Samuel Lister

Samuel Cunliffe Lister (1815-1906), after whom Lister Park is named, was a Victorian inventor and industrialist. He is notable for inventing the Lister nip comb, which revolutionised the wool industry by mechanising a previously difficult job. His father, Ellis, was a wealthy MP who built Manningham Mills in Bradford for his sons to manage. After a fire caused a rebuild, it became the massive Lister's Mill (see here). Samuel went on to have a glorious career, inventing silk combing machines and a velvet loom, which made him very wealthy. He was made a peer, 1st Baron Masham, in 1891. His statue, sculpted from white Sicilian marble by Matthew Noble, was unveiled in 1875 and stands at the entrance to the park he donated to the people of Bradford.