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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 The Bolton Evening News wrote in April 1977 that “every week the 470 workers turn 6,000 hairy, smelly hides into high-grade leathers for every purpose under the sun. Their products go to the ends of the earth for conversion into shoes, fashion wear, handbags, hats, brief cases, schoolbags.” Within less than five years, Walkers’ Tannery had closed and those workers – my dad amongst them – were redundant. Everyone brought up in Bolton prior to the 1980s will remember it for one thing – the smell. Curing leather was a very noxious business and if you worked in the limeyard – the biggest in the UK after it was modernised during the war - the smell would never leave you. ....