Manual Ref* NFnnHO003 Show 8 images 6
Title*

Leicester Monument

County Norfolk   District Council North Norfolk 
Civil Parish or equivalent Holkham  Town/Village* Holkham Hall Estate 
Road King's Lynn (A149) 
Precise Location In park to north of Holkham Hall 
OS Grid Ref TF8842  Postcode NR23 
Previous location(s)  
Setting In park  Access Public 
Artist/Maker Role Qualifier
W.J. Donthorne  Architect(s)   
John Henning Jr.  Sculptor(s)   
James Watson  Builder(s)   

Commissioned by

Public subscription by the yeomanry and tenantry of both political parties at the Swan Inn, Norwich 16 July 1842, the total coast was around £5,400 

Design & Constrn period

1844-50; Henning commissioned in 1844; stonework completed 1848; monument with inscription in bronze 1850 

Date of installing

Celebration of first stone laid 12 August 1845 

Exact date of unveiling

March 1850 

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: memorial

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
Single-fluted corinthian column  Whitby sandstone  H. 38 metres 
Plinth  Whitby sandstone  5.5 m wide (4 sides) 
Base  Whitby sandstone  7 metres square 
Narrative panels  Limestone   
Plough and Seed drill  Cast iron rounded and pointed to imitate Portland stone   

Work is

Extant Not Sited Lost

Owner/Custodian

Holkham Estate 

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: Significant moss growth at plinth. Surrounded by weeds. One figure has a round hole in his chest

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 James Watson builder W.I. Donthorn architect 
Inscriptions Cast in bronze to west: THIS COLUMN IN MEMORY OF THOMAS WILLIAM COKE, EARL OF LEICESTER,/FOR MORE THAN HALF A CENTURY THE FAITHFUL REPRESENTATIVE OF THIS COUNTY IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS:/ ERECTED BY SUBSCRIPTION, ORIGINATING WITH THE YEOMANRY AND SUPPORTED BY THE NOBLEMEN AND GENTLEMEN OF ALL PARTIES./ RECORDS A LIFE DEVOTED TO THE WELFARE OF HIS FRIENDS, NEIGHBOURS AND TENANTS./ OF SUCH A MAN CONTEMPORARIES NEEDED NO MEMORIAL. HIS DEEDS WERE BEFORE THEM. HIS PRAISE IN THEIR HEARTS./ BUT IT IMPORTS POSTERITY TO KNOW THAT HE PRE-EMINENTLY COMBINED PUBLIC SERVICES WITH PRIVATE WORTH./ AFFORDING AN ILLUSTRIOUS EXAMPLE OF BIRTH AND STATION ACTIVATED BY DUTY AND INSPIRED BY BENEVOLENCE./ INTEGRITY AND INDEPENDENCE MARKED HIS POLITICAL CAREER. LOVE, HONOUR AND REGRET ATTEND THE FATHER, FRIEND AND LANDLORD./ THE ARTS LAMENT IN HIM A LIBERAL AND FOSTERING PATRON:/ AND AGRICULTURE/ TO WHICH FROM EARLY YOUTH TO THE CLOSE OF HIS LIFE HE DEDICATED TIME, ENERGY, SCIENCE AND WEALTH / --–CROWNING HIS CENOTAPH WITH HER EMBLEMS–/CHERISHES THE PRECEDENT AND COMMENDS THE PRACTICE OF HER GREAT PROMOTER AND BENEFACTOR/ JAMES WATSON, BUILDER ROBERT LEAMON CHAIRMAN W.J. DONTHORN F.I.B.A ARCHITECT.  

Description (physical)

