Cast in Stone

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• 1930, Partial breaking of monument to Gallieni in Paris
  On 30 May 1930, the plinth of the monument to Gallieni is found partially broken. The statue representing the French colony of Indochina was damaged in four different places, including its foot. The police officer found one toenail belonging to the statue, and broken pieces of glass, which he identified as a bottle of sparkling wine. Extract from the police report (in French): « A 9 heures de service au carrefour de la rue de l’université et de l’avenue du Maréchal Gallieni. J’ai constaté que la face du socle de la statue tournée vers la direction du Champ de Mars et représentant l’Indo-Chine était détériorée en quatres [sic] endroits différents. Je n’ai trouvé que l’ongle du gros orteil du pied droit que je joins au rapport. Au pied de la statue j’ai remarqué également des éclats de verre semblant provenir d’une bouteille dit vin mousseux, ou de champagne. » After this report, the city's office contacted Jean Boucher the artist, to ask him to evaluate the damage and advise on the best way to repair the broken pieces. (source DACVP-COARC, Archives, Gallieni 2)
• 1940, Destroyed Mangin monument as symbolic site of resistance to German occupation
• 1944, Plaque commemorating the destruction of the Mangin monument on its site
• 1987, Graffiti on monument to Gallieni in Paris
  The exact date and what was written on the monument was not recorded, we know of these graffiti thanks to a letter by Edouard Frédéric-Dupont, mayor of the 7th arrondissement in Paris (where the monument is located), to the head of Cultural Affairs in the city of Paris, chief of the monuments office. His letter mentions that the graffiti and inscriptions were quite shocking, but did not elaborate in his letter. He asked the city to clean the monument as soon as possible. Extract in French: « Plusieurs personnes m’ont signalé que le socle du monument du Maréchal Gallieni installé place Vauban était recouvert de graffiti dont des inscriptions assez choquantes » (source DACVP-COARC, Archives, Gallieni 2)
• 1987, Paint thrown on Gallieni monument in Paris
  We know of this contestation thanks to a letter Edouard Frédéric-Dupont, mayor of the 7th arrondissement in Paris (where the monument is located), wrote to the head of Cultural Affairs in the city of Paris, chief of the monuments office. His letter mentioned that the monuments to Gallieni and Fayolle (situated on the same place Vauban) had been smeared with paint and with inscriptions which he did not record. Once again, similarly to earlier that year, he asked the city to clean the monuments as soon as possible. Extract in French: the statues « ont été badigeonnées de peinture. Au moment où tant de touristes vont venir à Paris, il serait indispensable que vous puissiez faire gratter ces inscriptions d’urgence. » (source DACVP-COARC, Archives, Gallieni 2)
• 1987, Removal of graffiti on monument to Gallieni in Paris
  The City of Paris commissions the company Harmonie-Décoration to clean the graffiti off the monument to Gallieni. The cleaning took plance on April 24 and May 5 1987. (source DACVP-COARC, Archives, Gallieni 2)
• 1987, Restoration of the Mangin monument and plaque commemorating the destroyed monument on the Lyautey monument installed in its place.
  Texte de la plaque installée sur le monument Lyautey : « Ce monument remplace celui qui honorait, Place Denys Cochin, la mémoire du Général MANGIN et qui a été détruit sur ordre d’HITLER le 26 Juin 1940 »
• 1988, Cleaning of monument to Gallieni in Paris
  The city of Paris commissions the company Harmonie-Décoration to clean up the monuments to Gallieni and Fayolle. It had received a second letter from mayor of 7th arrondissement Eugène Frédéric-Dupont on 1 October 1987. (source DACVP-COARC, Archives, Gallieni 2)
• 1989, Conservation and replacement of monument to Colbert in Paris
  In 1989, for the bicentennial of the French Revolution, the four statues at the front of the palais Bourbon underwent conservation treatment. The originals were replaced with resin casts. The original Dumont statue of Colbert was placed in front of the rectorat in Reims, France.
