The location of The Workers Memorial is Vera Page Park. This is a very significant and historic place for St Helens.
A site of world firsts
Known then as Lyons yard. This was a very important 19th century transport hub. An old 19th century map overlaid over a present day map shows the rail head and the extent of the rail links. Many sidings terminated at the side of the Sankey or St Helens Canal. This was in it’s time a state of the art, cutting edge transport link, unrivaled anywhere in the world
The solution to transporting large heavy loads over long distances, the world would follow
Previously hauled by horse and cart over ancient medieval cart tracks, but not in the quantities now possible.
Innovation at it’s best
An example of how the new transport links connected the country.
Copper ore mined in Angelsey was transported to St Helens by barge for processing
The Ravenhead Copper Works smelted copper ore mined in Arosa Venesuela
https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Ravenhead_Copper_Co
The refined copper was then distributed by the newly built railways
Why St Helens?
It takes 3 tons of coal to smelt 1 ton of copper . Cheaper to take the copper to the coal. St Helens was sat on a wealth of coal
EX TERRA LUCEM
Did Stephensons Rocket ever run into Lyons yard?
In it’s time the area would have been very busy with trains and barges going to and fro plying their trade
Today it’s busy with shoppers and rugby fans
We now have an iconic monument in St Helens erected as a tribute to the workers who have gone before
The statue was unveiled on Sunday 28 April 2019