Eccles cake Eccles cakes do not have Protected Geographical Status, so may be manufactured anywhere and still labelled as "Eccles" cakes. The Banbury cake is an oval cake from Banbury, Oxfordshire, similarly filled with currants. The Chorley cake (from Chorley in Lancashire) is flatter, made with shortcrust pastry rather than flaky pastry and is devoid of sugar topping. The Blackburn cake is named after the town of Blackburn, Lancashire, and is made with stewed apples in place of currants. British fire brigades have reported fires started by Eccles cakes overcooked in microwave ovens. The problem occurs because sugar, contained in the cakes,
Mary Eccles, Viscountess Eccles Mary Eccles, Viscountess Eccles Mary Morley Crapo Hyde Eccles, Viscountess Eccles (8 July 1912 – 26 August 2003) was a book collector and author. She was renowned for establishing one of the biggest private collections of 18th century literature with her first husband, Donald Hyde (1909-1966). This includes works from Samuel Johnson and James Boswell. She also created an Oscar Wilde Collection which was bequeathed to the British Library in 2003. Her second marriage (in 1984) was to the British peer, David Eccles, 1st Viscount Eccles, with whom she co-founded the Eccles Centre for American Studies at the British Library