Friends of Lord Hill’s Column Chairman to march 75 miles for Lord Hill’s statue
News from The Friends of Lord Hill’s Column
Rev’d Richard Hayes, Chairman of the Friends of Lord Hill’s Column, will walk 75 miles from Lord Uxbridge’s column in Anglesey to Lord Hill’s column in Shrewsbury to raise money for the replacement of Lord Hill’s statue.
Setting out on Monday 4 April, he plans to complete the walk in five days wearing the full period regimental uniform of the 23rd Foot (Royal Welch (sic) Fuziliers) – one of the regiments commanded by Lord Hill during the Peninsular War and at Waterloo.
Richard Hayes will walk with Nigel Hill (a distant relative of Lord Hill) across the Menai Bridge and follow the pavement bordering the A5 through Bethesda, Capel Curig, Bettws-y-Coed, Corwen, Llangollen, Chirk and Oswestry. He will end his marathon at Lord Hill’s Column opposite Shirehall in Shrewsbury at midday on Saturday 9 April.
Commenting on the proposed walk Richard Hayes said:
“I am doing this to support Shropshire Council in its fund-raising programme so that we can start work replicating the statue this year, the bicentennial year of the completion of the column. In 1814 the people of Shropshire raised the £5,973.13s.2d required to build the column and create the statue to honour Shropshire’s most famous General, Lord Hill, and we owe it to our local historical celebrity to maintain this notable example of Shropshire’s military and cultural heritage.
“Lord Hill’s Column is a monument of national importance, designed by local architect Edward Haycock, aged 22. It was the only commemorative column in the country to be erected while the war with Napoleon was actually still raging and its hero still alive. Properly maintained, the column and statue could and should be a prominent element in Shropshire’s tourism industry. We all need to do much more to capitalise on this exceptional historical asset and the time to do this is now.”
As owners of the grade 2* listed Lord Hill statue and column, Shropshire Council has a responsibility for maintaining the structure. The statue in particular has had a number of significant repairs and the council, along with the Friends of Lord Hill Column, are now seeking support to replace it. Shropshire Council will seek funding from a variety of sources and commit to providing the match funding required to secure the replacement statue. Early indications of the costs of replacing the Lord Hill Statue including ancillary costs are estimated at £500,000.
It was recognised at the time that the work done in 2013/14 was repair work, and that the statue would require further treatment, involving further expense. The statue is made from Coade stone and what is required, as Historic England has indicated, is that a new statue be made, using identical materials. Coade stone is hard-wearing and this solution would result in reducing ongoing maintenance costs for many years to come. It would also allow for enhanced modelling of the face, hair, medals and sash of the figure. What can be seen now is flat – the detailing could be rendered with much higher definition.
Lord Hill was born in Prees, North Shropshire and became Wellington’s most trusted General serving with him in the Peninsular War and at Waterloo. The proposal to erect a monument in his honour was first made in the Shrewsbury Chronicle in December 1813, while he was fighting heroically in the Pyrenees. The decision to build a column followed swiftly and the money was raised by the people of Shropshire through 1814 – a year of peace, after over 20 years of war, following Napoleon’s abdication and exile on Elba. Building began on 27 December 1814, and the column was completed on 18 June 1816, one year exactly after the battle of Waterloo.
Shropshire was ahead of Anglesey in honouring its local hero. The statue to Lord Uxbridge at Llanfairpwllgwyngyll was raised in 1817. Although Lord Hill’s horse was shot dead from under him in the last hour of the battle of Waterloo, Lord Uxbridge, commander of the cavalry, fared worse and he had his right leg amputated.
At the same time that the columns were being built, Thomas Telford was starting work on the construction of the A5 from Shrewsbury to Holyhead, culminating in the opening of the Suspension Bridge over the Menai Straits in 1826.
Lord Hill’s Column will, once again, be open for public visits during 2016. For details click here.
Further information
1. Friends of Lord Hill’s Column.
The Friends of Lord Hill’s Column was formed in September 2013 and we now have 1350 Life Members. This has been achieved mainly through opening the Column on specified days so that members of the public may climb the 172 stairs to the top. This costs £5 (young people of school age climb free) and confers automatic life membership of the Friends who can climb the column free of charge thereafter.
2. What needs to be done?
The Grinshill stone column is in good condition. It is the statue which requires replication. The statue was made in 1816 by Joseph Panzetta, who worked for Mrs Eleanor Coade at her manufactory in Lambeth, on the site of the Royal Festival Hall on the south side of Westminster Bridge. From 1771 until her death in 1821 Mrs Coade ran a successful business supplying architectural ornament and decorative features, and statuary, to the order of the leading architects of that time – Adam, Chambers, Soane, the Wyatts and John Nash at Buckingham Palace. The figure of Lord Hill was cast in 13 sections and, at 5 metres (17 feet 6inches), was one of the largest free-standing statues she ever produced.
The Morning Post (24 August 1816) published the following:
Colossal Statue of Lieut-General the Right Honourable Lord Hill.
E. COADE most respectfully informs the Nobility and Gentry, that the COLOSSAL STATUE of Lord Hill, 17 ½ feet, intended to be placed on a Column of 120 feet, at SHREWSBURY, in commemoration of his Lordship’s distinguished Services, is NOW COMPLETED; and with the other interesting works of this Manufactory, is OPEN for EXHIBITION THIS DAY. Ornamental Stone Manufactory, Narrow-Wall, Lambeth
3. What is Coade stone?
Eleanor Coade perfected a very hard-wearing artificial stone through the blending of various elements – grog, quartz grains, angular crushed flint – fired to a temperature of 1100-1150̊C for up to four days. Its vitrified quality gave the product a hardness and low porosity which, if not exposed to all weathers, lasts in excellent condition from that day to this. In many cases Mrs Coade’s recipe was judged stronger and longer-lasting than natural stone. It is only in the case of examples such as Lord Hill’s statue, which have been exposed to all weather conditions, that the detailing of the moulding has been lost and the material has suffered damage from frost.
There are a few firms that are capable of doing this type of highly specialist work, using the Coade recipe. There are recent examples of replication work being carried out in Scotland and in England and Wales. A current project is being undertaken by the National Trust at Stowe to replicate a Gothic Cross of 1814. There is, therefore, plenty of precedent to assist Shropshire in pursuing a similar goal.
4. The Column
The Column was designed by 22-year old Edward Haycock using stone from the nearby quarries at Grinshill, with revisions, to the base only, by Thomas Harrison of Chester. It is 133 feet high (40.5 metres) and, when built, was the highest free-standing Greek Doric column in England. The builder was John Straphen, who gave the spiral staircase and the remarkable cast-iron handrail which bears a message from bottom to top – one letter per step. The message reads:
“This staircase was the gift of John Straphen, the builder, as his donation towards erecting this Column. The first stone of the foundation was laid December 27th, 1814, and completed June 18th, 1816, the anniversary of the glorious Battle of Waterloo.”
