Cobden's Statue, Interior of Wool Exchange, Bradford

Gelatine silver print entitled 'Cobden's Statue, Interior of Wool Exchange, Bradford' by Ian Beesley. Signed in pencil on the back. Produced for the commission 'Through the Mill: The Story of Yorkshire Wool in Photographs', 1985-1987.

A founding father of free trade policies, Richard Cobden was paid the singular honour by the wool men of Bradford Chamber of Commerce when they commissioned this fine white marble statue to his memory. Cobden did much to open foreign markets to English wool goods after 1850. He stands between two capitals of polished granite each numbered to denote the 'selling' place of a particular wool merchant or top marker when this spacious hall teemed with wool dealers and manufacturers.