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RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: september 2021 :: RMTnews
26
More than any other writer of
the early 20th century, Allen
Clarke captured the essence of
life in the industrial North; and
that included one of his
passions – railways. Paul
Salveson’s updated biography
of the great, but neglected,
Northern writer Allen Clarke
includes a new chapter
dedicated to his writings on
railways.
He was born into a working-
class Bolton family in 1863 but
most of his later life was spent
in Blackpool. He followed his
parents into the mill, starting
as a ‘half-timer’ at the age of
11. He went on to write over
20 novels, dozens of short
stories and poems as well as
factual accounts of life in the
factories, one of which was
translated into Russian by
Tolstoy, whom he greatly
admired as a writer and
political thinker. He was
passionate about the
environment and his book The
Effects of the Factory System
(1895) is a social and also
environmental critique of the
Lancashire cotton industry.
His sketches in Lancashire
dialect (written as ‘Teddy
Ashton’) “poked sly fun and
undermining sarcasm” at the
social evils of the day and sold
over a million copies. His
newspapers, like Teddy
Ashton’s Northern Weekly,
were read and passed round
mill and factory by thousands.
His book Windmill Land
popularised the Fylde
countryside and is a mix of
history, folklore and roadsides
chats. Moorlands and
Memories extolled the
beauties of what we now call
‘the West Pennine Moors’.
Alongside his Christmas
Lancashire Annual (published
every year from 1892 to 1935)
he produced a Blackpool
Annual in the 1920s aimed at
summer visitors as well as the
local community.
His railway writings feature
descriptions of ‘cheap trips’
from the Lancashire cotton
towns to Blackpool, and
dialect sketches about life on
the railways – including the
hilarious ‘Bill Spriggs as a
Railway Porter’ set at Moses
Gate station, Bolton. He also
carried satirical sketches about
life in Horwich Loco Works,
published in his paper The
Bolton Trotter, a few years
after the works opened. His
serialised novels were read by
textile workers - and by
railwaymen.
Paul Salveson has written a
considerably updated edition
of the biography first
published twelve years ago. It
includes lots of new material
that sheds more light on this
important, but neglected
figure in English literature who
was loved by thousands of his
readers in the textile districts
of Lancashire and Yorkshire.
He had a close relationship
with his audience and one
group of Manchester
railwaymen wrote to Clarke
protesting at the abrupt way
he ended one of his novels!
As well as his own work,
Clarke encouraged other
working-class men and women
to write for his newspapers
and was instrumental in
forming the Lancashire
Authors’ Association in 1911.
His ‘readers’ picnics’ attracted
hundreds of visitors, often
arriving by train or bicycle.
One, at Barrow Bridge near
Bolton in 1901, was held to
raise funds for the locked-out
quarry workers at Penrhyn,
Wales; it was attended by
several thousand, including
the Clarion Choir. He
mobilised his child readers to
raise funds for the starving
families and organised cycle
trips to the quarry villages.
After his move to
Blackpool, he created the
Blackpool Ramble Club, one
of the biggest walking clubs in
the country who used the train
to get out into the Fylde
countryside. He died in
December 1935 and is buried
at Marton Cemetery, close to
the windmill that is now a
shrine to his memory.
Paul said: “I’m hoping this
new edition will get to a new
audience and help position
Allen Clarke as one of the
foremost working-class writers
of the early 20th century.”
LANCASHIRE’S
ROMANTIC
RADICAL
Author and former rail worker Paul Salveson’s book
celebrates the life of a forgotten writer Allen Clarke
Lancashire’s Romantic Radical book is available to RMT members for price £15.99 (plus £3 postage).
Paul’s ‘Bolton Bicycling Bookshop’ offers free local delivery, by bike, within a few miles’ radius of Bolton.
Email info@lancashireloominary.co.uk or visit www.lancashireloominary.co.uk