Richard's tray-mendous collection showcases breweries of the region

At some point during the evening, he would not be able to resist approaching one of the bar staff with a bizarre request, which invariably caused instant mortification to those around them.

“I would always start my banter with the words ‘I have an unusual hobby’ and you could feel them cringe,” he recalls.

Richard reckons he is probably the world’s biggest collector of brewery trays. And looking at the ‘brewery room’ at his house it would take a brave man to argue with his claim. His garage has been converted into a mini museum, packed to the rafters with trays. Round ones, oblong ones, copper ones, tin ones. And there are more in his home office. Altogether, there are about 1,200 of them, the oldest dating back to the 1870s, and the newest from 1965.

But he still wants more.

Thankfully for his friends and family, his days of cadging them on a night out are well behind him, but there are still plenty of rare and unusual ones he would like to add to his collection. In particular, he is on the lookout for a number of trays originating from the Black Country, Shropshire and Staffordshire.

“The utopia would be to locate a tray from Thomas Salt & Co Ltd, brewers from Burton-on-Trent, which distributed its beers throughout the UK through the Victorian and Edwardian eras up until closure in 1927,” he says.

Richard says he has long held a fascination with that brewery, and collects anything related to it including ashtrays, matchstrikers, coasters, mirrors and advertising, but has yet to find a tray used to promote the brewery.

Also close to the top of his list is any tray from Showell’s Brewery, which was based in Crosswells Street, Oldbury from 1887 to 1918.

“Showell’s trademark was a cross, it’s such a simple, nice trademark,” he says. “They had so many public houses, but I haven’t got a single Showell’s tray.”

Another tray by Wolverhampton-based William Butler & Co is also on his wishlist. The tray he is looking for dates from 1912, and he has never actually seen an example of it. “I’m reliably told it exists and is round in shape and made of copper,” he says.

Others he is after include a rectangular tray from the former Wrekin Brewery Co, which features pictures of Trigo, a racehorse which won the 1929 Derby and the St Ledger. The brewery which used to be based in Market Street, Wellington, was like many other independent brewers taken over by Greenall Whitley in 1966, and stopped brewing altogether three years later.

Another rarity he is keen to get his hands on is a tray produced for Kynaston’s brewery in Noble Street Wem. The brewery, founded by Charles Henry Kynaston, traded independently until 1898, when it was taken over by Shropshire Brewery Co, and renamed Shropshire & Wem Brewery. The tray he is looking for is made of copper and has an engraving of the Noble St Brewery in the centre.

A similar tray by Richards & Hearn Circus Brewery, which was once based at Bridge Street, Shrewsbury, is also on his wish list. Like Kynaston’s, Richards & Hearn Circus was taken over by Shropshire & Wem Brewery about 1898.

Richard’s obsession was sparked during a trip south in 1981, when at 19, he went to watch his beloved Notts County take on Brighton and Hove Albion.

“I was with a guy who collected beer mats,” he recalls. “He asked in the pub for a particular beer mat and they said they didn’t have a mat but they had a tray.”

While this was disappointing news for his friend, Richard decided he would take it home himself, for purely practical purposes, sparking a lifelong passion. “I took the tray and after that I began to pick them up from pubs,” he says

His first tray was one for Young’s brewery, based in Wandsworth.

In the early days, he would simply ask at the bar, and often he would be handed one, usually in exchange for a donation to the charity box, but as his collection got bigger he started becoming more discerning.

“Ninety-nine per cent of landlords were brilliant,” he recalls, “but there was this one time I went into a pub in Lancaster, and when we walked in you could almost hear the tumbleweed, people were just staring at us thinking ‘who are they?’

“I saw this tray I was keen to get, so I went up to the landlord, did my spiel, and said ‘I’m Britain’s biggest collector of beer trays’. He replied, ‘what do you want, a Blue Peter badge?’, and I left on that occasion without a tray.”

The rise of the internet proved a major milestone for Richard, with the auction site Ebay proving a valuable treasure trove.

At one point his collection peaked at about 1,700 trays, but is now around 1,200 as he concentrates on older examples. He says trays typically range in value from about £5 for a 1970s one in good condition, to more than £100 for the very rarest items in mint condition.

“It’s the pre-war stuff I’m looking for now,” he says. “There are probably about 80 that I am really looking for. So many of these trays are beautiful. A lot of people collect beer mats, but the advertising is so much bigger on the trays,” he says.

Also among those he is keen to add to his collection are three from former Shropshire breweries he is keen to add to his collection.

“The missing tray is made from copper and also has an engraving of the brewery in the middle of the tray,” he says.

Like Wrekin Brewery, Shropshire & Wem was taken over by Greenall & Whitley in 1961, but did manage to continue relatively independently before closing in 1988.

Richard says he is also looking for any ‘black back’ trays made from heavy steel, an indicator that they date from before the Second World War, trays with makers marks such as Hancock Corfield & Waller, BAT Co Ltd, Causton or Wm Brownlie.

Richard, a 58-year-old retired management consultant who lives in Rutland, says his family has come to accept his hobby, and recognise that his passion is preserving brewery history.

He says his wife Susan thought his hobby a bit strange when he first mentioned it to her, but has come to accept it – as long as he confines it to certain parts of the house.

“My wife has even encouraged a few items to be displayed in the kitchen,” he says. “Frankly my friends continue to take the mickey but deep down they’re impressed too.”

l Can you help add to his collection? Contact richard.percival@hotmail.co.uk or call 07715369540.