THE grand-daughter of one of Bolton's best-loved literary sons could not get married in his windmill home, so she did the next best thing.

Shirley Currie had hoped to wed Stephen Matthews in Little Marton Mill in Blackpool, the windmill former residence of author and poet Charles Allen Clarke.

But when this proved impossible because the mill will not open to the public until September, she gained special permission to have the marriage blessed in another windmill with which he had strong links. Lytham Windmill was praised in print by Mr Clarke, an enthusiast of such buildings, and even contains an exhibition about him.

Mrs Matthews, as she is now, was the first person ever to be granted permission to have a marriage blessed there.

She said: "The place is a museum and I was told it's only because I'm Allen Clarke's grand-daughter, and because of his connection with the mill, that we got permission."

Bolton-born Mr Clarke wrote his first novel, The Lass At The Man and Scythe, when he was 22 and became renowned for his writings in the hugely successful Teddy Ashton's Journal, as well as for various poems and articles.

He went on to edit the Blackpool Echo and wrote a daily column for the Bolton Evening News under the pen name "Old Boltonian" right up to his death in 1935.

Mrs Matthews, who lives in Blackpool, is writing a biography of her grandfather and says Bolton people have been a great help.