Depiction of veteran Labour MP latest in series of sculptures of significant women, including Diana Princess of Wales
Barbara Castle, the pioneering British female politician and prominent national figure from the 1950s to the 70s, has been commemorated with a new statue in Blackburn, where she served as a Labour MP for 34 years.
The striding figure, sculpted by Sam Holland, is clutching a bronze copy of the Equal Pay Act 1970. It is the latest in a string of commissioned works slowly redressing the heavy dominance of male statues. Other recent moves to mark the lives of influential British women include London statues of Diana, Princess of Wales and of campaigning writer Mary Wollstonecraft, as well as the 2018 statue of suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst in Manchester.