An obelisk enclosed by a low stone wall surmounted with an ornamental chain and iron posts. A bronze bas relief portrait medallion of Bamford as an old man is inset on the front of the obelisk. Samuel Bamford is remembered as a working-class political reformer and as writer of books, articles and poetry which were rooted in the Lancashire communities in which he spent most of his life. He led the Middleton contingent at Peterloo and his recollections of that day, published in his 'Passages in the Life of a Radical', provide one of the most striking first-hand accounts of that pivotal event. By the early 1850s Bamford had become widely recognised as a leading example of the Lancashire working-class writer.