P h o t o B l o g

Tuesday 21 May 2013

ABC Wednesday: Statue


Today's post for ABC Wednesday is S for "Statue" and the photo shows the statue of Hugh Mason which stands in Trafalgar Square in Ashton's West End.

Hugh Mason was a local mill-owner and social reformer. He owned the massive Oxford Mills complex, built by his father, not far from where his statue now stands. He built houses for his workforce, along with community facilities, and was the first local mill owner to give his workers Saturday afternoons off! He kept his employees in work during the "Cotton Famine" when some of his competitors were laying off their workers.

He became a Liberal councillor, mayor and eventually Member of Parliament for the town. When his wife Sarah died after only six years of marriage, he married her sister, Betsy. As this was illegal in Britain at the time, he obtained a special licence from the King of Denmark and was married in that country. He had one child with Sarah and four with Betsy before she died after just seven years.

The statue was originally at Chester Square but was moved after that square became a glorified traffic junction, as you saw in this recent post.

See Google Street View of this location.

(Click photo for larger version. Press Back button to return here.)

"Statue" is a contribution to ABC Wednesday. For more "S" posts from around the world please follow this link.

7 comments:

  1. Looks like a nice place to sit and enjoy a nice day.
    An Arkies Musings

    ReplyDelete
  2. Looks like the statue has a great view!

    Leslie
    abcw team

    ReplyDelete
  3. It's nice to have the local person commerated for his good deeds.

    ReplyDelete
  4. That's much improved since I was there in 2007

    ReplyDelete
  5. Is the statue angry? It seems to have its arms crossed.
    ROG, ABC Wednesday team

    ReplyDelete
  6. What a fascinating person. Looks a pleasant place to sit in the sunshine.
    Joy - ABC Team

    ReplyDelete
  7. Many years ago he used to look down Msrgaret St, where we lived. A brilliant guide for visiting relatives from afar, they always looked for Hugh!!

    ReplyDelete

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