Paul Salveson PhD, MBE is Visiting Professor at the Universities of Bolton and Huddersfield. His academic career focussed on Lancashire dialect and literature; he later pioneered community railway projects across the UK. His books include With Walt Whitman in Bolton and Northern Rail Heritage. He divides his time between Bolton and Grange-over-Sands.

A landmark new history of the great English county of Lancashire, exploring its people’s impact on Britain and beyond.  

This popular history explores the cultural heritage and identity of Lancashire, stretching from the Mersey to the Lake District. Paul Salveson charts the county’s transformation from a largely agricultural region noted for its religious learning into the Industrial Revolution’s powerhouse, as an emerging self-confident bourgeoisie drove economic growth. This capital boom came with a cultural blossoming, creating today’s Lancashire. 

Industrialists strongly committed to the arts endowed galleries and museums, producing a diverse world of science, technology, music and literature. Lancashire developed a distinct business culture, but this was also the birthplace of the world co-operative movement, and the heart of democracy campaigns including Chartism and women’s suffrage. Lancashire has generally welcomed incomers, who have long helped to inform its distinctive identity: fourteenth-century Flemish weavers; nineteenth-century Irish immigrants and Jewish refugees; and, more recently, ‘New Lancastrians’ from Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe. 

This long-overdue book explores contemporary Lancastrian culture, following modern upheavals and Lancashire’s fragmentation compared with its old rival Yorkshire. What future awaits the 6 million people of this rich historic region.

• Date: 4 October 2023
• Wednesday 7.30pm
• Online via Zoom Eventbrite
• Speaker: Dr Paul Salveson
• Booking: Eventbrite

Please note: All events are subject to last minute changes due to circumstances beyond our control.  Please check our monthly Newsletter and Facebook page for any last minute changes, as that is the only way we can contact people.

Dr Jim Beach Senior Lecturer in Twentieth Century History Faculty of Arts, Science & Technology University of Northampton

"Researching First World War Soldiers: Using The example of the William Harcourt Diary”

Dr Jim Beach is a senior lecturer in History at the University of Northampton and taught previously at the University of Salford.   His main interest is British military intelligence in the First World War, but his investigations sometimes lead him into other areas such as the artillery officer he will be talking about.  Jim will discuss a collection of wartime diaries written by an ancestor of one of our members Major William Harcourt (second from left standing), who served in Siege Battery 330 on the Messin Ridge.   This collection has now been accepted by the National Army Museum Chelsea to be available for public research, and Jim has plans to use some for his own project.

• Date: 1 November 2023
• Wednesday 7.30pm
• Online via Zoom Eventbrite
• Speaker: Dr Jim Beach
• Booking: Eventbrite

Please note: All events are subject to last minute changes due to circumstances beyond our control.  Please check our monthly Newsletter and Facebook page for any last minute changes, as that is the only way we can contact people.

A December Festive Evening with a supper, raffle and quiz at Bolton Golf Club is confirmed and advance ticket only.

These will be on sale at the next two meetings or please contact the Secretary at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more details regarding, how to get a ticket.

Members £5

Guests  £10

• Date: 6 December 2023
• Wednesday 7.30pm
• Speaker: To be confirmed
• Booking: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Please note this is the second and not the first Wednesday of the month, which is our norm due to seasonal adjustments.

Wayne Ashton -  The story of how my Grandmas Uncle Thomas Fords, an Operative Cotton Spinner and Aunt Fanny (nee Hall) a Cotton Winder.  Two 19th century Bolton mill workers, were recruited to work in Russia in 1861 and stayed for forty years.

This is how I got interested in the subject only to find that there were thousands of other British in Russia up until 1917 and some actually never came back.  They made quite a community for themselves, including their own churches, schools, and their own doctors. (Paraphrased from Waynes introduction.)

• Date: 10th January 2024
• Wednesday 7.30pm (second Wednesday in the month)
• Bolton Golf Club & Online via Zoom Eventbrite
• Speaker: Waynes Ashton
• Booking: Eventbrite

Please note: All events are subject to last minute changes due to circumstances beyond our control.  Please check our monthly Newsletter and Facebook page for any last minute changes, as that is the only way we can contact people.

