{"id":1445,"date":"2023-08-01T11:54:47","date_gmt":"2023-08-01T11:54:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/index.html\/?p=1445"},"modified":"2023-08-02T08:39:04","modified_gmt":"2023-08-02T08:39:04","slug":"northern-salvo-312","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/index.html\/northern-salvo-312","title":{"rendered":"Northern Salvo 312"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>The Northern Salvo<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>Incorporating<em> \u00a0Weekly Notices, Lancashire Loominary, Sectional Appendices, and Northern Weekly Salvo <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Published at Station House, Kents Bank, Lancashire-North-of-the-Sands, LA11 7BB and at 109 Harpers Lane, Bolton BL1 6HU (Lancashire-South-of-the-Sands)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>email: <a href=\"mailto:paul.salveson@myphone.coop\">paul.salveson@myphone.coop<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Publications website: www.lancashireloominary.co.uk<\/strong><\/p>\n<h6><strong>No. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 312\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 August 2023<\/strong><\/h6>\n<p>Salveson\u2019s half-nakedly political digest of railways, tripe and secessionist nonsense from Up North.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Going monthly\u2026.<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>Greetings on August 1<sup>st<\/sup>, Yorkshire Day. Over here in Lancashire it\u2019s a wet miserable morning, \u2018siling down\u2019 as my late Huddersfield friend and colleague Philip Jenkinson would have said. This is the first \u2018combined volume\u2019 of <em>The Salvo<\/em> and <em>Lancashire Loominary<\/em>, with the aim of coming out roughly every month. Hopefully there\u2019ll be summat for everyone. Comments are always welcome, either by email or in the \u2018comments\u2019 section on the website. If you find you\u2019re getting two copies, let me know and I\u2019ll take one off.<\/p>\n<p>It has been a time of changes, the loss of several good friends and also some major decisions with REPTA, a much-loved railway institution dating back to 1893.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1462\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1462\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1462\" src=\"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/aarepta-pres-300x239.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"239\" srcset=\"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/aarepta-pres-300x239.jpg 300w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/aarepta-pres-1024x817.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/aarepta-pres-768x613.jpg 768w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/aarepta-pres-1536x1225.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/aarepta-pres-2048x1633.jpg 2048w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/aarepta-pres-1200x957.jpg 1200w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/aarepta-pres-1980x1579.jpg 1980w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1462\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">REPTA Presidents: Alan Logan (right) hands over to incoming president Colin Rolle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It was set up as \u2018The Railway Employees\u2019 Privilege Ticket Association\u2019 and more recently became \u2018The Railway Employees\u2019 Passenger Transport Association. In its heyday, around the 1960s, it had about 60,000 members. I was honoured to be REPTA\u2019s patron from 2006. The organisation held its 123rd AGM at\u00a0 Bath AGM last weekend, when some major strategic decisions were made; further announcements will be made later this year.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve been pleased with the response to my new book <em>Lancastrians \u2013 Mills, Mines and Minarets. A New History<\/em>, published by Hurst. More on it below; a few local launches are in the offing (Barrow, Eccles, Salford, Rochdale). It costs \u00a325 (hardback) but Salvo readers can get a 25% discount by entering LANCASTRIANS 25 at the checkout on Hurst\u2019s website www.hurstpublishers.com<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Booking Offices: need for a re-think all round<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>The announcement in early July that hundreds of station booking offices were to close (mostly in England) was greeted with a storm of opposition. There has been a partial retreat, with a longer period being given for responses to what is an ill-thought through proposal, reminiscent of the mass closures of the Beeching years in the 1960. Tens of thousands of submissions have already been made and <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1450\" src=\"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_20230725_122728-300x193.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"193\" srcset=\"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_20230725_122728-300x193.jpg 300w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_20230725_122728-1024x660.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_20230725_122728-768x495.jpg 768w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_20230725_122728-1536x990.