• 2004, Conservation of monument to Gallieni in Paris
  From June to September 2004, the City of Paris commissioned to professional conservators to carry on routine conservation work on the monument to Joseph Gallieni. They performed biocide, removal of copper sulfate traces, replaced former joints in previous cracks. (source DACVP-COARC, Archives, Gallieni 2)
• 2012, Request to reinstall the Marchand statue
  The request was made by an opposition politician from the 12th arrondissement of Paris (where the monument is located). Among the reasons given: the "humanitarian" dimension of the mission. The request was rejected. Following the same logic of rehabilitation, flowers are sometimes placed on the monument: at the feet of the first European and at the feet of the doctor (example in 2024).
• 2016, Oriel College, Oxford announces it will not remove the Rhodes statue
  The decision by Oriel came in response to the threatened withdrawal of £100 million in donor gifts to the College if the statue were to be removed, which was later revealed in a leaked letter from the development office to the governing body of the college.
• 2020, Address to the French people by the President of France
  An extract of Emmanuel Macron's speech: This economic, ecological and solidarity-based reconstruction will be the key to our independence. It will be prepared throughout the summer with our nation's driving forces so that it can be implemented as quickly as possible. France's independence also requires unity around the Republic if we are to live better. This is the second axis of this new stage. I see us dividing over everything and sometimes losing touch with our history. We need to unite around republican patriotism. We are a nation where everyone, whatever their origins or religion, must find their place. Is this true everywhere and for everyone? No. Our fight must therefore continue and intensify to ensure that everyone gets the qualifications and jobs that match their merits and talents, and to combat the fact that name, address and skin colour all too often still reduce the equality of opportunity that everyone should have. We will be uncompromising in the face of racism, anti-Semitism and discrimination, and strong new decisions will be taken. But this noble fight goes astray when it is transformed into communitarianism, into a hateful or false rewriting of the past. This fight is unacceptable when it is co-opted by separatists. I am telling you very clearly this evening, my dear compatriots, the Republic will not erase any trace or any name from its History. The Republic will not take down statues. Instead, we must take a clear-sighted look together at all our history, all our memories, our relationship with Africa in particular, in order to build a present and a possible future, from one side of the Mediterranean to the other, with a desire for truth and in no way to revisit or deny what we are. Nor will we build our future in disorder. Without republican order, there can be neither security nor freedom. The police and gendarmes on our soil are the guardians of this order. They are exposed to daily risks on our behalf, which is why they deserve the support of the public authorities and the gratitude of the nation.
• 2020, All Souls College decides to keep the Christopher Codrington statue in place
  All Souls College opted against removing the Codrington Statue and instead chose to 'investigate further forms of memorialisation and contextualisation within the library, which will draw attention to the presence of enslaved people on the Codrington plantations, and will express the College’s abhorrence of slavery'. The College also decided to cease referring to the College Library as the 'Codrington Library'.
• 2020, Chelsea Physic Garden says it is unable to move the statue of Hans Sloane
• 2020, Crowd gathers to defend statue of Robert Clive in Shrewsbury
  A group of around fifty individuals gathered in the market square of Shrewsbury to show their support for the statue of Robert Clive.
• 2020, Daniel Kawczynski, M.P. for Shrewsbury and Atcham, calls for peaceful discussion over the statue of Robert Clive and praises the British Empire
  Responding to two petitions to remove the statue of Robert Clive from the Market Square in Shrewsbury, Conservative politician and Member of Parliament Daniel Kawczynski calls for peaceful discussion. He noted that he would be carrying out 'blow-by-blow' research on Clive's life and career and stated that the British Empire 'was a tremendous force for good during its time.'
• 2020, Decision by Westminster City Council that it does not have the authority to remove the statue of Robert Clive
  The Westminster City Council declared: 'Westminster City Council’s role in relation to the potential removal or repositioning of the statue is limited to the consideration of an application for Listed Building Consent to remove the statue, as it is Grade II listed. The statue is owned by English Heritage under a licence from Historic England which runs until 2023 and therefore the Council has no power to order its removal. Instead, the decision rests with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) as the central government department responsible for Historic England.
