Richard Percival, 62, has spent over 40 years amassing the world's largest collection of beer trays, with 1,500 items from around the globe.
His collection began in 1982 during a football away day when he received his first tray in Brighton.
Richard’s passion for brewery history has grown into a "mini-museum" in his garage, displaying 300 pre-World War II trays.
His collection, which includes trays worth between £20 to £100, has gained international attention.
Richard’s "Holy Grail" is a Thomas Salt tray, and he’s created a brewery encyclopedia website to document his collection.
His wife Susan initially thought his hobby was odd but now supports it.
His collection began in 1982 during a football away day when he received his first tray in Brighton.
Richard’s passion for brewery history has grown into a "mini-museum" in his garage, displaying 300 pre-World War II trays.
His collection, which includes trays worth between £20 to £100, has gained international attention.
Richard’s "Holy Grail" is a Thomas Salt tray, and he’s created a brewery encyclopedia website to document his collection.
His wife Susan initially thought his hobby was odd but now supports it.
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FunTranscript
00:00Hello my name is Richard Percival. I have Britain's biggest collection of brewery
00:05trays. I have about one and a half thousand British brewery trays. I've
00:11been collecting for over 40 years and the collection may even be the biggest
00:17collection in the world. I first started collecting in 1982. I'm a Fanatical
00:23Notts County fan, went on away matches, I went into a pub and one of my
00:29friends asked for a beer mat. The beer mat wasn't there but the landlord had a tray.
00:35The guy didn't want the tray so I took the tray and it all started from there.
00:40Over 40 years later I have on display in this converted garage 300 pre-World War
00:50trays. So when I first started collecting all my friends thought I was absolutely
00:56mad. My wife thought it was a joke but 40 years later every time anyone sees the
01:04collection the first word they say is wow. When I first started collecting I
01:10literally go into a pub and try and pick a tray up at a pub. Then it proceeded to
01:16antique fairs and then I had a wide range of people who'd look out for me. These
01:23days it's much more eBay and social media. So here's a tray from George Shaw who
01:32were based in Lee in Greater Manchester. Now the significance of this tray is this
01:37is a round version and one of the trays I'm looking for is the exact replica of
01:42this tray which is rectangular. People always ask me what's my favourite tray? A very
01:49difficult question but if I had to pick one it would be this tray from Warwickson
01:53Richardson's of Newark-on-Trent. Why? Well it's old, it's dated 1904 and it has a
02:01picture of the brewery, it has ten labels of all its beers and it has one little
02:07tiny thing which is a cricket bat as a trademark which dates it before the
02:12First World War. So how do you date a tray? It's actually fairly easy. The earliest
02:19trays were brass and copper from the 1880s. Thereafter the next material that
02:26was used was enamel. Another question I asked is do I collect anything else but
02:32trays? The answer is yes I do. I collect any old brewery memorabilia mainly from
02:38Victorian or Edwardian times including old adverts, mirrors and also from a
02:45brewery specifically which is Thomas Salt & Co Ltd which closed in 1927 and here
02:52is a lovely example of a mirror from around 1900 from the Saltz Brewery. So I'm
03:00asked how long am I going to do this for? How long's the hobby? Well it's going to
03:05last the rest of my life because I'm always on the search for any tray that's
03:11missing from my collection, especially black lat trays. I often come into the
03:15brewery room, most nights actually, and I always get myself a beer, my favourite beer.
03:23So I'm going to have one now. Cheers!