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Oliver Cromwell statue on Deansgate outside Manchester cathedral with Strangeways prison and Boddingtons brewery in the background #NotMyKing

Oliver Cromwell has been a ‘marmite’ figure in history, seen by some as a champion of liberty and regarded as a seventeenth-century tyrant and butcher by others. Queen Victoria wasn’t a big fan of Oliver Cromwell because he was a Republican who liked chopping the heads off members of her family.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_I_of_England

 

Legend has it that Queen Victoria refused to come to the opening of the brand new Manchester Town Hall in 1877 unless the statue of Cromwell was removed. It wasn’t, so she didn’t come.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Town_Hall

 

Cromwell's statue has since been exiled to Wythenshawe Park, where he stands to this day. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wythenshawe_Park

 

See also, a tale of two statues library.chethams.com/blog/a-tale-of-two-statues/

 

 

Picture by Ben Brooksbank on Wikimedia Commons w.wiki/6j9y

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Uploaded on May 19, 2023
Taken on April 11, 1960