150th ANNIVERSARY OF ALLEN CLARKE, LANCASHIRE SOCIALIST AND AUTHOR

That this House notes that this year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Allen Clarke (alias Teddy Ashton) who was born in Bolton at the height of the Lancashire cotton famine and moved in later life to Blackpool; celebrates his achievements as an author, leading dialect writer, poet and radical thinker coming from a working-class background and also for his love of and campaigning to preserve windmills across the Fylde including Little Marton Mill in Blackpool which now serves as a centre for local heritage information; and pays tribute to his granddaughter Shirley Matthews and all those who have worked both to preserve Little Marton Mill and Clarke's memory, including his biographer Paul Salveson, in this his anniversary year.