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_20230725_122728-2048x1319.jpg 2048w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_20230725_122728-1200x773.jpg 1200w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_20230725_122728-1980x1276.jpg 1980w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>numerous petitions circulated which oppose the closures. A lot of attention has focused on the problems it would cause for elderly and disabled people. However it goes well beyond that and I\u2019d say that a lot of people value the help and advice from a trained railway person when they are making complex journeys. If it takes about four weeks to train a railway employee to become competent in ticket retailing, how can we expect members of the public to get the best deal just by \u2018going on the internet\u2019. I suspect that thousands of people get ripped off every week by selecting a more expensive ticket for their journeys. Perhaps intending rail passengers should be sent on a compulsory training course.<\/p>\n<p>The closures do not make much sense from a commercial perspective as well as a social one. <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1451\" src=\"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_20230725_095609-202x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"202\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_20230725_095609-202x300.jpg 202w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_20230725_095609-691x1024.jpg 691w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_20230725_095609-768x1138.jpg 768w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_20230725_095609-1037x1536.jpg 1037w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_20230725_095609-1382x2048.jpg 1382w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_20230725_095609-1200x1778.jpg 1200w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_20230725_095609-scaled.jpg 1728w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 202px) 100vw, 202px\" \/>Railway companies will lose revenue as a result of people not making their journey by rail and using the car instead. We have been bombarded with a figure of 12% of ticket sales being done through booking offices (the figure is more like 20% on Northern) but what would be interesting to know is that is the percentage of <em>revenue<\/em> taken through booking offices? I suspect it will be higher as people use booking offices for longer and more complex journey rather than using the platform TVM.<\/p>\n<p>My own position (and that of the Rail Reform Group, see www.railreformgroup.org.uk) has been clear for a long time. Whilst accepting that the current traditional model of a station booking office is no longer appropriate in many places, with a very limited range of \u2018products\u2019 being on offer, that should lead to what has been called a \u2018re-purposing\u2019 rather than blanket closure of booking offices. Where the location is right, stations could become retail centres with the traditional ticket sales (and information) service complemented by other activities. It really isn\u2019t \u2018rocket science\u2019. When did you see a petrol station that only sold fuel?<\/p>\n<p>If someone is sat behind a window selling tickets for say four trains an hour, that will, in some cases, allow time for doing other things which add value to the booking office\u2019s function. In the case of smaller stations with less frequent trains, more innovative approaches should be tried including offering them (with financial help) to displaced staff who might want to develop their own businesses. OK, perhaps there wouldn\u2019t be many but I know some who would make excellent \u2018station entrepreneurs\u2019. Offering booking offices, rent-free, to small businesses including social enterprises, with training given on ticket issuing, is an approach that could work in some places.<\/p>\n<p>The closures should be halted and time given to explore a range of options which may be appropriate in different locations. In the meantime, if you haven\u2019t objected yet, please do so. The standard format is TicketOffice.Northern (or whichever operator)@transportfocus.org.uk (see poster image above).<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Fiddling while Rome burns<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>It has been hot out there, in that far-away land called \u2018Europe\u2019. Soaring temperatures have caused chaos and the continent has been cut off from mellower climes, like Bolton\u2019s. Perhaps that of Uxbridge too. The recent \u00a0by-elections were expected to lead to a triple Tory defeat. The fact they hung on, very narrowly, to Uxbridge has been put down to public opposition to the ULEZ (Ultra Low Emission Zone) proposals being put through by the Greater London mayor, Sadiq Khan. Keir Starmer was upset at not winning the seat and urged Khan to \u2018reflect\u2019 on his ULEZ proposals. It seems that the mayor has made suitable reflections and is continuing with his proposals.<\/p>\n<p>The impact of Uxbridge has been very significant and the Tories, always good to spot a bandwagon to jump on, are calling for measures such as ULEZ to be scaled back. Not that they\u2019re against \u2018doing something on Climate Change&#8217;, mind, \u00a0just that &#8216;we need to exercise a bit of caution&#8217;. Which is all quite predictable.