Ramsbottom Grant Arms Hotel in Market Place was the home of William and Daniel Grant, 19th century industrialists closely associated with the rise of the town and reputed to be the inspiration for the Cheeryble brothers in "Nicholas Nickleby" by Charles Dickens. The Grants' employees were paid in tokens that had to be redeemed at a public house owned by the company. The landlord converted the tokens into cash, but only after deducting threepence per person, which had to be spent on beer, a variation on the truck system. A network of roads and railways routed through Ramsbottom allowed for a
Dickens in America an emotional reading of “Ode to an Expiring Frog.” The show finishes with a visit to Eastern State Penitentiary, a prison that Dickens talked about at length in "American Notes". Dickens wrote how the prisoners had to wear a hood when arriving that prevented them seeing the path from the front gate to their cell, so they had no concept of where in the building they were. Miriam attempts to do the same but can’t go far before she gets too uncomfortable to go on. The prisoners were kept in solitary confinement, with only a bible to read. Naturally many