blue forest dark of memory

Public


236/365: Mary Macarthur statue, Cradley Heath
Click for a larger, sharper image
I was in Cradley Heath today, which to be frank is not the most photogenic of towns. However, I did manage to find something interesting. This sculpture stands in Mary Macarthur Park and depicts her and several of her colleagues. They worked as chainmakers and in 1910 they were on the desperately low wage of five shillings per week. The charismatic Macarthur, a prominent campaigner for universal suffrage who had also been at the forefront of women's trade union activity for some years, led the workers out on strike. Her speeches attracted large crowds of supporters in and around Cradley. After ten weeks they won, and the minimum wage in the industry was increased to eleven shillings. Sadly, Macarthur died of cancer in 1921, aged only 40. This statue, by local sculpture Luke Perry, was unveiled in 2012.