Eccles cakes are surely the most well-known foodstuffs associated with Eccles, and the town is rightly proud of their long tradition, which dates back to the late 18th century.
This week in November 1965, an iconic sign was taken down from Church Street and put in the stores of the now-derelict Monks Hall Museum in Eccles “for safe keeping”.
Rather ironically, the sign proclaimed: ‘Bradburn’s: The only old original Eccles Cake shop, never removed, on the site of these premises Eccles Cakes were first made‘.
The Eccles Journal reported that Salford Museum had already taken possession of the shop’s bowed window – a really attractive feature.
We are told that it took three workmen armed with hammers and chisels two hours to remove the sign.
The Keeper of the Grade II-listed Monks Hall Museum, Frank Mullineux, told the newspaper that the sign would be put into storage and would be preserved as a sign of the importance of Eccles cakes to the Borough of Eccles.
Sadly Monks Hall Museum closed in the 1980’s and all of the exhibits were taken to Salford Museum and Art Gallery and are now safely in storage in the vaults there.
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Records show that James Birch began baking his perfectly-formed pastries in a shop at 56 Church Street opposite Eccles Parish Church in 1796.
The tasty treats were an instant hit and as demand rocketed Birch began to get requests from all over the country for his
raisin-filled sweets.
By 1810 Birch had moved into new, larger premises on the opposite side of Church Street, and his former apprentice and employee James (William) Bradburn cannily took ownership of the original shop so he could claim historic ownership.
Less than a decade later Eccles cake were being exported via Liverpool as far away as America, the West Indies and Australia.
It’s not known who created the original recipe as each Lancashire family would have had its slight variation, but they had certainly been around since the late 16th century, as Eccles Cakes were banned from sale in 1650 by the new Puritan government who considered them “too rich and sumptuous”.
Thankfully, they were allowed under the new Restoration in 1660.
Birch could have taken the recipe from Elizabeth Raffaid’s 1769 “sweet patties”, listed in her book The Experienced English Housekeeper.
In 1835, after years of rivalry between the pair, Bradburn had the original shop rebuilt and erected the sign as a direct challenge to his former master.
Bradburn’s closed and was demolished in 1965 to make way for the new Eccles Shopping Precinct. James Birch’s store could not halt the march of progress and was also closed to become at first a dry cleaners, and later a fast food takeaway.
In more recent years the humble offering has spawned a series of spin-off recipes from local food suppliers, including Smith’s Eccles Cake Cake, and Whittaker’s deep-fried Eccles fritter.
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In 2013 Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service blamed Eccles cakes for a string of kitchen fires caused by pastry-lovers leaving them for too long in the microwave.
The popularity of the pastry continues – but large-scale manufacture has left Eccles. Real Lancashire Eccles Cakes now has a baking facility in the Ardwick area of Manchester.
