News / Edward Colston
Who actually owns Edward Colston’s statue?
As debate continues over its future, it seems there is some confusion over who owns the listed statue currently lying on the harbour floor.
Marvin Rees says it has not yet been established for sure who the monument of Edward Colston that had stood on Colston Avenue since 1895 belongs to.
Speaking during a press briefing on Wednesday, the mayor stopped short of revealing any names but said the council has been in talks with organisations “most associated with Colston and the Bristol establishment” in order to forge a way forward.
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Bristol24/7 understands that these organisations include the Society of Merchant Venturers, of which Colston was a member and until four years ago kept his fingernails and hair on display at their Clifton headquarters.
Other Bristol organisations closely associated with Colston are the Dolphin, Grateful and Anchor Societies, who still celebrate his birthday each year and one of whose websites is keen to stress that during Colston’s lifetime slavery was “a legitimate trade”.
A past president of the Anchor Society is John Savage, also canon treasurer at Bristol Cathedral, who have a stained glass window named after the slave trader.
Rees confirmed the council had been responsible for looking after Colston’s statue before it was unceremoniously toppled from its plinth on Sunday but might not be its legal owners.
On Monday morning, a clean-up team employed by the Bristol City Centre Improvement District removed graffiti from the plinth that had been daubed on it the previous day.
Work is now being undertaken in efforts to quickly establish ownership of the underwater statue, which Rees says he wants to be retrieved and put in a museum alongside placards held by protesters on Sunday’s march.
On Wednesday, historian professor Kate Williams wrote about the statue’s origins:
The bronze statue was erected more than 170 years after Colston’s death and has been the subject of debate for decades over why Bristol should celebrate a man responsible for the deaths of thousands of people.
While no names have been mentioned, for many people the Merchant Venturers are synonymous with Colston and his legacy.
The organisation that has been formally in existence since 1552 once controlled Bristol’s merchant trade and was heavily involved in the transatlantic slave trade.
To this day, the society runs a number of schools in the city, including Colston’s School in Stapleton and Colston’s Girls’ School on Cheltenham Road.
Colston’s School has said it will “look again” at changing its name – aerial photo courtesy of Colston’s School
In a brief statement following Sunday’s protest, the Society of Merchant Venturers said: “As people around the world, in the UK and here in Bristol, take a stand against racial injustice, we are committed to educating ourselves about systemic racism and its impact.
“We have a responsibility to identify and challenge racism and inequality in all that we do and wherever we see it.”
Colston’s School has revealed it is thinking about changing its name and a smaller version of the statue of Colston that used to be located at Colston’s Girls School has been removed.
When pressed on who might be the potential owners of Colston’s statue, Rees said: “There are some of the societies and organisations that many of us would associate with Bristol’s establishment and associate them directly with Colston and his legacy.
“The key point they are making is the priority from here on out is to build for the future and find a way to bring the city together.
“We have a discontinuity in Bristol with the statue being pulled down so it’s what we do with that discontinuity.”
He added that the key thing is to seek a positive outcome following the events on Sunday during the Black Live Matter march.
Main photo by Martin Booth
Read more: Mayor to launch commission to research Bristol’s ‘true history’
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