{"id":642,"date":"2021-04-01T19:55:59","date_gmt":"2021-04-01T19:55:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/index.html\/?p=642"},"modified":"2021-04-02T11:17:47","modified_gmt":"2021-04-02T11:17:47","slug":"weekly-salvo-292","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/index.html\/weekly-salvo-292","title":{"rendered":"Weekly Salvo 292"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Northern Weekly Salvo<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Incorporating \u00a0Slaithwaite Review of Books, Weekly Notices, Sectional Appendices, Tunnel Gazers\u2019 Gazette <\/em>and Northern Umbrella. <\/em>Descendant of Teddy Ashton\u2019s Northern Weekly <\/em>and Th\u2019Bowtun Loominary.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Published at 109 Harpers Lane Bolton BL1 6HU email: paul.salveson@myphone.coop<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Publications website: www.lancashireloominary.co.uk<\/strong><\/p>\n

No. 292 April 2nd 2021\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 EASTER EXCURSION \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Salveson\u2019s half-nakedly political digest of railwayness, tripe and secessionist nonsense from Up North. Sometimes weekly, usually not; definitely Northern. Read by the highest and lowest officers of state, Whitmanites, weirdos, misfits, steam punks, yes women, no men, gay<\/p>\n

\"\"
A snowy Easter Monday, Blackburn 1967. 45593 Kolhapur returning from Blackpool to Leeds on a bank holiday special – we photographed the Jubilee at Kirkham in the morning in bright sunshine.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Swedenborgians, cat-spotters, discerning sybarites, bi-guys, non-aligned social democrats, \u00a0pie-eaters, tripe dressers, nail artists, self-managing VIMTO drinkers, truculent Northerners, grumpy Norwegians, absurd Marxists, sleepy Hungarians, members of the clergy and the toiling masses, generally. All views expressed are my own and usually nobody else\u2019s. Official journal of the Station Cat Improvement Network, Pacer Dining Club, Station Buffet Acceleration Council and the Campaign for a North with a capital \u2018N\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are far more united and have far more in common with each other than things that divide us.\u201d \u2013<\/em><\/strong> Jo Cox, maiden speech in House of Commons, June 3rd<\/sup> 2015<\/p>\n

General gossips <\/strong><\/p>\n

Another long gap. What I\u2019ve been doing? Mind\u2019s a blank, increasingly. I know I\u2019ve been spending a lot of time gazing at this screen which isn\u2019t \u00a0good. So a late New Year resolution was to cut down on that sort of thing unless I have to. But going back to a life of endless committee meetings doesn\u2019t inspire either, so I\u2019ve made a decision to cut down on \u2018committee\u2019 work, as I approach my 70th<\/sup> year. One of the more creative things I\u2019ve been doing is a writing a new edition of my \"\"biography of Allen Clarke. The slightly revised title (thanks everyone for suggestions) will be Allen Clarke (\u2018Teddy Ashton\u2019) Lancashire\u2019s Romantic Radical<\/em>. It\u2019s with the printer now and will be ready next month. I may even be able to do a public launch \u2013 will keep you posted. See below for more details. That will be followed by a completely new edition of my ‘Whitman’ book and a similarly enlarged and enhanced Socialism with a Northern Accent<\/em>, first published nearly ten years ago.<\/p>\n

Nigel Todd \u2013 an outstanding chap and a sad loss<\/strong><\/p>\n

My good friend Nigel Todd died suddenly at his home in Newcastle-on-Tyne last week. He was 73.<\/p>\n