• 2020, Photo Challenge “Take a picture with the ‘Maroon’ Memorial statue”
  The Collectif Moun Gwadloup, after repainting the Maroon statue with gold paint, created a “#Bayloaychallenge”, open to citizens, inviting them to take a photo next to the statue “restored” by the collective, publishing it on Facebook, with a view to supporting the association's action
• 2020, Members of the Collectif Moun Gwadloup repaint the Maroon statue
  Four male members of the collective repaint the statue with gold paint, as a sign of political action to valorize the statue and the figure it embodies. The message is clear, and broadcast on social networks
• 2020, Far-right protest "in defence" of the Winston Churchill statue
• 2020, Graffiti and paint thrown at the monument to Colbert in Paris
  On 23 June 2020, an activist from Guadeloupe, member of the Brigade Anti-Négrophobie (BAN), spray painted the words "Negrophobie d'Etat" in red, onto the plinth of Colbert's monument in front of Assemblée Nationale. He also threw red paint onto the statue's chest, and onto the document it is holding in its hands. The police, always in front of the AssembléeNationale, intervened immediately and arrested the activist on the spot. The State pressed charges for "dégradation de bien public". A video of the action and the activist's arrest was posted on BAN's Twitter account. The activist explained: “Vous voyez, les racistes sont de l’autre coté de l’Assemblée. Ça c’est une statue qui vient prôner la négrophobie, le meurtre des Noirs, le viol des Noirs, la torture des Noirs”.
• 2020, Market Drayton museum curator defends statue of Robert Clive
  Speaking to the Shropshire Star, Ian Picton-Robinson, curator of Market Drayton Museum, run by the Drayton Civic Society, said that it was not so simple to condemn Robert Clive
• 2020, Museum of the Home announces it will retain and explain the Robert Geffrye statue
• 2020, Amateur cleaning of the Marchand mission monument
  To remove the red paint and bitumen. Organized by a group that summoned the media
• 2020, Nettoyage improvisé de la statue de Lyautey
  Trois adolescents nettoient la statue à l’eau de javel et à la brosse et déclarent à un journaliste de CNews : "“on ne peut pas lutter contre le racisme en voulant effacer ou bien salir une partie de l’histoire de France. Pour moi il faut au contraire regarder ces périodes et ces personnages avec lucidité, et voilà le modèle de la France c’est un modèle peu importe la couleur de peau on doit se rassembler derrière un passé commun, le même drapeau”
• 2020, Online petition against the removal of the Redvers Buller statue
  The petition, which had 9,317 signatories (as of April 2nd 2024), laid out the following argument against the statue's removal: "Exeter City Council has called for a review to remove this much loved statue to a man who was much loved in Devon in his time. General Buller VC was a war hero who won the Victoria Cross during the Zulu War, where he carried three men to safety during the defeat at Hlobane. The statue was paid for by public subscription, by the ordinary people of Devon. The petition to remove this statue states that Buller had a "major hand" in the establishment of Boer concentration camps, but this is simply not true. Though he was the British commander at the outbreak of the Boer War, he was replaced in January 1900 by Lord Roberts. And it wasn't until Kitchener then took command in late 1900 that the concentration camp policy was established. We cannot stand by and let historically illiterate people erase our history. And then there is the bigger picture. We are currently seeing our nation's heritage being chipped away on the crest of a small but noisy wave of protest. We should not make the mistake of judging history through the lens of our own morality, for nobody would pass that test. The silent majority of this country want our public monuments to remain. They belong to us all and represent our heritage."
• 2020, Online petition against the removal of the Stapleton Cotton statue
  The petition, which had 1,523 signatories (as of April 2nd 2024), laid out the following argument against the statue's removal. It is worth nothing the clear attempt to downplay and excuse Cotton's slave-ownership ("Like all Caribbean estates at the time..") within its argument. "Field Marshal Stapleton Cotton was a hero of the Napoleonic Wars - victory in which saved Europe from tyranny - and, as such, is worthy of his place in history and of our respect. In 1810 he was appointed to overall command of the cavalry in the Peninsular War and he was Wellington's Second-in-Command at the Battle of Salamanca in 1812. In 1825 he was appointed to Commander-in-Chief in India, where he restored the Raja of Bharatpur with a much celebrated siege of that fort. Like all Caribbean estates at the time, his included enslaved people, but it is incorrect to say that he was a 'slave trader'. And to suggest that the statue glorifies this aspect is patently foolish. It celebrates his military achievements, which stand as an inspiration to the people of Chester and of Britain. And then there is the bigger picture. We are currently seeing our nation's history being chipped away on the crest of a small but noisy wave of protest. We should not make the mistake of judging history through the lens of our own morality, for nobody would pass that test. The silent majority of this country want our public monuments to remain. They belong to us all and represent our heritage."
