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 Fellowship Fellowship, B.W. Matz (1865-1925). "The Dickensian" publishes articles of literary criticism from scholars around the world. It also carries reviews of books, plays, films and TV productions, together with reports of Fellowship activities and other Dickens-related news. The current editor is Professor Malcolm Andrews of the University of Kent. In 2002 the Fellowship campaigned to save an area of Kent marshland on the Hoo Peninsula which provided the setting to the opening chapter of Dickens's novel "Great Expectations" where the young Pip first encountered the escaped convict Magwitch. Dickens Fellowship The Dickens Fellowship was founded in 1902, and is an