Luddites remembered

The 10-year-old’s father Max is chairman of Spen Valley Civic Society, which is behind the sculpture and the park which surrounds it.

The representation of a cropper in a defiant pose with a small child tugging at his leather apron is within yards of the inn where the Luddites swore their secret oaths and plotted against local mill owners.

The group, formed to protest against mechanisation of local mills which took away the work of many men, met at the Shears pub in Halifax Road to plot their campaign.

On April 12, 1812, a band of 150 Luddites attacked Cartwright Mills at Rawfolds with hammers and axes.