Matgo
TS Member
Obviously the Black Lives Matter movement has featured heavily in the media lately, with calls to remove various statues of slave owners and others that profited from slavery. I've been doing some reading up on the history of it and happened across a piece of information which contains a very uncomfortable fact.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...omes-built-on-the-back-of-slaves-8518002.html
This article entitled The Stately Homes Built On The Back Of Slaves includes a mention of Alton Towers and confirms that the Talbot family not only owned 543 slaves, but received the equivalent of £3.4m compensation for loss of 'property' when slavery was abolished. The British taxpayer only finished paying the bill for this compensation scheme in 2015.
I know there is next to no mention of the Talbots at the park now but it does make you wonder, had Talbot Street existed today, would they have felt the pressure to change it.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...omes-built-on-the-back-of-slaves-8518002.html
This article entitled The Stately Homes Built On The Back Of Slaves includes a mention of Alton Towers and confirms that the Talbot family not only owned 543 slaves, but received the equivalent of £3.4m compensation for loss of 'property' when slavery was abolished. The British taxpayer only finished paying the bill for this compensation scheme in 2015.
I know there is next to no mention of the Talbots at the park now but it does make you wonder, had Talbot Street existed today, would they have felt the pressure to change it.