<\/p>\n<p>The Tories have always tried to paint themselves as \u2018the motorists\u2019 friend\u2019, but it would be good to see more of a fightback from Labour. I mean getting really dirty and accusing the Tories of complicity in 500 child deaths each year through air pollution in Greater London. As an aside, some friends from Heywood visited London recently and were struck by the palpable smell of polluted air, even in more suburban south London &#8211; and not that Heywood is an unpolluted nirvana! Sunak has made his lack of interest in \u2018the environment\u2019 (other than in opposing relatively modest measures to do something) but where is Starmer in all this? It\u2019s hard not to detect a similar lack of interest in all this &#8216;green nonsense&#8217;. The party line is very clearly trying to appear moderate in all things and let the Tories dig their own political grave. So when devolved mayors like Khan (and Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram up North) do something that\u2019s a bit more radical, it sends off warning bells in Labour HQ. Lisa Nandy is now saying that the mayors won&#8217;t get tax-raising powers which makes a joke of real devolution.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s been a lot in social media saying that Starmer is just a closet Tory (dredging up the ghost of Tony Blair). Actually, he isn\u2019t. Starmer is part of a long right-wing Labour tendency that\u2019s statist, centralist and authoritarian. It isn\u2019t the only Labour tradition: there is an alternative approach stretching back to the Independent Labour Party which is decentralist, inclusive and open. Yet it has become a minority trend within Labour, ceding more and more political ground to the Greens and the left-of-centre nationalist parties such as Plaid and the beleaguered SNP. Principled socialists like Neal Lawson who advocate such dangerous notions as PR and working with other progressive parties, are threatened with expulsion.<\/p>\n<p>Come next year\u2019s General Election we\u2019ll be told to hunker down, bite our tongues and vote Labour, as the best way to get the Tories out. Yet I have to say that a Starmer-led majority Labour Government doesn\u2019t hold out much attraction to me, much as I want to see the back of this awful lot. I\u2019d be far happier with a minority Labour administration which depends on Lib Dem, Green and other support (and it&#8217;s about time Sinn Fein dropped their abstentionist policy). A condition for the Lib Dems\u2019 backing should be the introduction of radical measures to address The Climate Emergency, a fair voting system and democratic regional government (at least).<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Station House progress: A Railway Reading Room?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>The renovation work on Station House at Kents Bank is pretty much complete. A few ideas have been swishing around regarding the cellar (actually a nice, dry place). It lends itself well as a library and space for small meetings for up to about ten people. I\u2019m planning to move most of my railway book collection up to Kents Bank, keeping the<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1428\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1428\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1428\" src=\"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/IMG-20230412-WA0000-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/IMG-20230412-WA0000-300x169.jpg 300w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/IMG-20230412-WA0000-1024x576.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/IMG-20230412-WA0000-768x432.jpg 768w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/IMG-20230412-WA0000-1536x864.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/IMG-20230412-WA0000-1200x675.jpg 1200w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/IMG-20230412-WA0000.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1428\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kents Bank Station House<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Lancashire and general items in Bolton. One option with the railway material is to develop a modest library with an emphasis on rural and community railways. It could include a \u2018railway book club\u2019 which meets occasionally and facilities for researchers to use the collection. Early days but watch this space. Meanwhile, The Beach Hut Gallery, next door, has plenty of good stuff on view, and is open Thursday to Sunday 11.00 to 16.00h.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Eminent Northerners<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>One of the things I tried to do in my \u2018Lancastrians\u2019 book was to highlight some men and women who have made important, but neglected, contributions to Northern politics and culture. Two that stand out are Mary Higgs and Solomon Parrington. Both have railway connections. Mary Higgs set up the \u2018Beautiful Oldham Society\u2019 in the <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1453\" src=\"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/2-higgs-mh.