{"id":630223,"date":"2026-06-10T00:43:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T00:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/630223\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T00:43:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T00:43:14","slug":"cow-greyhound-and-cricket-statues-unveiled-in-westhoughton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/630223\/","title":{"rendered":"Cow, greyhound, and cricket statues unveiled in Westhoughton"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Westhoughton<\/a> notables along with cricketers marked the installation of three new statues on Cricketer’s Way.\n<\/p>\n

\n The large bronze statues on Cricketers Way feature a cow, dog and set of cricket equipment, each one immortalising a different story from the area\u2019s past.\n<\/p>\n

\n The cow captures a local legend familiar to many in Westhoughton that helps to explain why residents are known by the nickname \u201cKeawyeds\u201d, meaning cow head.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u00a0According to the story, a farmer discovered one of his herd trapped by its head in a five-bar gate.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u00a0Reasoning that the gate cost more than the cow, rather than damage the gate he chose to free the cow by cutting off the poor animal\u2019s head.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u00a0Another statue presents a still life of a cricket bat, ball and stumps in celebration of Westhoughton\u2019s strong links to the game and the famous players who hailed from the area.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u00a0They include bowler Dick Tyldesley, wicketkeeper Bill Farrimond, bowler Dick Pollard and all-rounder Michael Watkinson, all of whom took to the field for Lancashire and England.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u00a0The third statue has a large greyhound dog lying atop a white marble plinth, commemorating the area\u2019s links to greyhound racing.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u00a0Between 1951 and 2013, thousands of the dogs raced at Westhoughton Greyhound track, an independent venue with an unusual five-lane layout.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u00a0First opened in 1947 as a training facility, it developed into a greyhound stadium that hosted well known races like the Westhoughton Derbyand St Leger.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u00a0But in the face of falling attendances and animal rights campaigns against greyhound racing, the land was sold and 38 new homes built on the site.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u00a0The statues were funded using ‘106 money’, meaning the council were legally required to use it to fund a public art project.\n<\/p>\n

\n (Image: Dan Dougherty)\n<\/p>\n

\n Ann-Marie Talbot, who commissioned the statues, said: “I’m really, really proud of them.\n<\/p>\n

\n “I contacted the Westhoughton councillors to let them know we had the money to spend on public art, and these were the ideas that came back.\n<\/p>\n

\n “We got the cow from a company down South called Black Country Metal Works, ad the cricket one I designed myself with my colleague Rebecca.\n<\/p>\n

\n “We were really pleased to be able to represent these aspects of Westhoughton’s History.”\n<\/p>\n

\n The statues are located on Cricketers Way, near the Sainsburys.\n<\/p>\n

\n This is directly next to the location of the old Westhoughton Cricket Club, which has now moved to near The Hoskers.\n<\/p>\n

\n (Image: Paul Heyes)\n<\/p>\n

\n “We debated them in council,” said town councillor Neil Maher, “and this is what we came up with.\n<\/p>\n

\n (Image: Dan Dougherty)\n<\/p>\n

\n “People spoke about using the money for other things, but we had to use it for public art as it was 106 money.\n<\/p>\n

\n “It’s all about representing our town – the cow was the most popular idea, though the council declined our suggestion to put it in a fence!\n<\/p>\n

\n “It’s about history – we want people to come by and ask ‘why is there a cow statue?’ or ‘why is there a greyhound?\n<\/p>\n

\n “Then they’ll end up learning more about our history.”\n<\/p>\n

\n Ann-Marie Talbot with the greyhound statue (Image: Dan Dougherty)\n<\/p>\n

\n Both Westhoughton mayor Cllr Sarita Chohan and Mayor of Bolton Cllr Mohammed Iqbal attended the ceremony and gave short speeches.\n<\/p>\n

\n Cllr Iqbal said: “The statues represent the history of Westhoughton, using 106 contributions from the developers of Sainsbury’s and the former greyhound racing track.\n<\/p>\n

\n “This public art project will make a lasting tribute to some of the stories that make Westhoughton unique.”\n<\/p>\n

\n (Image: Paul Heyes)\n<\/p>\n

\n “Thank you to everyone who made this project possible. It is now my pleasure to officially unveil the statues.”\n<\/p>\n

\n Cllr Iqbal then cut the ribbon and posed for photographs in front of the statues with Cllr Chohan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Westhoughton notables along with cricketers marked the installation of three new statues on Cricketer’s Way. The large bronze…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-630223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}