In front of you stands a dark bronze queen on a square pale stone pedestal and granite base, crowned and holding an orb and sceptre.
Queen Victoria has been presiding over this forecourt of Chester Castle, in front of the Crown Court, since the seventeenth of October, nineteen oh three. Wilbraham Egerton, the first Earl Egerton, unveiled her, but the money came from public subscription, with about a third raised in Chester and the rest across the county... a civic whip-round on an imperial scale. Frederick William Pomeroy sculpted her, fresh from creating the Duke of Westminster’s effigy in Chester Cathedral. Foundry workers at Hollinshead and Burton in Thames Ditton cast the bronze, while Harry Beswick designed the stonework and Haswell and Sons of Chester cut it.
Look at the way she is dressed: coronation robes, a lace head-dress, and the Imperial Crown... no danger of mistaking this for off-duty Victoria. The pedestal carries the arms of the city and county, a reminder that this memorial was meant to speak for both. If you glance at the detail image on your screen, those formal Victorian touches show up nicely.
Over fifteen years, the statue itself has barely changed, but the square around it feels tidier and more carefully presented now. Take a quick look at the comparison in the app if you like. In nineteen eighty-five, it gained Grade Two listed status, meaning it is nationally important and specially protected.
This forecourt is open all day, every day, and Victoria seems perfectly content with the arrangement. A small monument, but a very confident one. When you’re ready, we can wander on to the next stop.
