Cromwell’s stern repose at Wythenshawe Park
I have lived in, and around, and close to, the Manchester area all of my life, but until the 10th of August 2026 I had never been to Wythenshawe park! In fact, I used to confuse Wythenshawe park with the much smaller playing fields near Manchester airport on the edge of the Wythenshawe estate. This year the park is playing host to some significant music events with the Cure headlining and all organised by our friends at Engine Number 4 in Manchester.
I knew that Wythenshawe park had become home to Manchester’s famous, or infamous, Oliver Cromwell statue, which was relocated to the park in 1968. The bronze statue was made by Matthew Noble in 1875 and originally stood at the end of Deansgate close to Victoria and Exchange railway stations. It had a divisive presence in a city split into radical ‘liberals’ and a large Irish catholic diaspora. It is also rumoured that queen Victoria refused to visit Manchester unless the statue was removed?
Cromwell was held in high regard by many of Manchester’s radicals and those that we would now think of as left-leaning or communist, albeit simply because they were anti monarchists. Though these ideas have a very tenuous association with the British parliamentarians. Cromwell instantiated a very strict form of moral authoritarianism based heavily on literal interpretations of biblical scripture in opposition to the perceived idolatry and quasi paganism of the Catholic church which was infused with the decadent culture of its Roman ancestors, or so the parliamentarians and puritans thought. Many of Cromwell’s reformist ideas did however, resonate with anyone that wanted to give the gentry, landlord class, and monied elites a bloody nose.
Manchester was also famously the birthplace of the women’s social and political union – the militant suffragettes, and they also famously held Cromwell in high regard as a radical reformer of the political system in Britain. A fighter for the common man. Some of the first WSPU rallies in Manchester where held in the vicinity of Cromwell’s statue and it is quite intriguing to think that this imposing but now relatively isolated figure once gazed upon Emmeline Pankhurst addressing crowds of Suffragettes.
Personally, I find it intriguing simply because of the shared name but as a person with some Irish catholic ancestry myself and tend to look to our famous Oliver – St Plunkett of Armagh who is widely venerated across the country.
- Title: Oliver Cromwell
- ISO: 100
- Shutter Speed: 1/1000s
- Focal Length: 50mm
- Aperture: f/4
- Date Created: 2026-08-10
- Time Created: 16:45
- Title: The Oliver Cromwell statue in Wythenshawe park, Manchester
- ISO: 100
- Shutter Speed: 1/250s
- Focal Length: 50mm
- Aperture: f/5.6
- Date Created: 2026-08-10
- Time Created: 17:45