PLENTY of people have a party trick to impress friends down the pub but few would take up the challenge to eat a pint glass.

Fifty years ago the Evening Mail reported on an example of this unusual gastronomic performance by Askam man Edwin Jopson.

The paper on February 28 in 1967 noted: “Public house landlords in Barrow and Dalton are taking careful stock of their beer glasses because of a customer’s craving to eat them.

“Crunching through a pint glass of beer today, 16-stone Edwin Jopson joked; ‘I’m slimming’.

“And Mr W. A. Chadwick, landlord of the Mason’s Arms, Dalton, groaned: ‘There goes another glass’.

“Other customers winced as Edwin, 28, a self-employed roof tiler, munched a chunk of broken glass, grinding down the splinters into a fine grit.

“Mr Chadwick explained: ‘If there are no chicken portions or sandwiches available, this is what he turns to for a meal’.

“Asked why he did it, Mr Jopson replied: ‘I often fancy a glass. I’ve eaten and swallowed three pint glasses and had bites out of dozens, but I prefer thin glass. I cannot manage thick glasses or glass stems’.

“Down at the Alexandra Hotel, Paxton Street, Barrow, landlord Ernie Jones said: ‘Eddie Jopson came in here began having a feed on a pint glass. That was enough for me. The crunch was terrible and he didn’t offer to pay for the glass, so I took the price out of his next beer order’.

“Mr Jones said that until Mr Jopson paid for the glasses he ate, he would not be too welcome at the Alexandra.

“Continuing his odd diet in the Mason’s Arms, Mr Jopson, of 15 Furnace Place, Askam, said: ‘I’ve not hurt myself yet, except when I got a splinter inside my hollow tooth’.”

Jimmy Riley, 55, a regular of the Alexandra said: “I was standing at the bar having a quiet pint when I heard this crunching of glass. The man next to me had taken a big bite out of his pint glass and was chewing away.

“I was flabbergasted, I can tell you.

“I had never seen anything like that done before.”