Oldham Athletic owner hands Prince of Wales note requesting party in the town

Oldham Athletic’s owner has asked the Prince of Wales for a royal party in the town and revealed his plans to improve the area by building a “dirty, great, big statue” there “just like the Angel of the North”.

The proposed artwork is part of Frank Rothwell’s mission to make the Greater Manchester town, one of the most deprived in the UK, a “better place”.

The philanthropist said he discussed his plans for a 20 metre-wide embryo-shaped statue with the Prince of Wales as the royal formally made him an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).

The piece will be a tribute to the world’s first IVF baby being born in Oldham, said Mr Rothwell, who handed William a letter suggesting a royal garden party to celebrate the revolutionary medical achievement.

Mr Rothwell was honoured on Wednesday after rowing solo across the Atlantic twice while he was in his 70s to raise more than £1.4 million for Alzheimer’s Research UK.

In 2021 he became the oldest person to achieve the feat and then beat his own Guinness World Record on the second voyage in 2024.

After the ceremony, he told the Press Association: “(The Prince of Wales) wanted to know about the rowing.

“First of all he wanted to talk about that, but I didn’t want to talk about that – I wanted to talk to him about Oldham.

“Because my job in life is now to make Oldham a better place.”

Mr Rothwell, from the town, owned Oldham Athletic when it made it back into the EFL in June.

Wearing a leather cap and blue suit, he handed the Prince of Wales a letter requesting a garden party in Oldham’s Alexandra Park.

The note, seen by the Press Association, said: “In July 1992 Oldham enjoyed a royal garden party in our beautiful Alexandra Park which was attended by the Queen Elizabeth II, the Duke of Edinburgh and over one thousand guests.”

It asked if it is possible to “replicate the royal garden party in Oldham” to celebrate the NHS’s 80th anniversary and the birthday of Louise Joy Brown, the IVF baby born on July 25 1978.

The new statue will be known as the Oldham embryo in Ms Brown’s honour and grammar school children are currently helping to design it, the philanthropist said.

He told PA: “Because I’ve got an OBE and I’m also the most known person in Oldham – because of my rowing and because of the football – I want to make Oldham a better place.

“And how I’m going to do that is I’m going to put a dirty, great, big statue – just like the Angel of the North – on the side of the M60 motorway in Oldham.

“People will know then, and they will ask the question: ‘what? why is that there? what does this mean?'”

He added: “We don’t know what form the statue is going to be yet but it’s going to tell the world: ‘you’re in Oldham’.

“40 million vehicles a year go through Oldham on the M60 and there’s no sign to say ‘Oldham welcomes careful drivers’ and I’m going to change that, I’m going to make it, I’m going to make it so everybody knows they’re in Oldham.

“That will encourage businesses to think, ‘oh, we want to move out of the South East’. Because labour’s so expensive down here.”

Gesturing to the ceiling inside one of the Windsor Castle rooms, he said: “It’s going to be 20 metres diameter, it’s going to be twice as high as this, three times as high as this roof.

“It’s going to be lit, people are going to be going past going ‘what the heck? what does that mean?'”

Mr Rothwell was honoured for services to dementia research.