This commemorative bust of George Stephenson was made by the 'Josiah Wedgwood and Sons' company at Etruria in 1853.
George Stephenson was born at Wylam in 1781 in Northumberland and is regarded as the 'father of the railways' owing to his involvement in many of the early public railways built in Britain.
Stephenson became connected with Leicestershire when he was commissioned to survey and build the Leicester & Swannington Railway which was constructed to transport coal from North West Leicestershire to Leicester. Owing to George being heavily involved in the building of the Liverpool and Manchester line, his son Robert was appointed engineer for the railway.
Robert alerted his father to the presence of coal in the area and the Snibston estate was purchased in 1831. Three collieries, Snibston 1, 2 and 3, were sunk in the immediate area of the new railway. Snibston No.2 Colliery was the most successful of the pits and worked until 1983. George lived at Alton Grange two miles west of Coalville from 1831 until the early 1840s.
