A BOOK widely regarded as the best description of life in Oswestry in the run up to the Industrial Revolution is due for a reprint – if enough people come forward and order a copy.

Six years ago former Advertizer editor Sam Evans and his wife Tibs decided to republish the book 'The Industries of the Morda Valley' charting the rise and fall of the valley as water power gave way to steam.

The town council, Stan’s Supermarket and Pinnacle Roofing underwrote the cost of a 800 print run which sold out within a year, yielding £4,000 at £5 a copy, all donated to the Hope House Children’s Hospice.

Sam recalls turning away a lot of request from people who missed out on the original print run.

He said: "I have devised a cunning plan.

"If we can find 50 people prepared to order and pay for a copy, still at a fiver to encourage younger readers, we will have enough money in the kitty to produce a limited run, using Printing Solutions, the same excellent Chirk printer who made such a good job of it in 2017."

He continued: "There is a risk that we fall flat on our faces and don’t reach the threshold figure of 50 copies.

"I don’t see this as likely, but if it does happen we will simply refund all the people who have paid and that will be that.

"Except that by offering these people a chance to convert their money into a Hope House donation I daresay we would raise a bob or two."

Border Counties Advertizer: 'The Industries of the Morda Valley', revised by Sam Evans'The Industries of the Morda Valley', revised by Sam Evans

The Industries of the Morda Valley is a graphic and in places harrowing account of life in the area in the 18th and 19th centuries, when the ever reliable River Morda became a power source for a raft of new industries in the area.

It includes detailed accounts of the often appalling conditions faced by those who worked in the mills and mines than sprang up, including descriptions of life in the Workhouse, then known as the House of Industry.

It relates how a master of this dreaded institution was arrested and locked in his office when a sum of £1 million plus in today’s money was found to be missing.

The next thing to go missing was the wicked master, who thanks to an oversight by the arresting constables escaped through his office window and was never seen again.

"I think it is much more likely that we will see more like a hundred people wanting a copy, in which case I have already been offered a lower per-copy price, leaving us able to hand a greater sum over to Hope House," Sam said "As before, every penny of the difference between the cover price and the printing cost will go to the hospice."

A key figure in Sam and Tibs’ re-print plan is Mike Coppock of the Rowanthorn shop in Chapel Street off Church Street in Oswestry town centre.

Sam added "Anyone wanting a copy can order and pay for it at Rowanthorn, where Mike will issue a receipt and hopefully follow it up with the book within a month or so."