I first new him at Lancaster University in the early 70s. He was active in IS (International Socialists) and I was a member of the International Marxist Group. Despite our irreconcilable differences over the class nature of the Soviet State, we hit it off, with a shared interest in working class history. We\u2019ve stayed in touch ever since. My strongest memory is being in his living room in 1982 when he was hosting Tony Benn, who was speaking at an event in Newcastle the following day. While Benn was holding forth to a small gathring of comrades – talking \"\"a lot of crap, I felt, on how to resolve the current NHS dispute – Nigel\u2019s daughter Selina (named after the great Lancashire socialist and feminist Selina Cooper) was playing with a clockwork mouse which kept whizzing and wurring beneath the great man\u2019s feet as he was holding forth. Benn completely ignored the interruptions and carried on giving us the benefit of his wisdom, which was even funnier. \u00a0Selina went on to become a professor of history at Oxford; I wonder if she still has the mouse?<\/p>\n

Nigel was involved in the Co-operative movement for all\u00a0 of his adult \u00a0life. He chaired the Co-operative College\u2019s board of trustees, and recently joined the board of the Co-operative Heritage Trust. He also chaired the Newcastle Fairtrade Partnership and was a keen advocate for co-operation, equality and peace. He dedicated his life to tackling poverty, racism and inequality \u2013 and was passionate about life-long learning.<\/p>\n

Nigel was first elected to Newcastle City Council in 1980, and served as a councillor in Elswick and later, following boundary changes, in Wingrove Ward and more recently the Arthur\u2019s Hill Ward.\u00a0\u00a0Nick Forbes, leader of Newcastle City Council, paid tribute to Nigel\u2019s work: \u201cHe was widely known, and hugely popular, across the West End of the City; everywhere he went people would stop, say hello, and ask him for advice or help. He chaired the New Deal for Communities initiative, which brought millions of pounds of regeneration funding into the Inner West. He was active in the Labour Party, most recently chairing the city-wide Local Campaign Forum. And he was also passionate about the co-operative movement; he lived by these values and was a keen advocate of co-operative housing developments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe Fortune, general secretary of the Co-operative Party, said: \u201cReally saddened to hear this news. Nigel was a very lovely person and a very passionate and knowledgeable co-operator. We will be much missed by his many friends across our team and our Party.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was characteristic of Nigel that politicians from other parties paid sincere tribute to him. Alistair Ford and Tay Pitman of Newcastle Green Party said: \u201cNigel was a shining beacon for kind, caring politics. He was a true community leader, representing the residents of Arthur\u2019s Hill and Newcastle with passion and compassion, bringing people together, and fighting for fairness and peace.\u00a0His tireless work for organisations like Greening Wingrove showed that he understood the importance of the local environment in our lives. He will be truly missed by people of all political colours, and we are proud to have called him a friend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cllr Nick Cott, leader of the Lib Dems on Newcastle City Council, added: \u201cWe are deeply saddened and shocked to hear of the passing of Cllr Nigel Todd. …Nigel was a well respected representative of the local community who cared passionately about tackling poverty and inequality and championing lifelong learning. Members of our party speak highly of his anti-racism work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tribute was also paid by the WEA, the adult educational charity, with whom Nigel worked with for many years. \u201cWe\u2019re deeply saddened to hear of the passing of our dear friend Nigel Todd,\u201d the organisation said in a statement. \u201cHis knowledge and passion for adult education (and the North East) and pioneering work in supporting environmental agenda are just the tip of the legacy he leaves behind. Our thoughts are with his family.\u201d<\/p>\n

In many ways Nigel belonged to an earlier political tradition – that ‘ethical socialist’ culture that informed the Independent Labour Party which we could do a lot worse than re-visit. For Nigel, I shall miss your Christmas cards! We shall not see his like again.<\/p>\n

ALL CHANGE: What future for rail travel now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I joined in with an interesting and mercifully short (don\u2019t like long zoom meetings) stakeholder conference for TransPennine Express the other day. It was a useful and lively discussion and a few important points emerged. Research done by the rail industry is suggesting that long-term commuter travel is going to be down by about 40% of the pre-pandemic levels. Business travel will be down less, but a still thumping 25%. On the other hand, leisure travel is likely to grow by<\/p>\n

