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Secret of park's statue
4/ 6/2003
THERE is a statue in Alexandra Park of Joseph Howarth (Blind Joe) the last Oldham Bellman. Joe was born blind and took to the church, becoming a lay. preacher.
He made up for his disability by having a wonderful memory, They say that you could read him a passage of the bible (his favourite book) and he could recite it back word perfect and he never forgot any passage read to him. A handy asset when you were the bellman and had to give out the news each day in the market place. .
One of his duties was declaring the market open every Saturday morning and declaring it closed at 11.30pm on a Saturday night, making sure all the stall-holders and customers had gone home. It must have been an early form of late night shopping, and that was over 150 years ago.
Joe died in 1862 and a collection was started to erect a memorial to him. This took the form of a statue, unveiled in 1868, and was said to be the only statue in England with a top hat. They used to say that at midnight on the night of a full moon. He raised his right foot and their was a ten shilling note under it, but that might have just been an excuse for staying out late in the park.
The only criticism of Joseph was that he had no sense of humour and insisted that everything must be done by the book - a trait that didn't endear him to everyone.
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