No Seated Queen!

01/04/1964

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When in 1963, the market moved from its centuries-old site in the middle of the city, the council set about realigning the road to ease traffic flow. This involved taking down the Gates Memorial, the drinking fountain monument to the city’s first mayor, Henry Pearson Gates. It had been donated to the city by his wife and erected in 1898. The public were asked to suggest a new name for the site and ‘Cathedral Square’ was selected. However, the council had its own ideas about what should replace the memorial. It asked four sculptors to submit ideas and designs. In February, it had brought in three art experts to advise which was best. They unanimously selected one called ‘The Seated Queen’. The council promptly put a model of ‘The Queen’ on display for public approval, despite one councillor saying: ‘anything of a modern sort is going to create comment from those that don’t understand it’. How right he was. Nobody wanted to ‘understand’ it, the ‘locals’ couldn’t understand it and didn’t want it anyway. It was on this rather appropriate day 1 April that the council finally erased ‘The Seated Queen’ from their plans and cost estimates! (Harper-Tee, John, ‘The Peterborough Story’, Peterborough Evening Telegraph, 1992)

Taken from The Peterborough Book of Days by Brian Jones, The History Press, 2014.

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Burial of a Controversial Bishop

08/05/1839

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Bishop Herbert Marsh was buried on this day in a prepared vault behind the altar in the 'New Building' part of the cathedral - the last bishop to be buried there. His wife Marianne was buried alongside him eight years later. He had died on May Day, after twenty years as bishop. Referred to by some as an 'enfant terrible', and others as 'the Peterborough Theological Laboratory' - the latter due to his deep knowledge and firmly held beliefs as an 'old-fashioned High Churchman'. He had been the centre of a controversy a few weeks before his death for taking up a political position in Peterborough - but that was nothing new. His obituary in The Gentleman's Magazine referred to his unpopularity: 'His attempts to repress Calvinism in his diocese soon rendered him obnoxious to the evangelical portion of the clergy, and several publications appeared on the subject that were ultimately brought before the House of Lords - but without material result.' Balancing this is a comment in the Stamford Mercury of 24 May 1839, attributed to the cathedral sexton, who supposedly said that 'the Bishop liked his pipe and many hours of the day were spent inhaling Greek and tobacco'. (Carnell, Geoffrey, The Bishops of Peterborough, RJL Smith & Associates, 1993; Jenkins, Eric, Victorian Northamptonshire: The Early Years, Cordelia, 1993) Taken from The Peterborough Book of Days by Brian Jones, The History Press, 2014.