Marsden Park
The Park was created by Marsden Council in 1912, on land given to the village by four local millowners: John Edward Crowther, Samuel Firth, Arthur Robinson, and E J Bruce.
It contains a War Memorial to the 172 Marsden dead in the First World War, and a memorial to the Marsden dialect poet, Samuel Laycock, who died in 1894, according to the memorial, although his dates are generally reckoned to be 1826-1893.
Samuel Laycock
Samuel Laycock was born at Intake Head. Laycock's father was a hand loom weaver, and Samuel was brought up on the isolated farm above Marsden. The only education he had was at Sunday School, and at the age of nine he started work in the mill.
When Sam was 11 the family moved to Stalybridge in Lancashire, and he worked in a cotton mill. The Cotton Famine of the 1860s threw him out of work, and he responded to this by publishing poems about the crisis.
After this he worked as a librarian at the Mechanics Institute, as a Curator in Fleetwood, selling books on Oldham market, and as a photographer. He died in Blackpool in 1893.