History

Erected by public subscription in 1899 in memory of W E Gladstone, Prime Minister, a frequent visitor to the town due to his friendship with the quarry-owning Derbyshire family.

William Gladstone (1808-1898) was a Member of the UK Parliament from 1832 to 1894 and served as Prime Minister for twelve years. He is the only Prime Minister to have served four terms. He was born in Liverpool the son of John Gladstone (1764-1851), a sugar merchant and plantation owner who was one of the largest owners of enslaved people in Britain’s colonies of Guiana and Jamaica. He entered Parliament in 1833, aged 23. At this time he supported emancipation but argued for apprenticeships to be served before enslaved persons were freed, and for the financial compensation of slave-owners (his father received the largest individual payment as the owner of 2508 slaves). By 1850, Gladstone described slavery as “‘by far the foulest crime that taints the history of mankind” and he used import taxes on slave-produced sugar to encourage other countries to abolish it. He also opposed the lucrative opium trade and objected to Britain’s Opium Wars against China. One of the great reforming Prime Ministers of Victorian Britain, Gladstone created the secret ballot, legalised trade unions and extended voting rights so that the majority of adult men were allowed to vote in Parliamentary elections. He passed the Elementary Education Act in 1870 and presided over important reforms of the army and the civil service. Gladstone was hostile to British Imperialism in Africa and Asia but nonetheless began the military occupation of Egypt in 1882. He saw political devolution as a peaceful way to keep Ireland within the British Empire but his attempts to establish Irish Home Rule were defeated. In Wales his governments passed the Welsh Sunday Closing Act in 1881 forcing pubs in Wales to close on Sundays (except in Monmouthshire) and created the University of Wales in 1893. In 1873 in Mold he was the first UK Prime Minister to address the National Eisteddfod.

Exterior

Life-sized bronze bust of Gladstone on a polished granite obelisk; the four faces are inscribed respectively: 'Gladstone', 'Statesman, Orator, Scholar', '29 Dec 1809 to 19th May 1898'. And 'Erected by Public Subscription, 1899'. The obelisk stands on a triangular (unpolished) granite base, itself within a triangular dwarf-walled flowerbed enclosure; decorative iron railings, modern protective bollards.

Reasons for Listing

Included for its historic interest as a late C19 municipal monument in a prominent location and commemorating a prominent statesman.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q29494194

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)