Severn Beach Slave trade memorial plan

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Severn Beach Slave trade memorial plan


The steel structures would cover a combined area of more than 370 square metres

Plans for a memorial to victims of the transatlantic slave trade are being proposed for Severn Beach near Bristol.

London-based architect Herman Morgan said he came up with the idea after discovering there is "no significant slave trade memorial in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom)".

He said Severn Beach was the right place for the steel alloy structures owing to Bristol's historic connection with slavery. His company hopes to submit a planning application within the next two months.


Designs for the memorial are on show at Bristol's Engine Shed until the end of March

Mr Morgan said ideas for the memorial were conceived in 2007 during the 200th anniversary of the slavery abolition act. He said: "It's comprised essentially of four elements - it's along a series of landscaped paths and the idea is that you move through them, as opposed to looking and staring at them. It's more about the emotional connection. There are four elements - the unknown, displacement, no return and remembrance.

"We thought the Severn Beach coastline has a very powerful resonance with the slave trade. Especially in Bristol. And at the end of the actual memorial itself, you end up arriving at a point where you are looking towards the Bristol Channel where the ships came and left - so it's quite poignant."

He said the memorial would cost ^1.5m in total but the firm plans to raise the funding in stages. The first stage aims to raise ^40,000 which would pay for the project's development and submission to planning. They are also in the process of applying for funding from the Arts Council and other organisations.

More than three million Africans were shipped across the Atlantic in the 18th Century, before Parliament passed the 1807 Abolition of the Slave Trade Act, banning the trafficking of Africans as slaves.

Britain's act to abolish slavery itself was not passed until 1833.


The "unknown" element comprises of a series of 8 long narrow open-air corridors "denoting a solitary and confined" journey

[chuffed]

Didn't they use 'nodding donkeys' to carry them to/from Temple Meads/Severn beach ??

[chuffed]

Perhaps an acknowledgement of the 'slave trade' used in building the Severn Tunnel might not go amiss.

Can highly recommend a visit to the west bank of the Severn to view the local history room in the Sudbrook 'non political' club next to the 4 storey red brick pumping station. Excellent little museum with loads of information, toilets and tea/coffee making facilities. The diminutive size of the room is in inverse proportion to the amount of history it contains ! Walk on another 100 yards to the cliff top to be treated to a jaw dropping view of the Second Severn Crossing quite different to that seen from the other side. Well worth the ^6.50 bridge toll!.

To get there, go over the Old Bridge (M48), drive past Chepstow racecourse, and turn first left at the roundabout on to the A48 to Newport. After 2 miles or so, look out for the yellow lime washed walls of Portskewett parish church on your left. Turn sharp left before the church and watch out for the traffic lights as the bridge over the main line is single file. You then pick up a boundary wall with 2 pairs of level crossing gates still in situ. Cross the line  at the first pair of gates(was the stub down to Portskewett pier) and read all about it in the local history room. Plenty of parking space in the club car park. Was a completely unexpected visit and well worth a couple of hours of anyone's time.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Many thanks for posting that, chuffed! 

If only I'd known about that, last Wednesday, when I happened to be over in that specific area (Chepstow and Portskewett), with some spare time to fill ... 

As it was, I found the Wetherspoons in Chepstow (The Bell Hanger) to use up that time ... 

[TonyK]

Whilst I am in favour of art in the great outdoors, I am puzzled by the proposed venue. Severn Beach did not exist, other than as a small farm, until 67 years after the formal end of slavery in Britain. Perhaps it is an acknowledgement that South Gloucestershire's part in the evil slave trade has been understated, in which case it makes sense.

When the proposed names for what is now Cabot Circus were announced, there was much harrumphing about the initial choice of Merchants Quarter. Merchants, it was said, referred to the Merchant Venturers, many of whom made money from transporting slaves between Africa and the West Indies. Fair comment maybe, but although it was a long time back, they no longer deal in flesh, and I haven't heard similar calls for apologies from the Romans or the Vikings. Instead, I remember calls to reject, on grounds of slave trading, the names of Cabot and Brunel. What tosh - Zhuan Caboto was a Venetian navigator long before we knew there were West Indies, and IKB^▸ (Isambard Kingdom Brunel) was a babe in arms when the slave trade was abolished. He was, in any case, a man of principle, who used poorly paid Irish navvies.

