John Bright

This statue of John Bright stands in Broadfield Park. Bright was born in Rochdale in 1811 and became a prominent radical reformer and Liberal politician. My favourite fact about him is that he was the first person recorded as having used the phrase "flogging a dead horse."

The statue shows him gazing across the busy junction towards the Rochdale Sixth Form College, opened in 2010, the first new such College in England and Wales since 2003 and which already has results amongst the top 5% in the country.

The shape of his right hand always makes me think he is checking his mobile phone for text messages.