• 2020, Online petition to keep the Horatio Kitchener statue
  The petition, which had 4,225 signatories (as of April 2nd 2024), laid out the following argument against the statue's removal: "Lord Kitchener was a hero of his time and a leading engineer in military innovation. Many of his initiatives in railway construction in the Sudan led to British Engineering successes around the world. Local press are publishing misdirected information about him with the intent of removing his statue in Chatham. This would be an insult to the local military and their engineering history. We request you save the statue and work with the RE museum to show the really Lord Kitchener for who he was."
• 2020, Online petition to keep the name of Blackboy Road in Exeter
• 2020, Removal of black boy pub sign in Retford
• 2020, Removal of black man's head pub sign in Ashbourne
• 2020, Retaliation attack on the grave of Scipio Africanus
  The attacker smashed the headstone of Africanus's grave and left a message: 'Put Colston's statue back or things will really heat up'.
• 2020, Shropshire Council votes to retain Clive statue
  The Council received a petition with 1,000 signatures asking for the removal of the statue of Robert Clive in Shrewsbury Market Square. Having debated the proposal, the council decided to take no action.
• 2020, UK Culture Secretary writes to the Museum of the Home in support of retaining the Robert Geffrye statue
• 2020, UK Prime Minister delivers speech on Black Lives Matter
  The Prime Minister's speech read as follows: The death of George Floyd took place thousands of miles away – in another country, under another jurisdiction – and yet we simply cannot ignore the depth of emotion that has been triggered by that spectacle, of a black man losing his life at the hands of the police. In this country and around the world his dying words – I can’t breathe – have awakened an anger and a widespread and incontrovertible, undeniable feeling of injustice, a feeling that people from black and minority ethnic groups do face discrimination: in education, in employment, in the application of the criminal law. And we who lead and who govern simply can’t ignore those feelings because in too many cases, I am afraid, they will be founded on a cold reality. Yes, I am proud to lead the most ethnically diverse government in the history of this country, with two of the four great offices of state held by a man and a woman of Indian origin; and yes, I am proud of the work I began to lead more than ten years ago to recruit and promote more young black people, in the police and other walks of life. This country has made huge strides. I remember the 1970s, and the horror of the National Front. I truly believe that we are a much, much less racist society than we were, in many ways far happier and better. But we must also frankly acknowledge that there is so much more to do – in eradicating prejudice, and creating opportunity, and the government I lead is committed to that effort. And so I say yes, you are right, we are all right, to say Black Lives Matter; and to all those who have chosen to protest peacefully and who have insisted on social distancing – I say, yes of course I hear you, and I understand. But I must also say that we are in a time of national trial, when for months this whole country has come together to fight a deadly plague. After such sacrifice, we cannot now let it get out of control. It is BAME communities who have been at the forefront of the struggle against coronavirus – whether in health care or transport or social care or any of the other essential services that have kept our country going. And it is BAME communities, tragically, that have paid a disproportionate price. So no, I will not support those who flout the rules on social distancing, for the obvious reason that we risk a new infection at a critical time and just as we have made huge progress. And no, I will not support or indulge those who break the law, or attack the police, or desecrate public monuments. We have a democracy in this country. If you want to change the urban landscape, you can stand for election, or vote for someone who will. And so I must say clearly that those who attack public property or the police –who injure the police officers who are trying to keep us all safe – those people will face the full force of the law; not just because of the hurt and damage they are causing, but because of the damage they are doing to the cause they claim to represent. They are hijacking a peaceful protest and undermining it in the eyes of many who might otherwise be sympathetic. And as a society, we can and must do better. This month, on the 22nd of June, we celebrate the arrival of the Empire Windrush in 1948, and we remember the contribution of the Afro-Caribbean workers – in the NHS and across all public services – who helped to rebuild this country after the war. And today, once again, we face a great task: to relaunch this country after Coronavirus. So let’s work peacefully, lawfully, to defeat racism and discrimination wherever we find it, and let us continue to work together across all the communities of this country, as we put Britain back on its feet.
