New heritage project celebrates local heroes

A new heritage project is celebrating three important figures in local history, with banners and resources celebrating suffragette Annie Kenney, artist Helen Bradley, and soldier Thomas Steele VC, and their links to the villages of Lees, Springhead and Grotton.

Local councillor Sam Al-Hamdani has worked with the heritage team at Oldham Council to create three new profiles of the figures for the town’s heritage website, showing links to the locations where they were born, lived and commemorated, and banners in the villages celebrating them and guiding people to the resources. 

Sam said: “I think an important part of celebrating the place where we live now is knowing about its wonderful history, and the people who made it how it is. 

“We’re privileged to live in the shadows of three very remarkable people, in very different ways. Annie Kenney was the leading working class suffragette, coming up from the local mills, and making an incredible difference to people’s lives. 

“Helen Bradley told the story of our area in her paintings, in a very remarkable way. I listened to the recording of her on Desert Island Discs, and she was a fascinating, quirky and distinctively local voice on a national scene.

“On a personal level, I found researching Thomas Steele fascinating. My family is from Oldham and Iraq, and he was a soldier from Oldham who fought and carried out remarkable acts of heroism in what was then Mesopotamia. It was amazing to learn about what is local history, combined with world events. 

“For someone who comes from those two cultures, it was a real insight into some of the ways in which they impacted each other. For an area like ours, where lots of people have that type of family history, I think it’s really important that we learn about the way that those histories interacted, and what we can learn from that as we live together now.”

The three banners are in the centre of Grotton, Springhead and Lees, with links and QR codes to take people to the heritage profiles, which include information on where you can go locally to see the places where the three figures grew up, lived and worked.

Sam continued: “I have been in touch with the local schools to look at how we can use this information as they teach about these local figures. You can walk around local streets and literally see these people’s history in front of you. 

“The next project is to try and get the blue plaque for Annie Kenney re-sited. It is currently on Leesbrook Mill in the centre of Lees, but during the research, I have had it confirmed that from her diaries it was clear that she worked at Woodbank Mill. I hope to be able to get the plaque moved there, if everyone agrees to it.”