HOW many people have walked past the statue dedicated to the first Mayor of Blackburn, without knowing who it was?

The memorial to Alderman William Henry Hornby today stands between the town hall, where he took up office in 1851 and the BHS outlet in King William Street.

He's been there, standing on a 13ft 6in pedestal, for around 34 years, but it wasn't always so.

'Th'owd Gam Cock' as he was known, because of his forceful character, was once the centre of attraction at Limbrick -- before spending some time in a council storeyard.

Alderman Hornby, who was MP for Blackburn from 1857 until 1869, owned Brookhouse Mills, Blackburn's first spinning mill, which his father had co-founded after moving to the town in 1779.

His 10ft 9ins, bronze statue was cast thanks to one of his grateful cotton workers.

John Margerison, of Brookhouse Lane, a drover at the mills for nearly 50 years, left instructions and £3,000 for a memorial to his employer when he died in 1907.

He also, by the way, bequeathed £600 for a peal of bells at Michaels Church, where he worshipped.

The statue was finally unveiled in a ceremony in 1912 by baronet Sir Harry Hornby, his son and MP of Blackburn for almost 24 years until 1910, with the Mayor, Alderman S Crossley presiding and which was watched by a crowd of several thousand

It stood there for 56 years before being moved to make way for the reconstruction of the junction and suffered the ignoble fate of gathering moss in a storeyard before being dusted down to oversee the comings and goings of modern day Blackburn with Darwen Council.