Contents:
- Editor's welcome
- Paul Waugh: From Rochdale to Westminster
- Rachel Winnard: One in Two Million
- Rochdale Sixth Form College wins at prestigious Further Education awards
- Rev Mark Coleman
- Baillie Street Quarter
- Touchstones reopens with new exhibitions
- Greater Manchester Fire Service Museum
- Highlights of a Mayoral Year
- Fancy dress posties raise £1,700 for MIND
- John Swinden’s Captain Tom 100 challenge
- Littleborough’s Tackling Minds to become first organisation to work with NHS in prescribing angling
- Keith Hicks retires after 33 years of service at RAFC
- Bid for local digital radio signal
- Carpet Creations celebrates 25 years in business
- Help fill Springhill’s gardens with sunflowers in memory of your loved ones
- Local author reminisces about Rochdale high streets in the 80s and 90s in new book »
- After the storm, the healthy hazy days of summer
- Rochdale Heartbeat honoured with Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service
- Ian Jenkins: Forty Years of Making Music
- Hairdressing Trend - Babylights
- Lasting Power of Attorney
- Cupcakes recipe
- Brown’s Cakes celebrates 10 years
- Beauty Feature: Coming back strong after lockdown
- Take a walk at Ealees
Summer 2021Local author reminisces about Rochdale high streets in the 80s and 90s in new book
Rochdale born writer and film maker, John Lawrence Matthews, has written a book that ‘explores the lost high street of Rochdale’.
The 116-page book, entitled Butcher Boy, is John’s fourth book and is an autobiographical story of what it was like growing up and working for his well-known father, Raymond Matthews, in the 80s and 90s.
Now living in Saddleworth, John said: “My dad was very well known as probably the most famous butcher in town. He established, ran, and was very proud of Matthews Butchers which ended up in a prime retail location on Yorkshire Street.
“The book chronicles a lost time in the town when the high street was absolutely thriving. Former customers of my dad’s business, of which there are thousands, may find it fascinating to hear what it was like behind the counter and remember what those amazing shops were like.”
Raymond Matthews had several Rochdale shops – on Yorkshire Street, Wet Rake, Oldham Road, Bury Road and Spotland Road – plus a bakery.
After leaving the RAF and joining the Co-op, he served his apprenticeship as a butcher, starting his working life on Yorkshire Street with the Rochdale Pioneers and 20 years later, ended up there with his own shop.
John said: “Everyone knew who Raymond was. His shops were all extremely busy and the reason was because we all worked extremely hard to make sure people got high-quality products and service.
“I still apply that thinking to anything I do, and I have yet to get the service my dad offered anywhere since.
“He was quite a retail and small business genius and I miss him very much.”
Raymond’s son, John, now 54, began his working life with his late father at Matthews Butchers, but went on to become a researcher for broadcaster Jeremy Paxman and a film maker.
He began work on his book Butcher Boy in December 2019.
“The book is a story for everyone - of a man who built a commercial empire and the price his family had to pay," he said.
“It’s about a time not so long ago when there weren’t boarded-up shops on every high street, when Amazon was just the name of a river, a time when customers shopped locally and were treated like royalty."