Tea and scones at Collinson’s

Kate Firth is hoping some of our enthusiastic Looking Back enthusiasts will have memories of this popular eatery to help with her research.

Her father, Paul Buckingham, worked for the chain as it was owned by family, working his way up to tea and coffee taster and blender as well as director.

The chain was started in Halifax, where Kate and her family lived, but had branches all over the North West and beyond including Bolton.

When Kate read a recent article in Looking Back about the war years, including information from reader Iris Stott about Collinson's, she asked to meet up with journalist Gayle McBain and Iris to see if more flesh could be put on the bones of her information about Collinson's.

Now she is hoping other readers can add even more information to Kate's collection which has become something more of an obsession than the hobby it started out as, she says.

Collinson's in Bolton was in Knowsley Street and was thought to have occupied the building now in use by the Halifax Building Society.

It started life around 1902 to 1904 in Bolton although the business was created in 1835 by Thomas Collinson.

A descendant, Edward Collinson, employed Kate's father who was Edward's nephew.

Sadly the company no longer exists but thanks to Kate's hard work — trawling through library records and contacting people who recall these cafes and restaurants — the memories of these popular eating places should no longer be consigned to history.

Iris, who is aged 83, worked for a cafe near to Collinson's when she was a young mother.

"I used to be sent to Collinson's to buy their lemon scones for the staff.

"They were wonderful, with crushed sugar lumps on the top," she recalls.

Sugar was still rationed following the war and to get cakes with sugar on the top was a real treat, she says.

Workers would be sent from other local businesses, including Modelia Gown shop, which was also in Knowsley Street, to buy cakes because they were much sought after, she remembers.

The shop sold loose tea and coffee, loose biscuits as well as cakes.

There was also a restaurant where customers could buy a range of meals, including cheese on toast, chips and even a lobster salad.

There would be such "delicacies" as luncheon pie, sardines on toast, ham and eggs as well as Welsh rarebit and buck rarebit and Hooker's malted milk.

While most of us would know what Welsh rarebit what about buck rarebit?

Iris would call to Collinson's to buy take away items but she would never sit down and eat."I wouldn't eat there, I wouldn't have been allowed out of work to go and eat in," says Iris, who also recalled eating at the British Restaurant in Bolton where customers would be "surprised" by what their lunch was on any particular day.

"You never knew what you were going to get. It was a case of whatever was available that day and there was not a choice," she says of the British Restaurant in Victoria Square.

In those days (we are talking about just after World War Two) most people did not eat out.

"It would be people with money who would eat out at a restaurant like Collinson's," says Iris.

Iris, who lived with her parents Edward and Edith and brother Alan in Chapel Street, still has a fondness for sweet things.

"I think it goes back to the war and just afterwards when sugar was rationed and it was something we craved.

"To this day still enjoy sweet things," she says.

Iris was also enjoyed visiting a sweet shop near her home where she could buy something called a "lucky potato".

"It was a confectionery, covered in bitter cocoa, that might have a tin ring in the middle or might not. It was the luck of the draw."

Collinson's also sold chocolates and Kate believes these may have been made by the firm before they launched Beech's Chocolates which became a well known brand and was based in Preston.

Coffee was often roasted on the premises of Collinson's cafes — whether it was in Bolton remains a mystery that, perhaps, a Looking Back reader may be able to solve — and people would, no doubt, travel from all over Bolton to buy their loose tea and coffee from Collinson's.

Various advertisements appeared in The Bolton Evening News and on January 5, 1912 Collinson's was described as "the largest and most tastefully decorated café in the district. "Every order, whether it is a table d’hote dinner, a snack or the simple cup of tea or coffee, receives the same care and attention.

"The confectionary department is under the personal supervision of one of the cleverest experts in the kingdom, whose whole petits gateaux, souffles and fairy cakes are the daintiest and most perfect that Bolton has ever seen and on January 12 readers are told the alterations recently completed make Collinson's "the fashionable resort for all those who appreciate good taste and refinement" and special cafe tea and peaberry coffee are available.

To Kate this venture is a labour of love inspired by her father and the tales he would tell of Collinson's and his work there.

She has photographs of the restaurant in Bolton, including one taken in the kitchen, and menus of other Collinson's cafes and restaurants but what she would really love to have is memories, from our readers, of visiting and enjoying meals there or picking up take-away offerings.

So do you remember visiting Collinson's cafe in Knowsley Street?

If so do get in touch with Gayle McBain on 01204 537269 or email gayle.mcbain@nqnw.co.uk and share your memories.