In the 1960s and 70s, my posh auntie and uncle led a comfortable but modest middle-class life in one of the nicer areas of Bolton.
Their neighbours in the adjoining semi might well have been the inspiration for
Hyacinth Bucket.
From time to time, with husbands safely at work (tightly-furled brollies & briefcases in hand - my uncle was a middle-ranking civil servant, the neighbour a solicitor) and if my aunt wasn't quick enough in finding a "previous engagement", Mrs Bouquet would dragoon her onto daytime shopping trips to the better department stores in Manchester or Liverpool.
These excursions were accomplished by train (DMUs from Bolton to Manchester Victoria or Liverpool Exchange), where "Hyacinth" insisted they travel in First Class. This was presumably to avoid any chance of encountering riff-raff, since there was certainly no problem getting a seat on off-peak local trains in that era (if you were lucky you might get a whole Second Class carriage to yourself).
I'm not sure how much the First Class tickets cost back then relative to typical incomes, but in the absence of Cheap Day Returns, railcards etc, the fare was probably an unwelcome drain on my auntie's housekeeping funds. Also, I suspect, an indulgence she kept more-or-less to herself, my uncle being a thrifty Scot.
Having observed that local DMUs always pottered around with their First Class compartment completely empty, I wonder if these two ladies might have accumulated a collection of consecutively-numbered Edmondson First Class Returns from Bolton T. St. to Liverpool Ex.