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"162\" height=\"200\" \/>early 1900s and badgered the railway companies to let the society develop bits of unused \u00a0railway land to grow vegetables. Sound familiar? \u00a0Very much a forerunner of the \u2018incredible edible\u2019 movement. Some companies were more receptive than others. Mary went on to initiate the \u2018garden suburb\u2019 project in Oldham, with houses built along co-operative lines. She figures in Allen Clarke\u2019s novel &#8216;The Red Flag&#8217;, with a fictionalized re-working of her adventures when she went \u2018on the tramp\u2019 to examine conditions in women\u2019s lodging houses.<\/p>\n<p>Not far from Oldham lies Middleton, birthplace of Solomon Partington in 1844. Some readers will know of him through the Winter Hill mass Trespass of 1896. He came from a family of silk weavers which was an important local industry. His early professional life was spent with the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. He was employed as a station master, probably at Middleton, before moving to Birkdale. He left the railways after being wrongly accused of swindling the company and became a journalist on <em>The Leigh Journal<\/em>, owned by the Bolton-<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1454\" src=\"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/2.1-partington-239x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"239\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/2.1-partington-239x300.jpg 239w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/2.1-partington-816x1024.jpg 816w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/2.1-partington-768x964.jpg 768w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/2.1-partington-1223x1536.jpg 1223w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/2.1-partington-1631x2048.jpg 1631w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/2.1-partington-1200x1507.jpg 1200w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/2.1-partington-1980x2486.jpg 1980w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/2.1-partington-scaled.jpg 2039w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 239px) 100vw, 239px\" \/>based Tillotson Group. He was involved in local radical politics through the Liberal party and organized \u2018the March of The Thousand Lads\u2019 to campaign for better leisure facilities for working class boys and girls. After moving to Bolton he played a leading part in the 1896 Winter Hill Trespass and later stood as an independent candidate for West \u00a0Ward, getting elected. His final years were spent in Grange-over-Sands writing a history of Lancashire dialect. He died in 1927 and is buried in Grange Cemetery. <em>The Bolton Evening News <\/em>paid tribute to \u201ca trenchant and fearless writer who used the Press in full measure, though never unfairly, for the advance of schemes for the public good.\u201d<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Bath time<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>We headed down to Bath for the REPTA AGM last weekend (see above). We had a long journey down by car, owing to strikes on the Saturday. We stopped off at The Saracen\u2019s Head at Symonds Yat East, a beautiful spot on the Wye. Just down from the pub is the site of the old station on the Monmouth \u2013 Ross-on-Wye line which closed in 1959.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1455\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1455\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1455\" src=\"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/6412-300x180.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"180\" srcset=\"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/6412-300x180.jpg 300w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/6412-1024x615.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/6412-768x461.jpg 768w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/6412-1536x923.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/6412-2048x1230.jpg 2048w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/6412-1200x721.jpg 1200w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/6412-1980x1190.jpg 1980w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1455\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">6412 at Symonds Yat on last day &#8211; photo in Saracen&#8217;s Head<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Pleasingly, the pub had some photos the \u2018last day\u2019 on January 4<sup>th<\/sup>, when GW Pannier 6412 was specially turned out \u00a0for the occasion. What a great line that must have been, and what a loss. The only public transport remaining is the ferry which plies its way across the river from outside the pub, permitting a visit to the Old Ferrie Inn just a bit further up. You need to make sure you don\u2019t miss the last ferry as it\u2019s a long way round.<\/p>\n<p>Bath is one of those places I generally try to avoid, preferring less well-visited places. However, I must say I was impressed with the place. I had time to visit Green Park Station, where I caught a train to Templecombe down the old Somerset and Dorset in summer 1965, about six months before closure. It was hauled by a BR standard tank<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1458\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1458\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1458\" src=\"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_20230730_120216-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_20230730_120216-300x169.jpg 300w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_20230730_120216-1024x576.