Manual Ref* NFklKL002 Show 8 images 292
Title*

Statue of King Edward VII

County Norfolk   District Council King's Lynn 
Civil Parish or equivalent King's Lynn  Town/Village* King's Lynn 
Road Gaywood Road 
Precise Location South side of the Gaywood Road beyond King George V Avenue 
OS Grid Ref TF629204  Postcode PE30 
Previous location(s)  
Setting On a small green facing the entrance to the school  Access Private 
Artist/Maker Role Qualifier
William Colton  Sculptor(s)   
R. Bridgeman  Stonemason(s)   

Commissioned by

Governors of the School with the assistance of Sir William Lancaster 

Design & Constrn period

 

Date of installing

1906 

Exact date of unveiling

05-Nov-06 

Category

Abstract Animal Architectural
Commercial Commemorative Composite
Free Functional Funerary
Heraldic Military Natural
Non-Commemorative Performance Portable
Religious Roadside, Wayside Sculptural
Temporary, Mobile Other  

Object Type

Building Clock Tower Architectural
Coat of Arms Cross Fountain
Landscape Marker Medallion
Mural Panel Readymade
Relief Shaft Sculpture
Statue Street Furniture War Memorial
Other Object Sub Type:

Subject Type

Allegorical Mythological Pictorial
Figurative Non-figurative Portrait
Still-life Symbolic Other

Subject Sub Type

Bust Equestrian Full-length
Group Head Reclining
Seated Standing Torso
Part Material Dimension
Statue  Bronze  H 3.15 m (approx) x W 1.5 m x D 2.35 m 
Plinth  Painted stone  H 138 cm x W 154 cm x D 242 cm 
Base  Painted stone or concrete  H 43 cm x W 253 cm x D 302 cm 
Students  Stone  Lifesize 

Work is

Extant Not Sited Lost

Owner/Custodian

King Edward VII School 

Listing status

Grade I Grade II* Grade II Don't Know Not Listed

Surface Condition

Corrosion, Deterioration Accretions
Bird Guano Abrasions, cracks, splits
Biological growth Spalling, crumbling
Metallic staining Previous treatments
Other  
Detail: The stone plinth and inscription have been insensitively over-painted

Structural Condition

Armature exposed Broken or missing parts
Replaced parts Loose elements
Cracks, splits, breaks, holes Spalling, crumbling
Water collection Other
Detail:

Vandalism

Graffiti Structural damage Surface Damage
Detail:

Overall condition

Good Fair Poor

Risk

No Known Risk At Risk Immediate
Signatures/Marks W.R. Colton ARA (Colton was elected ARA in 1903 and a full RA in 1919) 
Inscriptions His Majesty King Edward VII 1906 

Description (physical)

Larger than life-size seated statue of King Edward VII on a raised stone pedestal. The statue is set facing the entrance to the King Edward VII High School in Gaywood – a suburb of King’s Lynn, which was designed by Basil Champneys in 1903 and completed in 1906, the date of the statue. By 1903 the school was in need of a new building, which was provided by a former pupil of King’s Lynn grammar school, W.J. Lancaster, on a site provided by the Council. At the opening Lancaster was knighted in the great hall by Edward VII. The façade includes under life-size statues of students, one in Tudor costume on the left and the other in contemporary ca. 1905 clothes with a bag of books, presumably a copy of the original now housed just in the doorway, perhaps by R. Bridgeman of Litchfield, the stonemason working on the school. 

Description (iconographical)

The statue shows Edward VII turning slightly towards visitors coming through the original gates, now closed and replaced by gates which allow cars in. he wears an unusual composite costume. Like the earlier statue of Prince Albert at Framlingham College he is shown as the Great Master of the Order of the Bath, a role he held from 1897 until his accession in 1901, with the mantle draped over the coronation throne. There are two cherubs above: one wearing a cap indicating the title Emperor of India- the other bare-headed representing the Commonwealth Realms. His hat, however, is not part of the Regalia of England, and is a version of an academic cap, chosen to underline his role at a school founded in his name The composite crown signifies the monarch's authority over the United Kingdom. Of all this symbolism the choice of Sceptre with the Dove is probably the most significant reflecting public affection for a monarch popularly known in the wake of the entant cordiale of 1904 as Edward the Peacemaker. The monument reflects Colton’s French heritage both in the activity behind the seated king, suggested by Jules Dalou’s monuments, and in the enormous weight of the robes, treated with a combination of realism in the detail of the hem and freedom in the body of the robe, draped over the throne to suggest a response the deeply modelled abstract cloak with which Rodin enveloped Balzac in the plaster cast for his monument, exhibited in 1898 but only cast much later. 

Photographs

Date taken:  23/2/2007
Date logged:  27/2/2007

Photographed by:
David Hulks

On Site Inspection

Date:  23/2/2007

Inspected by:
Julia Rosenbaum and David Hulks

Sources and References

The Builder 17/11/1906, p. 573; M. Walker (2004) King Edward VII School: A Centenary Celebration, Sussex / http://www.heraldicsculptor.com/Garters.html accessed 23-Feb-07; www.moma.org/collection/Rodin accessed 04/08/2009 

Database

Date entered:  14/2/2007

Data inputter:
David Hulks and Richard Cocke