A 170 year-old recipe book written by Bury's answer to Delia Smith could soon be recognised as one of the most important archives in the North West.

Staff at Bury Archive Service have nominated the book, which contains about 150 recipes, as Bury's official entry for the North West Archival Treasury: a "top 30" of archives from across the region as chosen by a panel of expert judges. The final list will be announced soon to coincide with September's month-long North West Archives Festival.

The book, dating from the 1830s, was written and compiled by local woman Elizabeth Hutchinson. It contains an array of traditional recipes, including one of the earliest known recipes for the Bury simnel, a cake consumed at the important festival of Mid-Lent Sunday.

In addition to this and traditional favourites like plum pudding, the book includes weird and wonderful medicinal recipes such as snail water, made by boiling snails in a bucket. This remedy was said to cure consumption, (tuberculosis).

Elizabeth Hutchinson was given the book in which she complied and created the recipes by her mother, upon her marriage to local cotton mill owner William Hutchinson in 1834. It was donated to the Bury Archive Service by Elizabeth's grandson Lord Ilford (Geoffrey Clegg Hutchinson), former president of the National Assistance Board, along with many other family papers including two other manuscript recipe books.

Bury Archive Service is one of many partners across the North West supporting the North West Archives Festival which will be the first time that libraries, museums and community groups have commemorated the region's history together.

Archivist Kevin Mulley said: "Bury Archive Service contains a real variety of records which give a fascinating insight into the history of the town and its people. We selected the recipe book as our official entry for the North West Archival Treasury because we felt that food is something everyone can relate to, even if the recipes have changed considerably since the 19th Century."