• 2020, UK Prime Minister publishes article in The Telegraph in response to the far-right protest at the Winston Churchill statue
  The Prime Minister's article read as follows: It was utterly absurd that a load of far-right thugs and bovver boys yesterday converged on London with a mission to protect the statue of Winston Churchill. It was right that a good number should have been arrested. They were violent. They were aggressive towards the police. They were patently racist. There is nothing that can excuse their behaviour. And yet it was also, frankly, absurd and deplorable that the statue of Winston Churchill should have been in any plausible danger of attack. It was outrageous that anyone could even have claimed that the statue needed protection. It was and is miserable to see his statue entombed in its protective sheath. It is true that the monument has been covered up several times before, in anticipation of trouble, after consultation with the Mayor’s office and English Heritage, because the police believe that is the safest and simplest thing to do. But many people will look at that image and feel a sense of bewilderment. Why attack Churchill? What has the world come to when one of this country’s greatest ever leaders – perhaps our greatest - has to be shielded from the wrath of the mob? We all understand the depth of feeling that has been exposed by the killing, in Minnesota, of George Floyd. No one who cares about this country can ignore the many thousands of people who have joined the Black Lives Movement to protest peacefully, as most of them have, in the last few days. It is no use just saying that we have made huge progress in tackling racism. There is much more that we need to do; and we will. It is time for a cross-governmental commission to look at all aspects of inequality – in employment, in health outcomes, in academic and all other walks of life. We need to tackle the substance of the problem, not the symbols. We need to address the present, not attempt to re-write the past – and that means we cannot and must not get sucked into never-ending debate about which well-known historical figure is sufficiently pure or politically correct to remain in public view. Where will it end? Are we supposed to haul down Cromwell who killed so many thousands of people in Ireland? What about Nelson and all the other innumerable reminders of this country’s imperial past? Take the case of Ayuba Suleiman Diallo, whose portrait hangs in Room 15 of the National Portrait Gallery. He was a native of the Gambia who was known and admired in C18 London as a translator of Arab texts. He was also, originally, a slaver himself. Does that mean he should be purged from the Gallery? My point is that our history is immensely complex, and modern Britain is a product of a vast conglomerate of ideas and beliefs – not all of which look good in the light of today. Yes, Churchill expressed all sorts of views over his immense career – and bear in mind that he entered parliament under Queen Victoria and left it under Queen Elizabeth - which are totally unacceptable to modern ears. As it happens, he generally changed with the times. He changed his view on India, and her capacity for independence; and whatever he may have said about Islam in the 1890s, he also built the Regent’s Park Mosque in the 1940s. And above all – as so many have rightly pointed out – it is the height of lunacy to accuse him of racism, when he stood alone against a racist tyranny that without his resistance would have overwhelmed this country and the rest of Europe. He was a hero, and I expect I am not alone in saying that I will resist with every breath in my body any attempt to remove that statue from Parliament Square, and the sooner his protective shielding comes off the better. It is not just that is wrong to destroy public property by violence. I am also extremely dubious about the growing campaign to edit or photoshop the entire cultural landscape. If we start purging the record and removing the images of all but those whose attitudes conform to our own, we are engaged in a great lie, a distortion of our history – like some public figure furtively trying to make themselves look better by editing their own Wikipedia entry. Would it not be better and more honest to ask our children to understand the context, to explain the mixture of good and bad in the career of Churchill and everyone else? And rather than tear some people down, we should build others up, and celebrate the people who we in this generation believe are worthy of memorial. We have brilliant sculptors and artists. Why should they not be commissioned to make fitting additions to the landscape and cityscape? Take the great courtyard in the Foreign and Commonwealth office, where stone statues of British explorers and imperialists look down from the niches. Many of the niches are for some reason unfilled. Rather than tear down the past, why not add some of the men and women – most often BAME – who helped to make our modern Commonwealth and our modern world? Isn’t that a more cheerful approach? This new vogue for politically correct iconoclasm is not just dispiriting, and unfair, and often ahistorical. Worst of all, it is a total distraction from the matter in hand. It does nothing for BAME people to go around mutilating statues, or campaigning against this or that cultural relic. There are far greater and more important battles. In the last ten years we have seen a big expansion in BAME students at our universities; more young black kids excelling in the most challenging subjects at school. The struggle now is to turn that into the universal narrative and the universal expectation – a story of success and not discrimination. That means taking seriously the serious points that are raised by the marchers. It means addressing racism and discrimination, and stamping it out. But it does not mean wasting time in delectable academic disputation about the life and opinions of every historical personality currently immortalised in bronze or stone. Let’s fight racism, but leave our heritage broadly in peace. If we really want to change it, there are democratic means available in this country – thanks, by the way, to Winston Churchill.
