Description:Photograph of Thomas Salt with his family on a trip on his steam launch 'Dolly Varden' on the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal near Radford, Stafford.
Dolly Varden was a young female character who provided the romantic interest in Charles Dickens' first novel Barnaby Rudge (1841). It would appear that in the 1870s Dolly Varden's character was associated with women's fashions and her name was given to a type of hat and to a calico material.
Thomas Salt, lived nearby at Baswich House, Weeping Cross, was a Director of the Canal Company and at one time M.P. for Stafford.