maps, photographs and even a bound collection of the Manchester Guardian newspaper from 1821 - 1972, a historians dream.

Neil who sadly passed away in 2006 was good friend of mine and I am proud to have known him, I first met him in 1977 when he was the Editor of the Camra magazine, What's Doing, an hilarious and often Irreverent newsletter about local pubs and breweries.

Together with Alan Gall we wrote , A History of Salford Pubs volume one, this was published in 1978 and from then on things snowballed as Neil assisted by Sue set up his own publishing company and began publishing affordable, local history publications, and  put in print many. many authors, myself included whose work, would have never seen the light of day.

His publications covered a vast area of Salford and Manchester with such topics as Salford Docks, memories of Hulme, Rochdale, Oldham, Bury, Miles Platting. Hanky Park, Weaste, housing conditions in Victorian Manchester, the history of long defunct breweries and pubs, cinemas, dance halls, policing, WW! and WW2 local regiments, the Blitz and far to many to mention here, in all some 200 publications were printed, this has now been whittled down to around 100 or so.

Sue Richardson has continued with this legacy and from home still reprints much of the back catalogue and the odd new publication, single-headedly, a cottage industry you could call it, but more importantly she provides an invaluable service for both the keen local historian and the person who has a love for a certain area and likes to reminisce about days gone by.

I am delighted to say that Sue has managed to keep up, just printing the books but has been hard hit for sales with the Covid crisis, however she has informed that she is still doing postal sales and can be contacted at home where she will be happy to discuss sales with you, but please phone before calling at her home address.

Please contact Sue on 01204 578138 or via email at wattywalton@btconnect.com

Or

If you send a Stamped Addressed Envelope to Sue at 88 Ringley Road, Stoneclough, Radcliffe, Manchester, M26 1ET. She will send you a catalogue of all of the over 100 books available

Finally Sue tells me that her email is a bit slow at the moment but rest assured each one will be answered, if you get stuck, you can message me at, tony@salford.media and I will pass messages on.

So please support your local small business at this most testing of times and Sue fully deserves all of our help and support

For a full list of available books please attached file: Download