Bolton Wonders
Jun. 22nd, 2010 10:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
steepholmLast night I had the chance to look around Bolton for the first time, and was very taken with the statuary in the main square. Some of it was the kind of thing you might expect - civic appreciations of formers mayors and leaders of corporations, and the like.
But there were also more unlikely subjects, such as the People's Steeplejack, Fred Dibnah.
There was also what purported to be a War Memorial, but which I prefer to view as a before-and-after allegory of the danger posed by unlicensed chiropractors.
This won't hurt a bit...
Oh dear.
Then came a statue of a man whose only identification was the single word CHADWICK, carved boldly into his plinth. No doubt I should know who Chadwick was, and why he needs no further introduction, but I don't.
I walked round all four sides, but no more writing was to be found. There was a however a mute clue, in the form of a plaque on the plinth ("plaque on the plinth" is a wonderfully cheering phrase to type or indeed to say aloud, by the way). From this I infer that it was Chadwick's custom to don a poke bonnet and pass amongst the poor of nineteenth-century Bolton, bringing cheer to all he met. I will be rather sad if this turns out not to be the case.
(Oh, all right. I googled him, of course. The statue is probably of this bloke. [ETA: Or, more likely still, this one. Thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mraltariel for the link.])
Finally, I would so like to see a Romeo and Juliet story in which the son of Sizzles falls in love with the daughter of The Food Factory.
Bolton beats Verona, any day of the week.
But there were also more unlikely subjects, such as the People's Steeplejack, Fred Dibnah.
There was also what purported to be a War Memorial, but which I prefer to view as a before-and-after allegory of the danger posed by unlicensed chiropractors.
This won't hurt a bit...
Oh dear.
Then came a statue of a man whose only identification was the single word CHADWICK, carved boldly into his plinth. No doubt I should know who Chadwick was, and why he needs no further introduction, but I don't.
I walked round all four sides, but no more writing was to be found. There was a however a mute clue, in the form of a plaque on the plinth ("plaque on the plinth" is a wonderfully cheering phrase to type or indeed to say aloud, by the way). From this I infer that it was Chadwick's custom to don a poke bonnet and pass amongst the poor of nineteenth-century Bolton, bringing cheer to all he met. I will be rather sad if this turns out not to be the case.
(Oh, all right. I googled him, of course. The statue is probably of this bloke. [ETA: Or, more likely still, this one. Thanks to
mraltariel for the link.])Finally, I would so like to see a Romeo and Juliet story in which the son of Sizzles falls in love with the daughter of The Food Factory.
Bolton beats Verona, any day of the week.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-23 08:54 am (UTC)It's a jolly good little museum- with a surprisingly impressive Egyptological section.
My wife used to be a Chadwick. Her parents still are.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-23 08:58 am (UTC)My wife used to be a Chadwick. Her parents still are.
I understand it runs in families.