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Towel tale with a happy ending

Jo Rostron
11/ 1/2006

A TOWN centre business is hoping to clean up with sales of a new Heywood tea towel.

Following a number of requests for an old design sold years ago, the China Shop on Market Place decided to have a more modern version made up.

Roger Finch, who manages the shop together with wife Pam, said: "People are still coming in and asking for them but we've not had them in for years.

"Then we visited a show in July where a firm that makes them was giving a demonstration.

"We just though it would be nice to have something that shows Heywood, especially as we now have things like the East Lancs Railway that weren't even here when the old black and white one was made."

A friend of the couple, Richard Read, took photographs of the town's landmarks like the station, the Civic Centre, the library and cenotaph, and together with the coat of arms and the Heywood monkey, these were then turned into the artwork for the towel.

Unfortunately, they did not arrive in time to make the Christmas rush but Roger said they had been going well with around 50 of the 200 purchased already sold.

"A lot of people coming in the shop have commented on them," he said. "If they continue to sell well then we are also looking into having shopping bags and other items like notelets made in the same design.

"We already do Heywood thimbles and they are very popular - a lot of people buy them to send to relatives who have moved abroad.

"Schoolchildren on exchange trips normally want something with the town on, so hopefully the tea towels will be a big success too."