For June's Farmers' Market and during Jubilee celebrations, we were thinking about the statue of the Duke of Richmond, Charles Gordon Lennox, that was made and erected in 1862 in our town square and stands right opposite our market stall. We'll be questioning what and who monuments are for, and what would be better placed on the Square's plinth.
Lennox was a conservative MP for Chichester in the early 1800s, and by the mid 1800s acted as the president of the Central Agricultural Protection Society. The Society campaigned for the preservation of the Corn Laws which enacted taxes on imported grain between 1815-1846, raising food prices and the cost of living in a time when domestic food supplies were short. The Corn Laws ultimately benefitted and protected landowners' interests, of which Lennox was one of them. The statue of Lennox was erected only 16 years after the Corn Laws were repealed – in the process of erecting it, three of the six Pictish standing stones which stood in the Square were removed. Who and where does this statue represent? We chatted and made a special bunting which was then put up on the statue.
Also at our stall was lots of information on current land rights movements, pamphlets covering the history of the statue of Lennox, and some 'Guess How Many … in the Jar' games!
