Ashworth Statue

The Ashworth Statue sits in Bury town centre, a Victorian bronze figure that most locals walk past without a second glance. It commemorates a local worthy whose name has largely slipped from collective memory, which is rather the point of statues like this - they're more about the era that erected them than the person themselves.

If you're stopping by Bury on a park holiday based at Burrs Country Park, it's worth a five-minute detour just to look at the craftsmanship. The detail in the bronze is genuinely impressive, and the plinth tells you something about how Victorian Lancashire saw itself. History types will appreciate it more than families with restless kids, though it's not the sort of thing that demands an hour of your time.

It's free, obviously - it's a public monument - and you can see it properly any time of day. The statue works best as part of a proper wander around Bury's town centre rather than a destination in itself. Pop into the nearby market while you're there, grab a pie, and treat the statue as a pleasant bit of local colour rather than a main event. Five minutes, no entry fee, and you've ticked off a piece of Lancashire's self-importance from the 1800s. Not thrilling, but genuinely interesting if you slow down enough to look.