Marshall Stevens was an English property developer. His work with Daniel Adamson

Daniel Adamson

Daniel Adamson was a notable English engineer who became a successful manufacturer of boilers and was the driving force behind the inception of the Manchester Ship Canal project during the 1880s.-Early life:...

 and others led to the construction of the Manchester Ship Canal

Manchester Ship Canal

The Manchester Ship Canal is a river navigation 36 miles long in the North West of England. Starting at the Mersey Estuary near Liverpool, it generally follows the original routes of the rivers Mersey and Irwell through the historic counties of Cheshire and Lancashire. Several sets of locks lift...

, completed in 1894, and he was appointed general manager of the Ship Canal Company in 1891. On 1 January 1897, Stevens resigned from the canal company to become general manager of Trafford Park Estates, a company set up by Ernest Terah Hooley

Ernest Terah Hooley

Ernest Terah Hooley was an English financier and developer of the Trafford Park industrial estate in the outskirts of Manchester.-Biography:...

 to develop Trafford Park

Trafford Park

Trafford Park is an area of the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, in Greater Manchester, England. Located opposite Salford Quays, on the southern side of the Manchester Ship Canal, it is west-southwest of Manchester city centre, and north of Stretford. Until the late 19th century it was the...

, the ancestral home of the de Trafford family, into what became the first and largest planned industrial estate in the world. He also served as Conservative

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 Member of Parliament for Eccles

Eccles (UK Parliament constituency)

Eccles was a parliamentary constituency of the United Kingdom, centred on the town of Eccles in Greater Manchester, England. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post system.- History :The constituency...

 from 1918 to 1922.

Commemoration

Following Stevens' death in 1936, shareholders in Trafford Park Estates subscribed to pay for a memorial. It was designed and executed by Arthur Sherwood Edwards, in the form of a 22-ton block of Welsh granite with a bronze portrait medallion and inscription. The memorial was unveiled on its original site, at the junction of Trafford Park Road and Ashburton Road, in October 1937. In 1993, the introduction of a new road layout resulted in its relocation to Wharfside Promenade, now the site of the Imperial War Museum North

Imperial War Museum North

Imperial War Museum North is a museum in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford in Greater Manchester, England. One of the five branches of the Imperial War Museum, the museum explores the impact of modern conflicts on people and society. It is the first branch of the Imperial War Museum to be...

. When construction work began on the museum, the memorial was put into temporary storage before being relocated once again, to Trafford Park Village, at the junction of Third Avenue and Eleventh Street.

The memorial is inscribed:

Marshall Stevens 1852–1936 To whose foresight, energy and ability the successful development of Trafford Park as an industrial area is due.

External links