• 2020, Winston Churchill statue boarded up in advance of demonstrations
• 2021, Cleaning by Action Française of the monument to Gallieni in Paris
  On October 3, l’Action Française Paris, a monarchist and radical right-wing group, posts a video on Twitter showing their members cleaning the monument to Gallieni with brushes and water bottles. This method does not follow art conservator methods and recommendations, and are damaging to the monument. On Twitter, the video caption reads: "L’@actionfrancaise était une fois de plus présente pour préserver l’Héritage en nettoyant la statue du Maréchal Gallieni, souillée récemment. Face à la négation de notre patrimoine par quelques esprits confus en mal de reconnaissance : français, rejoins nos rangs !" In the video, activists explain: "En réaction face à la souillure de ce monument, érigé en l'honneur du Maréchal Gallieni, sauveur de Paris en 1914 face à l'avancée allemande, l'Action Française a pris les devants et, contrairement à la mairie, a nettoyé ce monument à la gloire de la France et de ses héritages." Radical right-wing activists thus position themselves as defendors of statues and monuments, while their defense methods are further damaging the monuments they claim to protect, and constitute a different type of "dégradation de bien public".
• 2021, Cleaning by the city of Paris of the monument to Gallieni
  The city of Paris starts cleaning the red paint off the monument to Gallieni on September 30, and publicized it on social media.
• 2021, Paul Bert le "crooner"
  La statue de Paul Bert fait partie des œuvres du patrimoine local mises en scène dans une vidéo partagée sur les réseaux sociaux par la mairie d’Auxerre, en attendant la réouverture des musées au public. Paul Bert est transformé en crooner chantant « Only you
• 2021, Siobhan Baillie MP press release on the Blackboy Clock
• 2021, Sir Trevor Philips explains his views in connection with his appointment to the Heritage Advisory Board
  Sir Trevor Philips said that he had no objection to things changing, but he wanted people to be more honest about their motives, and to focus on real issues, rather than cultural 'window-dressing' such as renaming things and removing statues.
• 2021, UK government creates a Heritage Advisory Board
  The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport announced the creation of a Heritage Advisory Board to frame guidelines for the management of contested heritage, within the government's 'Retain and Explain' policy
• 2021, UK government declares 'Retain and Explain' policy for historic monuments
  The UK government announced a new set of laws and policies for the protection of historic monuments, both listed and unlisted. The highlights of these new measures include: 'New legal safeguards introduced for historic monuments at risk of removal All historic statues, plaques and other monuments will now require full planning permission to remove, ensuring due process and local consultation in every case The law will make clear that historic monuments should be retained and explained The Secretary of State able to “call in” any application and ensure the law is followed'
• 2022, Britain First responds to Stroud District Council Blackboy Clock recommendations
  Britain First, a far-right and neofascist hate group, put out the following statement: "The ultra-woke Labour-led local council in Stroud, Gloucestershire, has voted to remove a 250 year old historic clock in the town, because it depicts a harmless image of a little black boy. The Labour council said that the clock was "traumatic for people of colour", whereas everyone else in the town has reacted angrily and blasted the council for trying to erase history. The clock, created in 1774, is one of Britain's twenty surviving jack clocks, which feature a moving figure striking a bell on the hour. We are urging our supporters to use this campaign to send a complaint immediately to Labour-led Stroud Council, demanding that they reverse their woke decision and leave our history alone."
