Eccles cake Eccles cake An Eccles cake is a small, round cake filled with currants and made from flaky pastry with butter, sometimes topped with demerara sugar. Eccles cakes are named after the English town of Eccles, historically part of Lancashire, but now classified as a town in the City of Salford, Greater Manchester. It is not known who invented the recipe, but James Birch is credited with being the first person to sell Eccles cakes commercially, which he sold from his shop at the corner of Vicarage Road and St Mary's Road, now Church Street, in the town centre in 1793.
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