Single-fluted 'agricultural' Roman Composite column mounted on a massive stone plinth with bas-relief panels by John Henning Junior on three faces- the fourth containing a dedicatory inscription, by William Bodham Donne (1807-82) of Mattishall. On the four corners of the base are sculptures by Henning of: a Devon ox (Inscription:BREEDING IN ALL ITS BRANCHES), Southdown sheep (Inscription: SMALL IN SIZE BUT GREAT IN VALUE). The plough (Inscription: LIVE AND LET LIVE, the estate's motto) and seed drill (Inscription: THE IMPROVEMENT OF AGRICULTURE), were cast iron rounded and pointed to imitate Portland stone. At the top: a massive capital with four bulls kneeling at the corners between the classical acanthus leaves and a lantern pierced on four sides framed by mourning wreaths set under a coronet (to indicate Coke’s status as an earl) crowned with a wheatsheaf. The relief of the signing of the lease was based on an occasion in 1836. Coke is seated to the right of the table with one of his tenant farmers, Hudson and his son and other tenants to the left and to the right Coke's son (2nd earl) and estate managers, including Francis Blaikie, Coke’s outstanding agent and farm manager. This is a tribute to Coke's good relationship with his tenants, none of whom had a bad word to say against him, although he had no compunction in breaking up the farm labourers’ protests in 1831, and it seems unlikely (in the words of the ODNB vol., 12 p. 478) that they ‘shared the respect, admiration and gratitude that his tenants felt for him.’ The Irrigation scene shows two major landlords, Coke and the 9th Duke of Bedford, in the centre with the experts (geologist William Smith and engineer Jonathan Crook) to the right with a labourer digging. This is a reminder of the reclamation of the Holkham estate from the sea, begun at its acquisition by John Coke in 1659 and continued by Thomas Coke and of the new sluices for the lake in 1801-3. The Shearing includes on the left portraits of key members of the committee responsible for the commission, the chairman Mr. Leamon, Sir J.P. Boileau, Lord Colborne and Sir W. Ffolkes and is a reminder of the annual Holkham 'shearings', begun in 1778 as the fore-runners of today's agricultural shows, to which people interested in farming flocked from all over Britain and from overseas, eager to see Coke's farming innovations and new machinery.  

Description (iconographical)

The Earl of Leicester died on 30 June 1842, and the meeting which agreed a public subscription for a memorial, was held held on the 16th of July. Subsequently a ‘committee of taste’ was appointed who recommended a column of artistic design. A later meeting raised the issue of the location, Holkham Park or Norwich, decided by ballot at the end of the year in favour of Holkham (322 votes) against Norwich (281). Known in his lifetime as Coke of Norfolk, he had, as local MP before his elevation to the peerage, been a key supporter of the Nelson monument in Great Yarmouth, contributing £200. Donthorn's winning design, which was chosen in January 1844, was a variant on William Railton’s national Monument to Nelson in Trafalgar Square, ready by 1843 or by its source, Sir Christopher Wren’s Monument of 1677, which combines a large narrative panel on the pedestal, with dragons (symbols of the City of London) on the base with a flaming urn to symbolise the fire. In either case Donthorn extended the pedestal to allow for the narrative panels, with animals and agricultural implements on the base and lantern crowned with the wheatsheaf. John Henning had made copies of the Parthenon frieze and based the pose of Coke leaning on a horse with bowed neck in the Shearing on part of the frieze, but not the contemporary clothes. The monument is on a direct north south axis running through the hall to the obelisk in the south and when erected trees were cleared so that it could 'act a conspicuous landmark for mariners' (White Norfolk 1854 Directory) The ceremony to lay the initial stone was attended by nearly ten thousand, many of whom had been subscribers, in spite of the pouring rain. The Northumberland sandstone offered by Lord Hastings of Melton Constable Hall from his quarries at Seaton Delaval, was rejected by the committee in favour of Whitby sandstone. Watson received £3,500 Henning, also responsible for the sculptures at corners of ox and sheep, £970 

Photographs

Date taken:  27/5/2006
Date logged:  29/5/2006

Photographed by:
Sarah Cocke

On Site Inspection

Date:  27/5/2006

Inspected by:
Pippa Lacey, Pete Harmon, Wylie Schwartz, Theisje Dorsten

Sources and References

Mackie, C., Norfolk Annals, Compiled from the files of the Norfolk Chronicle, Norwich, 1901, I, 324-5; O'Donnel, R.l 'W J Donthorn' in Architectural History XXI 1978; Hiskey, C. , ‘The Leicester monument’ Norfolk Gardens Trust Journal, Spring 2005, 6-16; Stirling, A.M.W., Coke of Norfolk and His Friends: The Life of Thomas William Coke, First Earl of Leicester, of Holkham, London, 1908 and later eds., Epilogue, 1845; for the stone Dr David Hulks has noted the references in the Illustrated London News, August 1845 p. 45 rejecting Northumberland sandstone in preference for Whitby, referred to in the 1850 Narrative of the proceedings regarding the erection of the Leicester monument: with a statement of account and list of contributors, Norwich, 1850. 

Database

Date entered:  11/7/2009

Data inputter:
Richard Cocke, David Hulks