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_20230730_120216-768x432.jpg 768w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_20230730_120216-1536x864.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_20230730_120216-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_20230730_120216-1200x675.jpg 1200w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_20230730_120216-1980x1114.jpg 1980w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1458\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Green Park Station &#8211; part of the station area is currently closed following fire damage<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>80044 if you want to know. Today, the station is nicely preserved and had a thriving antiques market in full flow. We were staying at The Doubletree Hilton on Walcot Street which is adjacent to the bohemian part of the city with some great little shops, cafes and pubs,<\/p>\n<p>We returned via Monmouth and Hereford, making a special stop at Junction Railwayana in Tintern where certain items were purchased. If the weather hadn\u2019t been so awful we\u2019d have stopped longer to look at the magnificent abbey and have lunch in the old station tea rooms.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Into the Forest<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>After our stop at Symonds Yat we had some time to explore the Forest of Dean, a fascinating place which is unlike anywhere else. It still has small-scale coal extraction, hewn by the \u2018free miners\u2019 of Dean. We called in at Hopewell Colliery which has an exhibition about mining in the Forest, with underground tours. We had a look at the Dean Forest Railway which was operating with \u2018Pannier\u2019 haulage. We reached Dean<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1459\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1459\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1459\" src=\"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_20230729_132833-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_20230729_132833-300x169.jpg 300w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_20230729_132833-1024x576.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_20230729_132833-768x432.jpg 768w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_20230729_132833-1536x864.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_20230729_132833-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_20230729_132833-1200x675.jpg 1200w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_20230729_132833-1980x1114.jpg 1980w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1459\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Old trackwork at Dean heritage Centre<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Heritage Centre, located in an old tannery, by a roundabout route \u2013 but it was worth the visit. Amongst many industrial artefacts there\u2019s a great display about Dennis Potter who came from the area and wrote extensively about it, including parts of \u2018The Singing Detective\u2019. The towns and villages have more a feel of the industrial North rather than rural Gloucestershire. The mining tradition encouraged a flourishing socialist culture which I suspect may still be active today. I used to subscribe to <em>The Wye Valley and Forest of Dean Clarion<\/em>, edited by Alistair Graham who died last year. The area was criss-crossed by colliery railways, many of which are now cycle trails. At Coleford there\u2019s a railway museum in the old station yard with a miniature railway operated Saturday afternoons. Sadly we missed it. Just down the road there\u2019s the Perrygrove Railway, a miniature railway operating along the course of the old line.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Railway Pigs, Donkeys and other Animals<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>Visiting Pilling the other day, for Harold Elletson\u2019s funeral, reminded me of the old Garstang and Knot End Railway, traces of which are still visible. It was a standard gauge light railway that ran from Garstang and Catterall station, on the main line, through small settlements out to Knott End (the railway never bothered with the extra \u00a0\u2018t\u2019 in the name).<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1460\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1460\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1460\" src=\"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_20230731_140951-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_20230731_140951-300x169.jpg 300w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_20230731_140951-1024x576.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_20230731_140951-768x432.jpg 768w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_20230731_140951-1536x864.