[2] He worked a great deal with radical reformers such as Richard Cobden in organising peace conferences and in setting up schools and soup kitchens for the poor of Manchester.

[3] It is his belief as a Quaker that is quoted as causing the early editions of Bradshaw's guides to have avoided using the names of months based upon Roman deities which was seen as "pagan" usage.

While touring Norway in 1853, he contracted cholera and died in Kristiana (now Oslo) on 6 September, a mere 8 hours after first showing symptoms of the disease.

[5] As a local law prohibited the return of his body to England, he was interred in the Gamlebyen cemetery, about a mile from Oslo Cathedral.

In the 14th episode of series 2, "Batley to Sheffield", Portillo met a great-great-granddaughter of George Bradshaw, who showed him part of the family archive.

They are an invaluable source of information on all trades of the time, not unlike John Murray's Handbooks, but on a much larger scale (hundreds of pages in a single volume).