Trafford Park Village, The Memorial to Marshall Stevens

Image: © David Dixon Taken: 14 Sep 2014

The memorial to Marshall Stevens, who is credited with being a prime mover in the creation of the Trafford Park Industrial Estate. Marshall Stevens (1852 – 1936) was a property developer whose work with Daniel Adamson and others led to the construction of the Manchester Ship Canal, completed in 1894. In 1897, Stevens become general manager of Trafford Park Estates, a company set up to develop Trafford Park, the ancestral home of the de Trafford family, into what became the first and largest planned industrial estate in the world. He also served as Conservative Member of Parliament for Eccles from 1918 to 1922. After Stevens died and was buried in St Catherine Church at Barton-upon-Irwell, shareholders in Trafford Park Estates subscribed to pay for a memorial. A 22-ton block of Welsh granite with a bronze portrait medallion and inscription was designed and made by Ashton upon Mersey sculptor, Arthur Sherwood Edwards. It was unveiled at the junction of Trafford Park Road and Ashburton Road in October 1937. In 1993, the memorial was relocated to Wharfside Promenade with the introduction of a new road layout but as this site became part of Imperial War Museum North, the memorial was put into temporary storage when construction work began on the museum. It is now in Trafford Park Village at the junction of Third Avenue and Eleventh Street, opposite the St Antony Centre. The memorial is inscribed: Marshall Stevens 1852–1936 To whose foresight, energy and ability the successful development of Trafford Park as an industrial area is due Image] Abridged from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Stevens (Wikipedia)

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