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_20230731_140951-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_20230731_140951-1200x675.jpg 1200w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_20230731_140951-1980x1114.jpg 1980w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1460\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pilling Pig quilt in Pilling Village Hall: the memory is still strong<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>One of the early locomotives had a very shrill whistle which sounded a bit like a pig squealing. hence the name. The title &#8216;Pilling Pig&#8217; broadened to include any\u00a0 loco that operated the line. Although the line closed well before Beeching, the \u2018Pilling Pig\u2019 is still remembered. There\u2019s even a plinthed Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0 saddletank at Stake Pool which celebrates the steamy porker. Should be said that the loco never worked the line and spent most of its time on the NCB colliery system in Mountain Ash, where I photographed it hauling a heavy coal train.<\/p>\n<p>Inspired by the \u2018Pig\u2019 I asked around my facebook friends for other colloquial train names and it\u2019s a long list, including (so far) three \u2018Donkeys\u2019 (Delph, Marlow and Dursley), The Spratt and Winkle (West Croydon \u2013 Wimbledon), The Dudley Dodger (from Snow Hill to Dudley), The Burton Dick (Huddersfield \u2013 Kirkburton), The Kendal Tommy (Kendal to Garnge-over-Sands) and several more. Please keep them coming! I\u2019m particularly interested to hear about surviving \u2018named\u2019 trains. On the Furness Line the last train of the day to Barrow from the south is still called \u2018The Whip\u2019. Why? The last train on a Saturday night up the Rhondda Valley was called \u2018The Rodney\u2019. Again, why? Who he? The evening Newcastle-Chathill train was called \u2018The Rattler\u2019, when it was Pacer-operated. Is it still rattling? More suggestions please!<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Salvo Shorts<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p><strong>Angina Monologues <\/strong>I was diagnosed with \u2018stable angina\u2019 a few months ago, following chest pains. I have to say the service from the NHS has been pretty good, though slightly \u2018fits and starts\u2019. After initial worries they don\u2019t seem to think it\u2019s anything too serious though I\u2019m being sent off to Bolton Royal Hospital \u00a0for an \u2018angiogram\u2019 shortly. A great pity that I can\u2019t get there by train \u2013 the Bolton Great Moor Street to Manchester Exchange ran right past the hospital. Maybe one day we\u2019ll get a tram but well after my clogs have popped I suspect.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Harold Elletson <\/strong>My friend Harold Elletson died a few weeks ago, at the young age of 62. His funeral was in the impressive St John\u2019s Church in Pilling, attended by a very large group of friends and family. I got to know Harold through our \u2018radical devolution\u2019 project. He set up the Northern Party and stood as candidate in 2015, but got what could best be called a modest vote. He had previously been Consrvative MP for Blackpool North and became disillusioned with the Tories\u2019 anti-European stance (amongst other things). He was a proud Lancastrian and had many strings to his bow. We shall not see his like again.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Lancastrians: Mills, Mines and Minarets \u2013 a new history\u00a0<\/em><\/strong> It\u2019s now available, published by the highly-respected publishers Hurst whose catalogue is well worth a look at it. See <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hurstpublishers.com\/catalogues\/spring-summer-2023\/\">https:\/\/www.hurstpublishers.com\/catalogues\/spring-summer-2023\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The publisher\u2019s blurb says says: \u201cThis long-overdue popular history explores the cultural heritage and identity of Lancashire. Paul Salveson <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1419\" src=\"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/IMG_20230624_181026-300x198.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"198\" srcset=\"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/IMG_20230624_181026-300x198.jpg 300w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/IMG_20230624_181026-1024x676.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/IMG_20230624_181026-768x507.jpg 768w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/IMG_20230624_181026-1536x1014.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/IMG_20230624_181026-2048x1352.jpg 2048w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/IMG_20230624_181026-1200x792.jpg 1200w, http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/IMG_20230624_181026-1980x1307.jpg 1980w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>traces to the thirteenth century the origins of a distinct county stretching from the Mersey to the Lake District\u2014\u2018Lancashire North of the Sands\u2019. From a relatively backward place in terms of industry and learning, Lancashire would become the powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution: the creation of a self-confident bourgeoisie drove economic growth, and industrialists had a strong commitment to the arts, endowing galleries and museums and producing a diverse culture encompassing science, technology, music and literature. Lancashire developed a distinct business culture, its shrine being the Manchester Cotton Exchange, but this was also the birthplace of the world co-operative movement, and the heart of campaigns for democracy including Chartism and women\u2019s suffrage. \u00a0Lancashire has generally welcomed incomers, who have long helped to inform its distinctive identity: fourteenth-century Flemish weavers; nineteenth-century Irish immigrants and Jewish refugees; and, more recently, New Lancastrians from Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe. The book explores what has become of Lancastrian culture, following modern upheavals and Lancashire\u2019s fragmentation compared with its old rival Yorkshire. What is the future for the 6 million people of this rich historic region?