Corrie creator’s ‘treasures’ to go up for auction

Tony Warren’s estate releasing items to raise cash for hospice

IT is the original license which hung above The Rovers Return bar during Bet Lynch’s torrid time as landlady.

The little bit of history is in a stash of Corrie gold.

And it all comes with the most impressive provenance - it was once owned by the man who created The Street.

A collection of memorabilia will go under the hammer next week.

All 18 lots are from the estate of Tony Warren whose idea was the seed for the programme which first screened live on December 9, 1960.

They are expected to raise at least £3,000 and the money will be donated to Bury Hospice.

With an estimate of £1,000 the licence issued to ‘Elizabeth Theresa Gilroy’ is the star lot.

A signed print of a Coronation Street collage by artist, Peter Blake, has an estimate of £150.

There are also prints and artist’s proofs by Salford’s Harold Riley of Archie Street in Ordsall. The 1960 original set inside Granada Television Studios in Manchester and the architecture was based on Archie Street.

Corrie Toby mugs of the characters Albert Tatlock, Ena Sharples, and Ken Barlow are also going under the hammer, and a Guiness World Records certificate to Mr Warren after the show became the longest running soap.

Mr Warren, 79, had been suffering from a short illness when he passed away on March 1, 2016.

He was awarded an MBE for services to broadcasting after creating the gritty drama about working class life in 1960 at the age of 24. He remained a consultant on the Manchester-based soap until the day he died.

Mr Warren went on to write the first 13 episodes and wrote scripts for Granada Television on a full-time basis until 1968. He was born Anthony McVay Simpson at 3 Wilton Avenue, Pendlebury, adopting Warren as a stage name in his early acting career.

The idea for Florizel Street, which was later changed to Coronation Street, came to him late one night in 1959 when he was returning to Manchester by train.

He lived in Swinton for 30 years and was well known to locals. One of Tony’s favourite haunts was Victoria Park, as he lived nearby.

He would have a brew at a greasy spoon on Swinton Precinct and eavesdrop on the chatter of local women.

It was a gold mine of gritty northern humour and sharp-tongued one-liners.

Customers’ banter and straighttalking inspired Tony as he prepared scripts for forceful characters like barmaid Bet Lynch and Rovers Return regulars

Tony would regularly walk his beloved dogs up the park’s pathways and stop for a natter with the neighbours, who knew him as ‘Tone.’

When he had writer’s block, it was a way of kick-starting his talent of capturing real life.

The auction will take place on Tuesday at Omega Auctions at Sankey Valley Industrial Estate in Newton Le Willows.