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
Bertie Dickens Bertie Dickens Bertie Caudill Dickens (1902–1994) was an old-time banjo player from the community of Ennice in Alleghany County, North Carolina. Dickens was born in Grayson County, Virginia, but lived most of her life in Ennice. Dickens was raised in a musical family. Her father, Sid Caudill, was a banjo player and her brothers, Hus, Joe, and Clell were fiddle and banjo players. Together, Sid and his sons operated a sawmill in what is now Felts Park, Galax, Virginia. Bertie learned to play the fiddle and banjo as a young child, and played both the old-time clawhammer style as well