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The book has chapters covering culture, politics, sport, leisure, industry, religion as well as a \u2018Cook\u2019s Tour\u2019 of the county (mostly by train). It explores the Lancastrians who left for new lives in America, Canada, Russia and South Africa, as well as the \u2018New Lancastrians\u2019 who have settled in the county since the 14<sup>th<\/sup> century. There are about forty \u2018potted biographies\u2019 of men and women who have made important (but often neglected) contributions to Lancashire.<\/p>\n<p>The book is hardback, price \u00a325. Salvo readers can get a 25% discount by going to the publisher\u2019s website (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.hurstpublishers.com\">www.hurstpublishers.com<\/a>) and enter the code LANCASTRIANS25 at checkout.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Book Talks<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>I\u2019ve done several \u00a0talks about my new book \u2018Lancastrians\u2019, including events in Bolton, Blackrod, Preston, Stretford and Grange-over-Sands. Future events include Barrow Public Library on August 17<sup>th<\/sup> at 14.00 and September 13<sup>th<\/sup> at Eccles Local History Society. Friday September 15<sup>th<\/sup> I\u2019m at the Working Class History Museum, close to Salford Crescent station, 14.00. Then Bolton Family History Society on October 4<sup>th<\/sup> , Grange Photographic Society October 16<sup>th<\/sup> and Rochdale (Edwin Waugh Dialect Society) on November 14<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Still in Print (at special prices!)<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p><em>ALLEN CLARKE: Lancashire\u2019s Romantic Radical<\/em> \u00a36.99 (normally \u00a318.99)<\/p>\n<p><em>Moorlands, Memories and Reflections<\/em> \u00a315.00 (\u00a321.00)<\/p>\n<p><em>The Works<\/em> (novel set in Horwich Loco Works) \u00a36 (\u00a312.99)<\/p>\n<p><em>With Walt Whitman in Bolton<\/em> \u00a36 \u00a0(9.99)<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Last Train from Blackstock Junction<\/em><\/strong> (published by Platform 5 Books). A collection of short stories about railway life in the North of England. <em>Salvo<\/em> readers can get the book at a specially discounted price, courtesy of Platform 5 Publishing. Go to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.platform5.com\/Catalogue\/New-Titles\">https:\/\/www.platform5.com\/Catalogue\/New-Titles<\/a>. <strong>Enter LAST22 in the promotional code box at the basket<\/strong> and this will reduce the unit price from \u00a312.95 to \u00a310.95.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>The Settle-Carlisle Railway<\/em><\/strong> (published by Crowood \u00a324) \u2013 can do it for Salvo readers at <strong>\u00a316<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>See <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lancashireloominary.co.uk\">www.lancashireloominary.co.uk<\/a> for full details of the books (ignore the prices shown and use the above \u2013 add total of \u00a33 per order for post and packing in UK)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Northern Salvo Incorporating \u00a0Weekly Notices, Lancashire Loominary, Sectional Appendices, and Northern Weekly Salvo Published at Station House, Kents Bank, Lancashire-North-of-the-Sands, LA11 7BB and at 109 Harpers Lane, Bolton BL1 6HU (Lancashire-South-of-the-Sands) email: paul.salveson@myphone.coop Publications website: www.lancashireloominary.co.uk No. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 312\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 August 2023 Salveson\u2019s half-nakedly political digest of railways, tripe and secessionist nonsense from Up North. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/index.html\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/index.html\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/index.html\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/index.html\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/index.html\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1445"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/index.html\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1469,"href":"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/index.html\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1445\/revisions\/1469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/index.html\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/index.html\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/index.html\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}