\"\"
Leisure travel as it was: a class 40 arrives at Bolton’s Platform 4, early 1980s, on a special to Blackpool<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

around 10%. The implications of these figures is huge, turning on its head so many assumptions that have governed thinking in rail for the last forty years or more. The main drivers of rail development have been commuting and business travel, with \u2018leisure\u2019 coming generally a poor third. The methodologies underpinning demand forecastlng have been based largely on commuting and business travel. These approaches are now discredited. We need to build an entirely new approach to forecasting demand for rail travel in which leisure travel plays a much bigger part. Another aspect of this emphasis on leisure is questions around the journey itself. The conventional wisdom within the industry has been to push for faster and faster end to end journey times. Yet leisure travellers are less bothered about super fast journeys and more concerned with avoiding changes, \u00a0reliability, good information, getting seat and general comfort. \u00a0So that means putting in more stops (within reason) on many services and not obsessing about knocking a few minutes of the end to end journey. And while I\u2019m on this particular tack, what does all this mean for HS2? If it ever had any justification, it doesn\u2019t any more.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Rail travel should be about quality of life not dashing from A to B. Here we are at Poulton-le-Fylde with its lovely gardens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Will it be scrapped as a result? No, it will carry on swallowing up resources that are desperately needed to support the regional and conventional InterCity and inter-regional networks. That said, I can\u2019t see it getting beyond Crewe, and for all that Leeds might huff and puff, I don\u2019t think it will get there either. By the time we realise what a huge white elephant HS2 is we will have squandered eye-wateringly large sums of money that could have been put to far better use. I\u2019ll be dead and gone by then but will look down from the skies and say \u2018see- told you so\u2019.<\/p>\n

Another England is reasonably possible<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like many northern regionalists, I love many aspects of England including its rich diversity and radical history. The North can take credit for much of what was and often still is good about England, but by no means all of it: the beauty of its landscape, its ingenuity and industry; its music, painting, architecture, science, literature and engineering. Many of these achievements were not seen as specifically \u2018English\u2019 so much as part of a Great Britain and an empire which had emerged triumphant but drastically weakened in its war against fascism.<\/p>\n

A strong British economy with major centres of industry in the North of England, South Wales and the central belt of Scotland had compensated for the structural inequalities, including the centralisation of political power, between London and the rest of the UK. When that traditional industrial base collapsed, from the 1980s, it marked the<\/p>\n

\"\"
Quintessentially English? Accrington, a few years ago<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

beginning of the end for \u2018Great Britain\u2019, at least as we know it. The end of Britain, whether we mourn it or not, does offer real opportunities, with a very different \u2018England\u2019 working positively with Scotland, Wales and Ireland (north and south, but re-unification is beginning to look like a serious possibility) as well as Europe.<\/p>\n

We must not succumb to an England of the stereotypes \u2013 of the village green and the quaint church with the flag of St George flying high. That awful term \u2018quintessentially English\u2019 has no space for the North, nor for urban, multi-cultural London and Birmingham. And a I wish they’d stop patronisingly referring, in lower case, to \u2018the north\u2019, that land of the supposed ‘red wall’ constituencies, which actually have changed hands throughout much of the last century.<\/p>\n

We need to create a new England which is re-balanced, with the historic exploitation of its regions reversed. The germ of a decentralised, progressive England is already there and it has been highlighted \u2013 perhaps clumsily \u2013 by the proponents of \u2018progressive Englishness\u2019. Another England is <\/em>possible, but it\u2019s an England of the regions.<\/p>\n