Brian Groom is a journalist and one of the foremost experts on British regional and national affairs. He has a lifelong interest in history and was a regular reader of History Today by age 12. His career was spent mainly at the Financial Times, as a  writer  and editing jobs, but he was also a former editor of Scotland on Sunday, which won many awards. Originally from Stretford, Lancashire (now part of Greater Manchester), he returned to live in the north – in Saddleworth, south Pennines – in 2015. 

This book was published Paperback – 25 May 2023  by Harper North, and it is the first general history of northern England to be published for more than 30 years. The northwest, including Bolton and Bury, naturally forms an important part of the story. 

We are promised an entertaining event with wide appeal and plenty of local interest, a 45-minute romp through 180 million years of northern history, and he has two more books in the pipeline, “Mancunians” and “These Isles”. A busy chap

Please note, this event will include our Annual General Meeting, which typically takes about 10 minutes and includes the nominating of, and voting for our new 2024-2025 committee. More information to be announced nearer the time on our Facebook page and monthly free to all Enewsletter the Boltongenies.

• Date: 7 Febuary 2024
• Wednesday 7.30pm
• Bolton Golf Club & Online via Zoom Eventbrite
• Speaker: Brian Groom
• Booking: Evenbrite

Please note: All events are subject to last minute changes due to circumstances beyond our control.  Please check our monthly Newsletter and Facebook page for any last minute changes, as that is the only way we can contact people.

Ray Jefferson - Ray with a background of being a local author and lifelong photographer.  Believes photography should be valued according to the contribution it makes to society.   He is the chairman, photographer for the voluntary community & arts organisation and Bolton Documentary Photography.  Meet the team (boltondocumentary.co.uk) .  In its 25+ years of existence, there have been many members.   Some have moved on to other parts of Britain or overseas, some sadly have passed on.  All have shared the same keen commitment though to picturing and recording life in Bolton.

• Date: 6th March 2024
• Wednesday 7.30pm
• Bolton Golf Club & Online via Zoom Eventbrite
• Speaker: Ray Jefferson
• Booking: Eventbrite

Please note: All events are subject to last minute changes due to circumstances beyond our control.  Please check our monthly Newsletter and Facebook page for any last minute changes, as that is the only way we can contact people.

Maggy Simm -  Maggy is a retired teacher and has been involved in local history for many years, and latterly a member of the u3a. Following one of her u3a local history talks, fellow u3a member Jenny Mitton got in touch concerning an heirloom in the form of an illuminated photo album, belonging to a late relative Henry Dawson.  Jenny now lives out of the area, but would like to see the album included one day in Bolton's Archives.  In the meantime, she allowed Maggy to photograph it and to invite Bolton Family History Society to look further into its background.

Please see this You Tube link for more detail. https://tinyurl.com/fkz7udv3

• Can anybody identify any of the individuals in the pictures for us?
• Can any more be discovered about T Taylors, such as have the archives of the business been deposited anywhere?
• Who were the family of Thomas Taylor MP?
• There was another contemporary mill in Horwich owned by WT Taylor later called Spirella. Any connection?

• Date: 3 April 2024
• Wednesday 7.30pm
• Bolton Golf Club & Online via Zoom To be confirmed
• Speaker: Maggy Simm
• Booking: Eventbrite to be confirm

Please note: All events are subject to last minute changes due to circumstances beyond our control.  Please check our monthly Newsletter and Facebook page for any last minute changes, as that is the only way we can contact people.

Our Meeting Rooms

Our meetings are normally held at Bolton Golf Club, Chorley New Road, Bolton, BL6 4AJ. There is ample seating and also room for a helpdesk, and a stationery (for sale) table. Coffee and tea is available and the bar is open. The room opens at    7-00pm for the helpdesk and meetings start at 7.30pm.

Our Venue

Bolton Golf Club has ample car parking facilities, access to the first floor is by stairs, and a lift for those with mobility problems. The venue is easy to get to by car and meetings are always popular and well attended.