The Industries of the Morda Valley, written by author R.D. Thomas, was printed in a run of 800 in 2017 by Printing Solutions in Chirk and raised £4,000 for Hope House, a local children’s hospice.
The book, which details the industrialisation of the Morda Valley in the 18th and 19th centuries, proved extremely popular in its first reprint, selling out within a year.
The publisher, Sam Evans, a former editor of the Oswestry Advertizer, told Printweek he could go back to Printing Solutions if 50 people put an order in for the book, which would remain at its previous price of £5.
All net revenue from sales will go to charity - though with currently no sponsor to cover the printing costs, this time around the books will raise a little less than they did in 2017, when local businesses chipped in.
“It all helps,” said Evans, adding that if he managed to get 50 pledges, made at the Rowanthorn shop in Oswestry, he could publish another run of up to 100 copies.
The book itself, he said, was a graphic account of what was actually happening during the run-up to the industrial revolution, when unscrupulous characters realised that the river Morda was a reliable source of power for mills and factories.
“You can read it straight, as an accurate historical account of things like what wages were paid in the coal mines, and so on,” he said.
“But if you read between the lines, you get some idea of the actual horror of life at that period, when there were obviously no health and safety regulations.”
Evans gave the example of one businessman who decided to set up a coal mine in the area.
He said: “This dodgy chap comes along: he hasn’t got enough to build a proper pit head, but he’s got enough money to pay some guys to dig a hole [...]
“He then considers himself a colliery owner, and he’s got perhaps 10 or 15 people working for him. And in the morning he counts them down, and hopefully at the end of the shift he counts them back up again.
“If they don’t come back up, he says ‘Oh damn, it’s flooded’, then tells the widows that they still owe him for [their husbands’] boots.”
