Professor Paul Salveson is a historian and writer and lives in Bolton. He is visiting professor in ‘Worktown Studies’ at the University of Bolton and author of several books on Lancashire history. Boltonians of a certain age will remember fondly the ‘day trip’ to Blackpool, by train. It has a history stretching back to the middle of the 19th century and was known for generations as ‘th’ chep (cheap) trip’. Allen Clarke, in his novels, poetry and dialect sketches wrote lovingly and realistically about it - an important part of life in Bolton and all of the Lancashire cotton towns.