Tim Sumner was given hundreds of bags by the librarians at his university(Image: Liverpool Echo)

Frodsham man turned obscure collection into new exhibition

by · Liverpool Echo

The hobby that he started at university has developed far beyond what he had expected

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A man from Frodsham began collecting paper shopping bags when he was at studying at UCLAN [University of Central Lancashire] nearly 15 years ago, now he's exhibiting them in Liverpool.

After the librarians at his university were due to throw away hundreds of old paper shopping bags that they had amassed over the years, Tim Sumner decided to take them on and use them for a university project.

However, years later, he has used them to create a series of magazines and opened his first exhibition. He said: "I’ve published six now. So there’s sort of 500 of each that published and issue one to four are sold out so it’s popular and there’s people who follow the Instagram that collect them and buy them, so the publication does well. So there’s obviously an appetite for it so it did seem like a no-brainer to exhibit them at some point in time but I didn’t realize it would be now."

The Paper Bag Archive exhibition is available to view in Dorothy on Jordan Street until March 27. More can be found about the exhibition here.

  1. Tim's paper shopping bag collection shows the unique designs of bags from times gone by
    1 of 6(Image: Liverpool Echo)
  2. Tim has turned his shopping bag collection into a series of magazines as well as an exhibition
    2 of 6(Image: Liverpool Echo)
  3. The exhibition offers a window into the history of some of the city's most beloved shops including Probe Records
    3 of 6(Image: Liverpool Echo)
  1. The exhibition has brought back memories of shops which are no longer here, like the Nut Centre which was in St John's Market
    4 of 6(Image: Liverpool Echo)
  2. The bags shows the intricate designs that were more common place in the 1980s and 90s
    5 of 6(Image: Liverpool Echo)
  3. Tim will also be taking his exhibition to Leeds
    6 of 6(Image: Liverpool Echo)