Latest news with #RichardPercival
Fox News
11-04-2025
- Sport
- Fox News
Man crafts world's largest beer tray collection of 1,500 items: 'Part of history'
A real ale fan has spent over 40 years amassing the world's biggest collection of beer trays. Richard Percival, 62, has forked over thousands of dollars for metal brewery trays, which he keeps at his home in Rutland, England. He stores the 300 trays - all pre-1970s - in the double garage that serves as a small museum. But there's even more than that. "I've got the biggest tray collection in the country and in the world. It really is a great British collection," he told news agency SWNS. (See the video at the top of this piece.) The retired business consultant began his quirky collection in 1982 while at a Brighton pub watching soccer. A Notts County soccer fan, Percival was gifted a tray by the landlord, after which he began collecting a memento every time he traveled. Since then, he's amassed a staggering 1,500 brewery trays from around the world, which are worth, on average, between $25 and $130. He displays more than 300 pre-World War trays in his double garage, which serves as a "mini-museum" dedicated to British brewing history. "When I first started going to matches and going to pubs saying, 'I have this hobby,' my friends and family all cringed," he said, as SWNS reported. Percival admits his wife, Susan, 69, thought he was "mad" at first — but now his family members staunchly support his unusual hobby. "It all started with [soccer]. I'm a fan of away days and have done 84 league grounds with Notts County." He added that when in Brighton, "one of my fellow supporters asked the landlord, 'Have you got a beer mat?'" A beer mat is the English equivalent of a coaster used in bars in America. "The beer mat wasn't there but [the] landlord had a tray. The supporter didn't want it, so I took it." After that, Percival continued to go to games and pick up mementos. "After the first 15 times I realized [the beer trays] were ornate objects — and it spiraled from there," he said. All the trays are British-made and from British breweries, but Percival has had people from as far away as Australia and America send them to him. "Individually, they're not worth that much, but as a collection, they're a part of British brewery history," he said. A copper tray in his collection dates back to around 1870. His oldest tray is a copper piece from a Black Country brewery called Fred Cutler that dates back to around 1870. His favorite is an oval tray from Warwicks & Richardsons brewery in Nottinghamshire because he prefers "distinctive, weightier, black-backed steel trays." "It's from 1904. It's got a picture of the brewery and the label of their beers." As for why all the trays are pre-1970s, it's because mass manufacturers all closed and stopped mass-producing by then. "I've also got Britain's biggest collection of memorabilia of a brewer called Thomas Salt and Co., which was taken over in 1927," he said. His "Holy Grail," Percival said, is to acquire a tray with the Thomas Salt cross logo, which is the fourth-oldest trademark in the world. "Salt stuff is rare and quite expensive. I might need to downsize at some point, but I have around 80 more items I want to get." For more Lifestyle articles, visit Percival launched a brewery encyclopedia website at the end of February. It catalogs Britain's brewery history and details his entire collection. "It's taken me 20 years to develop and three website migrations," he said. "People all over Britain and the world use it as an access site. It's got the manufacturing history, videos, articles for everything."
BBC News
01-04-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Man with 1,500 beer trays says he is preserving brewing history
Meet Richard Percival, the man who owns what he thinks is the world's largest collection of brewery football fan, who supports Notts County, was on an away day in Brighton in 1982 when he asked if he could keep a Young's Brewery tray with a ram logo at a pub - which led to him becoming "an absolute magpie in both senses", amassing a collection of 1,500 double garage of his home in Oakham, Rutland, now serves as a "mini-museum" with 300 of his favourite trays proudly on display."I'll sometimes bring a barrel of beer in here and have a few pints with people," he said. "They have a drink and spend a lot of time looking around because they're mesmerised." The retired 62-year-old said he was "weaned" on Kimberley ales although his favourite beer nowadays is Gale's Horndean Special Bitter (HSB).Richard launched a website at the end of February, which he describes as an "encyclopaedia of brewery collecting", and despite his large collection, is still appealing for help to track down certain trays. Many of the trays Richard is still hunting for come from breweries such as Stretton's or the Leicester Brewing & Malting Company, which operated substantial chains of pubs, so must have produced trays - but no evidence of them currently have been photographed, such as a pre-war yellow tray with a judge pictured from Offiler's and black-backed trays from Nottinghamshire's Kimberley his favourite of all is a rare tray from Warwicks and Richardsons, based in Newark, tray itself is an unusual piece as it depicts the brewery building itself, a selection of 10 beer pump designs, and bears the maker's mark, which is extremely rare, according to after it was uploaded to his online archive, he was contacted 35 years after the purchase by the original said: "He sent me a photograph of his grandfather holding the exact tray as an apprentice in 1904."The young lad only looks about 12 years old." Richard's unusual hobby combined a love of football and interest in real said: "It was always linked to an away match at Notts, where you go to a different part of the world and they had different breweries, so you knew you were going to get a different tray."I started to realise, after I'd picked up about 10 from matches, that these things were really quite ornate so I decided to start collecting."He began asking landlords in pubs, before progressing to antique fairs and then into the internet age over eBay and on social said: "I used to go into a pub and start off by saying, 'I've got an unusual collection', and you could see my friends rolling their eyes. They thought I was a complete lunatic."These days, when they walk in, everyone goes wow." The collection is entirely from the breweries of the British Isles and its modern cut-off is 1970, so nearly every one of his waiter trays are made from his oldest one, an 1870s oval tray from Black Country brewer Fred Cutler, is brass, while others are aluminium and he has a handful of plastic ones says his most prized ones are the distinctive, weightier, black-backed steel trays from before World War said: "When you actually try and chase a tray and eventually it turns up, there's an adrenaline rush."After all the effort you've made, you eventually get that tray after many years of trying, it's a fantastic feeling." Richard thinks the stories behind the objects that he collects add value."It's over 40 years of collecting so there's a lot of effort gone into it," he added."They're not that valuable. They're advertising items and they do hold some value, but as a historical collection for Britain, for the brewing industry, it adds up."So, as well as the enjoyment I have chasing and trying to pick up trays, it's also a national heritage."I think the main thing is that what I've done, because I love beer and I love brewing, is preserved brewing history."
