This is - as the young people say - a bit random but I went to Shrewsbury today and further indulged my mild fixation with the monument to Viscount Rowland Hill. For the uninitiated, Shrewsbury is the county town of Shropshire - loosely speaking north of the West Midlands, east of north Wales and south of Cheshire. It needs to be defined in relation to other places as frankly it is a bit of a backwater - rather a pretty and historic backwater but a backwater nonetheless.
Shrewsbury has some rather splendid street names such as Abbey Foregate, Wyle Cop and - my personal favourite - Dogpole.
It also has the most over the top monument I have ever seen - okay I haven't seen the pyramids or the Taj Mahal but you get my general drift. By the Shirehall - the name may conjure up an image of a bosky old building but it is an overblown 60s or 70s monstrosity of a county council building with unprepossessing Crown Court bolted on the side - is the monument to Viscount Rowland Hill.
Now it's not as big as Nelson's Column. It just looks that way. And at least Nelson was famous and the surrounding buildings in Trafalgar Square are in proportion with his column. Hill was a sidekick of Wellington's and fought with him at Waterloo, did various other military things and ended up in charge of the British Army compliments of his old mate Wellington who by then had become Prime Minister. That's about it - in particular he's not the bloke who invented the postage stamp although I assume they were related.
As a monument it is just completely over the top. I wouldn't pull it down, though. It's so over the top it's quite entertaining.
On a completely different subject, I'm still just about resisting putting up the Ponting spitting blood pic. Here is Phil Tufnell - to be on Strictly Come Dancing - it has just been announced (almost but still not enough to make me watch it) together with the Wooden Urns and his Ashes Song. Daft or what? It's something to do with Marmite - can't stand the muck personally
7 comments:
You see what you get when the legacy of your life is postal reform? Nice monument!
Totally off topic but a topic which might interest you, I have been asked to review Banks on Sentence 4th edition...
JHL - I was in chambers with Robert Banks years and years ag. I'm saying nuffin ;)
It's amazingly widely used though - he really pulled a commercial rabbit (not a white one ;) ) out of the hat with the sentencing book.
WR: It's not my area, mine starts where criminal law leaves off. However, I am familiar with Andrew Ashworth's texts, and Andrew von Hirsch's works. I am disappointed with the lack of Google results on Banks, I couldn't find any criticisms. Praise is on his own website and in the book, but absent elsewhere. I have been asked to write a good review. He who pays the piper calls the tune. Like you, I will keep my own counsel...
My Dear Bunny,
Are you also a fan of Canary Wharf?
( Modesty forbids me to flesh out this comment further, so to speak)
Minx- Canary Wharf? Ermmm... It's okay - did look at a place to live there last year but decided against. Why? Do you own it?
Now Look Here.. the guy was a total hero..... lots of love as always...Viscount Rowland Hill. Lost in Atherstone...
Post a Comment