What could an \u2018England of the regions\u2019 mean in practice? The alternative to a unitary, centralised English Parliament should be a de-centralised England which reflects the regional diversity of the country and sits comfortably with its neighbours. Could \u2018English regionalism\u2019 be just as reactionary as English nationalism? Experience from elsewhere in Europe, suggests not. Regionalism tends to be inclusive and socially progressive, with no \u2018empire\u2019 baggage. \u00a0When I was campaigning for the small regionalist party Yorkshire First (now The Yorkshire Party) I found that regional identities were predictably strong in white working class areas but also in working class South Asian communities. Regional identity can be a very unifying force.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s \u2018identity\u2019 which is key. We need to re-think the \u2018regional\u2019 map of England and not take the post-war regional boundaries (through the standard planning regional structure) as given. People\u2019s identities are as important as what works economically. Some English regions form an obvious shape \u2013 Yorkshire and its neighbour the North-East being perhaps two of the most obvious. Others, including the North-West, don\u2019t. We should be careful of drawing arbitrary distinctions which ignore people\u2019s strong sense of identity \u2013 which is one of the biggest cards that regionalism has to play. And there\u2019s no doubt that \u2018identity\u2019 is a tricky thing, with people having identities that are national, regional, local and neighbourhood; as well as \u2018European\u2019 and wider.<\/p>\n

Within \u2018The North\u2019 regional identity is often strongest at a lower, more regional, level than \u2018The North\u2019. As\u00a0 Ian Martin has argued: \u201c…it is important to recognise that for many people in Yorkshire, their primary sense of identity is not Northern or English, but Yorkshire. English parliament supporters often point to the 2011 census and use it to suggest increasing numbers of people in Yorkshire feel primarily English. In reality however, the census doesn\u2019t give people in Yorkshire a fair opportunity to identify with identities other than \u2018English\u2019 or \u2018British\u2019. When the option to identify as Yorkshire is given, as described by Pete Woodcock, the overwhelming majority identified as \u2018Yorkshire\u2019 with only a smaller proportion identifying as \u2018English\u2019 as well. The most common identity was \u2018more Yorkshire than English\u2019 and around 15% of residents surveyed rejected the idea of English identity completely.\u201d<\/p>\n

My gut feeling is that a similar response would come from Lancashire (including some of those parts which are now in Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cumbria), if people were asked. The mayor of \u2018North of the Tyne\u2019 (a strange concept), Jamie Driscoll, captured a sense of regional versus \u2018English\u2019 identity in the North-east when he said recently \u201cUp here, we talk about defending the North-east. Bringing up the union \u2013 well, that\u2019s a reminder of the Establishment down south, isn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n

So perhaps a revived and enlarged \u2018Lancashire\u2019 alongside Merseyside and Cumbria would be an option instead of a \u2018North-West\u2019 region which few people identify with. The obvious solution is to ask people, using citizens\u2019 assemblies and other grassroots participative approaches rather than the blunt instrument of a referendum which would easily be swayed by the media, as we saw in the North-East in 2004 (still held up by centralists as a reason why \u2018regional democracy\u2019 is not wanted). If any of this is of interest, why not sign up to membership of the Hannah Mitchell Foundation? It’s free – we are currently updating the website but here it is: www.hannah-mitchell.org.uk<\/p>\n

NIP in the bud<\/strong><\/p>\n

An interesting new feature on the political landscape is the Northern Independence Party (NIP). It was formed in October 2020 and has skilfully used social media to gain a lot of interest, not least among the young folk. It is politics with a Northern accent and a sense of humour (it has a whippet as its mascot). It is fielding former Colne Valley Labour MP Thelma Walker as its candidate in the Hartlepool by-election and will be up against the North-East Party, as wella s the mainstream parties and oddballs. More on NIP and prospects for a \u2018Northumbrian nationalism\u2019 in the next Salvo, but see www.freethenorth.co.uk<\/p>\n

Around Hoghton Bottoms and Withnell Fold<\/strong><\/p>\n

The focus of our local walks has shifted to the north-east slightly. We haven\u2019t quite exhausted the area around Coppull and Standish but probably done most of it, including discovering remains of the colliery branch from Coppull to Welsh Whittle pit, once the stamping ground of preserved 11456, the Lancashire and Yorkshire Rly saddletank. The area for our wanderings now is around Hoghton and Withnell. The<\/p>\n