• 2022, Councillors debate Stroud District Council Blackboy Clock recommendations
  The Chair of the Review Panel, Councillor Bennett, introduced the report and advised that since the worldwide Black Lives Matter protests in June 2020, the Council had committed to carrying out consultation with its communities and undertaking a review of any street and building names, statues and architectural features in the district that may have been considered offensive. They thanked the Review Panel for all of the work they had put into the review over the last 11 months. A public consultation had been launched in 2021 and over 1600 responses were received which helped the panel to compile the recommendations laid out in the report. The Review Panel had concluded, following the consultation, that the Blackboy Clock and Statue should not be on display in the public realm but should be redisplayed with detailed interpretation in a place that provided learning and education. The recommendation that Council was being asked to consider was to explore if removal of the statue could be achieved. Councillor Bennett also drew Members attention to the additional recommendations of the Review Panel. Councillor Bennett invited some of the Review Panel Members, who attended the meeting, to give their thoughts. Mr Guthrie, community representative on the Review Panel, highlighted the following: · They had written to the council in June 2020 regarding the clock · Thanked the Review Panel members, family and friends for support · They had taken the time to read through the 1600 responses and take on board what the consultations responses said. · Asked Members to think of the report as a series of starting points rather than an ending · The conversation about how the district could become more inclusive for everybody needed to continue. Ms Hoskin, community representative on the Review Panel, highlighted the following: · Impressed by the thoroughness of Stroud District Council in conducting the public consultation and the processing of the results. · People were beginning to realise that diversity enriched communities. · Encouraged by the proposal of a task force that could implement some of the ideas. Mr Butler, historian and member of Radical Stroud on the Review Panel, highlighted the following: · The conception of education should go beyond the demographic of youth. · Resources should be developed for community education in a variety of accessible ways, means and media. · Community education could strengthen community cohesion. The chair thanked the Review Panel members. Councillor Pearson raised concerns regarding the validity of the consultation results and whether it was a representative snapshot of views across the district. Councillor Bennett confirmed that based on the electorate for the district, which was around 96000, a representative sample would be 1,058 with a margin of error of 3%. The number of consultation responses received was above the numbers needed for a standard representative sample for the district. In response to further questions from Councillor Pearson, Councillor Bennett confirmed that until January 2022 they believed that the residents of the building owned the clock and statue and they had consulted with them. However, it became apparent that the clock and statue had been put into a trust 20 years ago, they had contacted the trustees however they had not been able to respond and so they had been in contact with a member of their family instead. CouncillorGreen asked whether Stroud Town Council had provided any funds to repair the clock and statue following an application for a grant. It was confirmed that they had received a grant from the Town Council. Councillor Green also questioned whether a plaque should be provided on the building and a further consultation carried out once the contextual information had been added. This was so that the public could revaluate whether the information provided changed their views as to removal. Councillor Bennett advised that it was their plan to provide a plaque even if the clock and statue had not been removed but had received very strong responses in favour of removal. In response to questions from Councillor Braun, Brown and Studdert-Kennedy the following was confirmed: · They wanted the communities to help shape any future community events or commemorations and that the task force would help to progress this work. · They were hoping that schools would be encouraged to use this as a way to educate pupils on the issues surrounding the Blackboy Clock and Statue and the task force would be engaging with communities. · The figure of £33.5k was for the relocation of the clock and statue and further information on the financials were included in the implications on page 78. · The plaque would not be placed on the building but would be placed nearby. Councillor Sutton raised concerns over the removal of the clock and statue and stated that he had spoken to many people who thought it should remain in situ. Councillor Bennett reminded Members that they were not recommending that the statue was removed immediately but that they should pursue removal based on the results of the consultation. Councillor Patrick asked questions regarding Blackboys Road in Dursley. Councillor Bennett confirmed that the recommendation was for a consultation to be carried out with the residents of the 8 houses in conjunction with Dursley Town Council and that a larger consultation had not been ruled out. Proposed by Councillor Bennett and seconded by Councillor Cornell. Councillor Pearson acknowledged the extensive work that had been carried out by the review panel but stated that the implications of the project had not been thought through and it had been poorly costed. He further stated that