‘Pulling the plug, Ringing the change’...

Found myself in Hyde today on the outskirts of Manchester. Hyde Town Hall dominates the centre of the town. The large bell in the clocktower is known as Owd Joss (Old Josh), after Joshua Bradley who was a child worker in the mills and who later became mayor of Hyde. ‘Pulling the plug, Ringing the change’ is a sculpture that recognises the importance of the local people's part in the reform of parliament in the mid-1800s and their struggle to improve the working conditions of men, women and children. The town hall played a major role in the prosecution of moors murderers Myra Hindley and Ian Brady in 1965. It was here that they had their hearing, the hall then housed a magistrates' court, a police station, underground prison cells and a police mortuary.