\"\"
Withnell Fold – the old paper mill, looking up from canal bridge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Leeds \u2013 Liverpool Canal runs through it making for a nice \u2018outward\u2019 walk and through fields and woodland to return. Withnell Fold is a good place to start, a former mill village that is hidden away, off the Chorley \u2013 Blackburn road. The old paper mill is still largely intact and used for small businesses. The fine company houses are well preserved and there seems to be a very active community based around the cricket ground and its social club. The canal is just to the north of the village \u2013 we walked in Blackburn direction as far as the bridge that takes you to Ollerton Fold, then along paths back to our starting point. A subsequent walk was from Hoghton, starting from the railway bridge at the \u2018summit\u2019 of the line and a good place to photograph steam specials when they re-commence (soon). The path down to Hoghton Bottoms is attractive and the view of the railway viaduct from the river is stunning. The River Darwen bursts through rocks in a scene that is quite stunning. The path takes you under the viaduct and along the river bank, ending up near Feniscowles. If you cross the main road and walk by the remains of the former paper mill (there was a lot of paper making round here) you get onto the canal. Head back towards Wheelton and pick up a path to Riley Green. Crossing fields, you\u2019ll reach Hoghton, passing the fine village pub, The Royal Oak, which will shortly re-open for outside drinks and meals. Can\u2019t wait.<\/p>\n

Allen Clarke \u2013 remembering Teddy Ashton<\/strong><\/p>\n

He was friends with Keir Hardie, corresponded with Tolstoy and met Thomas Hardy. He was loved by tens of thousands of Lancashire mill workers and had a bewildering output of novels, sketches in Lancashire dialect and works of philosophy. Yet today Allen Clarke is little known,<\/p>\n

\"\"
Portrait of the author as a young lad<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

even in his native county. My book on him \u2013 Lancashire\u2019s Romantic Radical \u2013 the life and writings of Allen Clarke\/Teddy Ashton <\/em>was published in 200,. For various reasons it wasn\u2019t an ideal time to launch a book but I have managed to shift 500 copies. It\u2019s time for a new edition. Here is a bit about him…<\/p>\n

I first discovered Allen Clarke when I was a student at Lancaster in the 1970s. Mooching about in the university library I came across a collection of dialect sketches set in my home town, Bolton.\u00a0 They were funny, perceptive and politically incisive. The author was \u2018Teddy Ashton\u2019 whom, it turned out, was a writer called Allen Clarke. It began a close life-long friendship, though we have yet to meet. Clarke was born in Bolton on February 27th<\/sup> 1863. He became one of the North\u2019s most popular dialect writers, following in the footsteps of Edwin Waugh, Ben Brierley and Samuel\u00a0 Laycock, a generation later. He was at his peak between the mid-1890s and late 1920s, with thousands of devoted readers amongst the mill workers of Lancashire and Yorkshire. He was best known by his \u2018Teddy Ashton\u2019 pen-name which he used for his \u2018Tum Fowt Sketches\u2019<\/em> set in \u2018Tum Fowt\u2019 (or \u2018Tonge Fold\u2019) just outside Bolton. He was, in the broadest sense, a \u2018libertarian socialist\u2019. \"\"He was friends with Tolstoy and tried to set up a co-operative community near Blackpool in 1903-5. His writings did much to turn public opinion against child labour. In the 1890s the \u2018half-time\u2019 system was still in general operation across Lancashire, with working class kids going to work in the mill at 6 a.m. then school in the afternoon.<\/p>\n

He had complex spiritual interests \u2013 he helped to popularise eastern philosophy in his newspapers and in books such as What is Man?<\/em> \u00a0and The Meaning of Life<\/em>. He was a spiritualist; his book The Eternal Question<\/em> is probably the best statement of his religious beliefs. Running through all his work is his passion for Lancashire, and cycling.<\/p>\n