there was no guarantee that the statue would go to the Museum in the Park and that the consultation did not provide a true representation of the district. He stated that a more thorough consultation should take place. Councillor Aldam advised that they understood the concerns regarding manipulating history or destroying it and provided reassurance that history didn’t change but how we see it could. Councillor Jones stated that following Councillor Aldams’ statement he had been tempted to change his decision and thanked the Review Panel who had produced one of the most thorough pieces of work he had seen. He highlighted his concerns with the budget and the consultation results not being representative. He also drew Members’ attention to Historic Englands position which stated ‘parts of our heritage may confront us with aspects of our past which we now question, which may be associated with injustice and which may be painful. It is right that as a society we respond to such associations, but we believe that this is best done, not by removal, but by preservation, and responding to them in ways which can explain their context and prompt reflection”. Councillor James thanked the Review Panel members and stated that we should be removing the statue and clock and put it into a museum as leaving it where it was would be a mistake. They stated that the statue and clock would not be erected now and therefore we needed to acknowledge that and remove it. Councillor Turner stated that the finances were not exact at this point however they were confident the final figures would be robustly interrogated by the Section 151 Officer. They also confirmed that the majority of responses were in favour of removal and that the statue was not in its first home and had been moved previously, it therefore did not need to be the final location for the statue. Councillor Evans queried whether a plaque could be included on the anti-slavery arch so that the good and bad sides of history were on display. Councillor Braun reminded members of the statement that the political group leaders had released in 2020 condemning racism. They also stated that there had been many residents who had responded to the issue and that they need to listen to what people were telling them. They drew Member’s attention to page 102 and stated that if the recommendations were approved then they would proceed at every stage with community engagement. Councillor Cornell commended Members for the level of respectful debate at the meeting and thanked the Review Panel for all their work. Councillor Cornell reminded Members of the anonymous email they had received prior to the start of the review. The email stated that the figurine wasn’t based on a specific individual but served as a monument to the commodification and later exotification of black bodies that emerged as a result of slavery and that the statue was symbolic of systemic racism. They stated that if all the recommendations were implemented their understanding of the past would be enriched, and would be enhanced. Councillor Bennett confirmed that a robust process had been followed and that the recommendations would make a positive difference. They urged Members to vote in favour. On being put to the vote, the Motion was carried with 26 votes in favour, 2 against and 12 abstentions. RESOLVED To a) Thank the Review Panel for their contribution to this work; and b) Accept all recommendations of the Review Panel outlined in section 4 of this report.
• 2022, National news coverage of Stroud District Council Blackboy Clock recommendations
• 2022, Siobhan Baillie MP statement to MailOnline after Blackboy Clock recommendations published
  Baillie made the following statement to MailOnline: "As I said before, I oppose removal of history and statues. To do so serves no purpose other than to allow some people to decide or be selective with history or decide what is most comfortable and cause no offence. 'I remain disappointed that myself and other local people who believe statues should remain in place were called racist, shouted down and hounded on social media about the Stroud clock. 'A local organisation sadly spiked a lot of anger on both sides of the debate to suit its own agenda. 'My position has always been that where there are questions or if controversy arises, a plaque could be added setting out facts so that the wider public can discuss, confront where necessary and decide for themselves. 'Placing items in a museum will ensure that some people see an item, and we have a wonderful local museum who do excellent work, but I believe the removal from an original setting can lose part of the story. Who knows what a museum will decide to do with a piece of art or sculpture in the future too. 'The clock in Stroud has also been in the town in various locations for approximately 240 years. It has a date of 1774 on its mechanism, it is 18th century in style and despite local people taking the trouble to have it restored in 2004, I understand it remains a rare piece. 'There is a historic interest for the town yet questions remain unanswered. The council’s own investigations states ‘whilst it is important to include the possible origins and inspiration behind the statue within this report, it must be stated that the possibilities are all speculative and it is therefore not possible to define why [the artist] chose to use the image of the boy’. 'The clock issue has bizarrely become a political attack from the left. To my knowledge, previous Stroud MPs of all party colours did not campaign to remove the statue, nor did the MP at the time take issue with the restoration of the clock features. 'It should be left where it is.'"
• 2022, UK Culture Secretary grants listed status to Cecil Rhodes plaque at Oriel College, Oxford