Page 7 - Alan Blakeman Collection catalogue

Later Years...
First year at Art College
was at Openshaw, a
very run down part of
Manchester (location for
the side streets in West
is West?), two half days
spent in the Main College/
Uni area on Oxford Rd.
First term I travelled
daily from Crewe to
Manchester but second
term moved to Disley
then Hyde then our first
marital home (with Gill)
at Whalley Range, on the edge of Moss Side - easy rich pickings for enamel signs, and fresh digging.
in the ensuing years) and the eye opening first UK SummerNational was staged in 1985 at Wath School. Then the floodgates well and truly opened.
I left teaching in 1987, started a second magazine Collecting Doulton (cajoled by Gordon Litherland!), and became integral to the formation of the Elsecar Heritage Centre, opening up a BBR office on site and launching the National Bottle Museum.
Life never slowed down. A move to larger premises at the Heritage Centre provided a purpose designed saleroom, larger Bottle Museum, offices and storage, Bottle Fairs began in Blg 21 (then very dirty with no facilities) then Antique Fairs. But that was not enough. When the opportunity arose to relocate to the centre of the site the Antiques Centre was launched with a bigger and better saleroom.
Disaster struck in 2004 with the untimely and devastating loss of my childhood sweetheart Gill a dark cloud certainly hung over everything. With the help of my three children the embers of BBR were rekindled, assisted by family and friends. Guy Burch’s huge input to the magazine and Clare Bell’s decade of contributions definitely inspired - there was life left still in AB! Zoom forward to 2021: remarried to Lynn (gaining an extra daughter Jade), new specialist saleroom (down by the red phone box). Daughter Rebecca had a school friend Katie who started slave labour with BBR whilst at primary school, and has become my right hand man... and to this day Gordon Litherland continues to push, press, inspire.
My new home is tiny and fifty plus years of collecting was stored at work. Time and again my daughter said “dad you need to sort it all out” thus was born this sale... which enabled fulfilling a lifetimes dream- owning a Martin Brother’s Wally bird!
A range of BBR publications including the David Westcott catalogue from 1979, the first copy of Collecting Doulton 1987, and a range of past BBR catalogues and magazines celebrating 30 yrs and 40yrs... now up to 42!
The area was rough and downtrodden. Paul (named after a Beatle) was born and was the only white child in his nursery. But the periphery terraces outside of the city centre were being demolished and on virtually every street corner was a shop, most adorned with enamel signs. Inside some had shop counters, cabinets and empty labelled bottles and boxes. In hindsight it was a collectomaniacs heaven, but I was very green and little appreciated the opportunities laid on a plate before me. Climbing was still my first passion, but slowly I built up, for free, a collection of enamel signs and gradually found a few dumps. After three University courses I had progressed to full blown collector and moved to South Yorkshire to take up a teaching post at Wath Comprehensive School, applying for jobs within a 30 mile radius of Stanage Edge in the Peak District.
An incredible 15 year roller coaster journey saw my collecting passion evolve rapidly: took over the National Bottle Club in 1979, started BBR magazine, dug every free moment possible (Staffordshire and Cheshire early on, Manchester, Barnsley, Harrogate, Oldham, Bury, Scotland, Derbyshire, North Wales & more), somehow interspersing with family holidays and climbing. My collection constantly saw new additions
as I sold and sapped my new found Victorian goodies at Fairs all over the UK and in America where I first met John Wolf, Jim Hagenbuch, Ralph Finch, Norman Heckler and many others. Links with Australasia too expanded constantly - BBR magazine reaching more than 20 countries worldwide. Everything prospered including the family - welcoming along Rebecca and then Simon. Specialist Fairs started with Frank Burgin, my first book appeared (one of more than a dozen