The new edition of my book is a) significantly enlarged with a new chapter on his railway writings b) properly referenced and c) has an index. Maybe there\u2019s a d) as well \u2013 hopefully most of the typos have been removed. The book is at the printers \u2013 Minerva Press, Bolton. The same firm which printed Moorlands, Memories and Reflections last year, so they\u2019ll do a good job. It should be ready in May and I\u2019m hoping to keep the price around \u00a315. There will be a pre-publication offer for Salvo readers.<\/p>\n

Looking back on our history<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Johnston’s important book on child labour was published by the Fabian Society in 1912<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My most recent piece in The Bolton News\u2019<\/em> \u2018Looking Back\u2019 pages was on Dr John Johnston \u2013 GP and railway doctor, Whitmanite, poet, cyclist and supporter of Bolton Labour Church. A close friend of Edward Carpenter\u2019s and advocate of \u2018beauty in civic life\u2019. The full article is here: https:\/\/www.theboltonnews.co.uk\/news\/19191649.boltons-illustrious-doctor-johnston—man-many-talents\/<\/a><\/p>\n

The previous feature celebrated four exceptional women \u2013 Alice Foley, Sarah Reddish, Susan Isaacs and Alice Collinge: https:\/\/www.theboltonnews.co.uk\/news\/19154232.celebrating-legacy-four-pioneering-women-bolton\/<\/p>\n

Illuminating books from the Lancashire Loominary<\/strong><\/p>\n

I mentioned other books in the pipeline, so here goes. After Allen Clarke<\/em> I\u2019m bringing out a new edition of my Walt Whitman (With Walt Whitman in Bolton: spirituality, sex and socialism in a Northern Mill-town<\/em>) book which includes a new section on \u2018Walt Whitman and Socialism in the North of England\u2019. It effectively doubles the size of the original which despite having gone through four editions hasn\u2019t changed much since I did the first one in 1984. This will be a significant change and hopefully improvement. Again, it\u2019s well referenced and has an index, keeps most of the illustrations and adds a lot of new material. It \"\"includes a piece by Stuart Murray on the more recent history of the Bolton-Whitman connection, mostly the annual Whitman Walk. The new book will be called Unlikely Pioneers: Walt Whitman and Northern Socialism 1885-2021<\/em>. I\u2019m aiming to have it out for Whitman Day \u2013 May 31st<\/sup>. After that, I\u2019m bringing out a new edition of Socialism with a Northern Accent<\/em>. The original was published in 2012 and the world has moved on. The early history of socialism in the North of England is all still valid but I\u2019ve added new material and brought the story up to date. There will be a lot more on politics in the North today and prospects for a radical Northern political revival that can challenge the Tories. That should be out in September. I\u2019m thinking about a completely new book which incorporates bits of Northern Rail Heritage <\/em>(2009)\u00a0 and Railpolitik<\/em> (2011) into a new production called, provisionally: Northern Railways: Trains as if people mattered<\/em>. Alongside all those, I am toying with a new novel. More on that soon.<\/p>\n

Books in print or kindle<\/strong><\/p>\n

The main sales items at the moment are my book celebrating the West \"\"Pennine Moors \u2013 Moorlands, Memories and Reflections<\/em> and a sudden rush of interest in my novel (set in Horwich Loco Works) The Works. This could be related to the special offer of \u00a36 while stocks last. The \u2018Bolton \u2013 Lancashire\u2019 face mask is now sold out and has raised about \u00a3500 for local charities. I\u2019m also doing a half-price offer on the current With Walt Whitman in Bolton<\/em>, for \u00a35.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m in the process of putting books onto kindle (well, Simon is on my behalf, far too complicated for me). The life and work of Allen Clarke\/Teddy Ashton \u2013 Lancashire\u2019s Romantic Radical<\/em> (see above) \u2013 will be going on the kindle list, as well as With Walt Whitman in Bolton<\/em> \u2013 which may help sales in America.<\/p>\n

Full details of all publications are on my website here (or see summary below): www.lancashireloominary.co.uk or email me for details at info@lancashireloominary.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n

