Manchester’s statues: Victory over Blindness

National World - LocalTV

Across the city of Manchester we have some wonderful statues, some portraying Manchester’s best and brightest, some representing massive parts of our history. Today I had a look at the statue that stands in front of Piccadilly Train Station.

Transcript

00:00This is the first part of a series of explainers where I'll take a look at some of the most

00:03prominent and important statues in Manchester and explain a little bit about their history

00:08and why they're important. Now one of the ones that most people will be familiar with

00:12is that of the blind soldiers walking one after another by Piccadilly Station. It's called Victory

00:16over Blindness and was unveiled in October 2018 to commemorate 100 years since the end of the

00:21First World War. Its focus is on the achievement of blind veterans and with Heaton Park once having

00:26been the location of a camp that trained and treated thousands of wounded soldiers and sailors

00:30during the First World War, it's got real importance to Manchester. The statue was sculpted

00:35by Joanna Donkey-Guillot and was inspired by a photograph that she saw of wounded World War I

00:39veterans leading each other away from the front. Its location near Piccadilly means that it's one

00:44of the first things that visitors to Manchester come across and by putting it at ground level

00:48it means that it's accessible to blind or differently abled visitors. It's a wonderful

00:52memorial to those who sacrificed so much to keep us safe and really has importance even today.

00:57That's all for now, follow Manchester World for more.

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