The Mass Observation survey of life in Bolton between 1937 and 1940 is justly celebrated today. The aim was to observe and record everyday life in all its forms in one town - at work, at home, on the street, in the pub, in church. Scores of volunteers observed thousands of conversations and events over a three-year period, which were recorded in careful, sometimes dizzying detail. No other town has such a comprehensive account of its recent past. Worktown-s People tells the tale of three dozen Bolton people, most of them working class, who contributed to Mass Observation-s Bolton Survey. Little has been written about them as the focus has mostly been on the educated elite who led Mass Observation.Recent research confirms that these local volunteers were at the very heart of Mass Observation in Bolton, contributing as many, if not more, observation reports than the outsiders. Most of the local volunteers did not keep diaries or write books and had no public profile, so their lives and a