Second-Hand Department<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Lancashire Loominary Secondhand Bookshop has stirred a bit of interest. There\u2019s still some quite good stuff there and I’ve added a few things recently \u2013 you can view it at http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/index.html\/second-hand-books . I\u2019ve added a few more things to it and I\u2019m happy to consider swops for interesting books on Lancashire, politics, railways etc.<\/p>\n

My photo gallery \u2013 an emphasis on steam (but not completely)<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been making some changes to my website\/s…I\u2019m keeping www.lancashireloominary.co.uk<\/a>\u00a0 for all publications, including The Salvo<\/em>. However, www.paulsalveson.org.uk<\/a> has been re-born as Paul Salveson Photography: places, trains and factories<\/em> or summat like that.<\/p>\n

There are several pages dealing with different aspects of my photography: BR Steam, Continental Steam, The Modern Railway, Industrial Steam, Northern Rural Landscapes, Mills and Mines, and Strikes, Riots and Demonstrations. This is my current favourite: Industrial Railways UK 1966 \u2013 1980 \u2013 Paul Salveson Photography<\/a><\/p>\n

Good places to buy my books and other things<\/strong><\/p>\n

As lockdown starts to ease, more shops will be opening in the next few weeks which sell my books. These include Carnforth Bookshop, Wrights\u2019 Reads in Horwich, Pendle Heritage Centre in Barrowford and Kelsall\u2019s in Littleborough. Please support your local bookshops, it\u2019s vital they survive.<\/p>\n

A great feature of any walk up Rivington Pike is the Pike Snack Shack on George\u2019s Lane \u2013 a long way up, the last place before you get on the track to the summit. They do coffee, pies, sandwiches and cakes for takeaway and you can sit amidst the heather and savour the view across the West Lancashire Plain. You can also buy copies of Moorlands, Memories and Reflections<\/em>.\u00a0 Another popular addition to my list of retail<\/p>\n

\"\"
Leonie Smethurst, Pike Snack Shack owner – Rivington Pike is the traditional destination for Boltonians on a Good Friday but the crowds are being discouraged this year. But if you do go, get a cake and a brew from the Snack Shack<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

outlets is Bunbury\u2019s real ale shop at 397 Chorley Old Road, Bolton. The bar side of the business is currently shut but they are open for takeaway. I can recommend their oatmeal stout and some superb German lager. Another slightly unconventional outlet is A Small Good Thing, on Church Road. This is a great little shop mainly selling organic fruit and veg and a range of \u2018small good things\u2019. Fletcher\u2019s Newsagents on Markland Hill Bolton are stockists.<\/p>\n

Justicia Fair Trade Shop on Knowsley Street, Bolton, is handy for the town centre and has a full set of my books available (and some great gifts from around the world, ethically sourced). The shop is open and they’re planning a special event on Saturday April 17th with more stock on display and other groups having stalls (including me!).<\/p>\n

Horwich Heritage Centre stock some of my books. They will be opening the shop in two weeks – check website for details: www.horwichheritage.co.uk. They have a great selection of railway memorabilia.<\/p>\n

Winter Hill 125 \u2013 this September, join us for a walk o\u2019er Winter Hill<\/strong><\/p>\n

Plans to celebrate the 125th<\/sup> anniversary of the 1896 Winter Hill \u2018mass trespass\u2019 continue to evolve with strong interest from The Woodland Trust, local unions, The Ramblers and many more groups and individuals. The celebration will take place on Sunday September 5th<\/sup> 2021 \u2013 get it in your diary now! My book on the mass trespass is available price \u00a35 (plus postage if not local) \u2013 see below. It is hoped to have some major events this year, circumstances permitting. More details to follow. The best way of keeping updated is to join the Winter Hill 125 facebook page. The zoom conference on march 12th<\/sup> went very well \u2013 though we were over-subscribed with 170 people registered. We could only allow in 100! However, it is now available on youtube, take a look: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=OdDUgiWz1lg<\/a><\/p>\n

Small Salvoes<\/strong><\/p>\n