THE nineteenth century was a time of big change and this picture shows the first unveiling of Hornby’s Statue.

It was unveiled on July 18, 1912 in Limbrick, Blackburn and the image from the Lancashire Telegraph archives shows a large crowd of several thousand attending the ceremony.

William Henry Hornby was the town’s first mayor in 1851 and its MP for 12 years until 1869.

The money for the £3,000 statue was left in 1907 in the will of Hornby’s grateful employee, John Margerison, who worked for more than 50 years at Brookhouse Mills ­— Blackburn’s first spinning mill, which Hornby’s father had co-founded after moving to the town in 1779.

The statue was unveiled by the baronet, Sir Harry Hornby, William Henry’s son and MP for Blackburn for almost 24 years until 1910.