Looking for help to call time on collection

Richard Percival has been collecting brewery trays and other pre-World War Two brewery memorabilia for more than four decades.

Like most of the nation, Richard is currently at home and looking for things to occupy his time.

Over the years, he has been a prolific writer to newspapers across the country in a bid to trace brewery trays missing from his collection.

Sometimes, he struck gold, but more often than not, he hit a blank.

However, with the virus now hitting hard, he thought he would take the opportunity to try again and see if any of our readers could help locate any one of about 80 trays still needed to make the collection complete.

Richard said: “The utopia would be to locate a tray from Thomas Salt & Co Ltd, brewers from Burton-on-Trent, who distributed their beers throughout the UK through the Victorian and Edwardian eras, up until closure in 1927.

“The tray pictured is the one I seek most, due to the fact that I collect anything from this particular brewery, including ashtrays, matchstrikers, coasters, mirrors and adverts/showcards.

“However, much more realistically I am looking for help in finding trays locally.

“In particular, I would love to find a tray from an old local brewery, namely Soulby, Sons & Winch Ltd once on West Street in Alford.

“The brewery was acquired by J.W. Green Ltd in 1951, with 144 tied houses.”

For 40 years, Richard didn’t think a tray existed from this brewery, until a few years ago, when the round tray pictured was discovered.

Richard continued: “Then, to my amazement, another oval version (pictured inset) has now turned up too.

“Both these trays are missing from my collection and I’m really keen to locate at least one of them.

“I’m also looking for any brewery tray which has a ‘black back’ or trays with maker’s marks such as Hancock Corfield & Waller, B.A.T. Co Ltd, Causton or Wm Brownlie.”

Richard’s passion for his subject has been captured on a website that took him three years to create - www.brewerytrays.co.uk

Richard added: “The site includes many articles, manufacturers’ history, videos and, of course, photos of all my trays.

“If anyone can help me with my quest for the missing trays, please email me at [email protected] or call 07715 369540.

“Any contact will be very much appreciated.”