Scotch Bob

It was a pretty miserable day so I walked to Go Outdoors to buy some insoles for my new hiking boots which I’m having a bit of trouble breaking in.  They are really comfortable for the first 9 or 10 miles, but any further and I get heel pain.  After Go Outdoors I decide to take the long way home, through Cheadle.
 
So unsurprisingly today’s photo is of Cheadle, or rather the only sculpture I know of in the centre of Cheadle.
 
Scotch Bob came to Cheadle from Dumfriesshire in 1871 and by 1879 he was a bus driver, fond of quoting Robbie Burns as he drove along.  In 1908 he set a British record for having driven horse-drawn buses over 60,000 miles on the route between Cheadle and Manchester.
 
I am not sure why he was selected to be the subject of a sculpture, but he did live at the other end of Cheadle High Street.  I guess he must have been a well-known Cheadle celebrity in his day.