"Where the ships came and went" evokes a false memory. Few slaves set foot on shore in Bristol, most having been bought from African chiefs to be transported to the West Indies.

You can talk about "slaves" building the Severn Tunnel in much the same way that some may talk about "slaves" manning the pumps in the Bell Hanger. The argument there is about terms, conditions and pay, whereas the true argument against slavery concerned choice and free will.

I shall visit the museum recommended by Chuffed, which sounds excellent. In return, may I offer the national museum of St Kitts and Nevis, in Basseterre?  Not only was it fascinating, and moving, but was presided over during my visit by a lady who had been born and raised in Nottingham, before moving there (voluntarily).

[JayMac]

I shall visit the museum recommended by Chuffed, which sounds excellent. In return, may I offer the national museum of St Kitts and Nevis, in Basseterre? 

I can get to the one chuffed mentioned by train and/or bicycle. Sounds ideal for day out when the weather improves. Unfortunately I think the one it Basseterre is beyond the reach of my pedalling. 

[TonyK]

I can get to the one chuffed mentioned by train and/or bicycle. Sounds ideal for day out when the weather improves. Unfortunately I think the one it Basseterre is beyond the reach of my pedalling. 

A shame, because it is interesting. There is also a brilliant train ride, on an old sugar plantation line, plied by a remarkable bit of kit with open top carriages, a running commentary, and rum punch in abundance. I'll try and find a photo.

In my earlier post calling for suitable apologies, I omitted the Normans, although they are really just Vikings, with better cheese and cider. They were prone to cheating, or at least gamesmanship. It was sneaky of William (Norman / Viking) to wait until Harold (English / Viking) had marched south from Yorkshire after beating Harald (Viking / Viking) at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, so that our lot were tired by a congested fixture list. Small wonder that the football ground was moved to Chelsea. Some also say the archer who put the arrow in Harold's eye was marginally offside. Harold's last words are believed to have been "What Cnut did that?".

[JayMac]

Post of the week! 

And it's only Tuesday. Tuesday of course being named after a deity those Viking away teams would have worshipped. 

[Tim]

"Where the ships came and went" evokes a false memory. Few slaves set foot on shore in Bristol, most having been bought from African chiefs to be transported to the West Indies.

That would be the deal breaker for me.  Bristol's present day connection to the Slave trade is surely the wealth and fine buildings it accumulated as a result of it.  Strikes me as more appropriate to put a memorial that juxtaposes with that - in Queens Square, the Colston Hall or the grounds of some National Trust pile that was paid for by the labour of Africans.   

An urban memorial would be more visible too.  If we want Bristolians to confront an uncomfortable past then stick the memorial where they will see it, rather than somewhere out of the way. 

[ChrisB]

I think this is just a way of keeping the applicant in work?....

[Oxonhutch]

I seem to recall, many years ago, that a macabre find was made in an old - and long ago - bricked-off cellar somewhere in Bristol that contained human remains.  The nature and disposition of the bones suggested at the time of discovery that they were a vestige of the slave trade. I'll try and do some Google-Foo ...

[JayMac]

That would be the deal breaker for me.  Bristol's present day connection to the Slave trade is surely the wealth and fine buildings it accumulated as a result of it.  Strikes me as more appropriate to put a memorial that juxtaposes with that - in Queens Square, the Colston Hall or the grounds of some National Trust pile that was paid for by the labour of Africans.   

An urban memorial would be more visible too.  If we want Bristolians to confront an uncomfortable past then stick the memorial where they will see it, rather than somewhere out of the way. 

Agree. Stick a memorial in The Centre in place of the statue of Edward Colston. He may have been philanthropic and endowed Bristol with schools and almshouses, but the money to do these good deeds came from slave trading and selling arms to African chiefs. Not something that should be celebrated with statues, road names, office blocks, concert venues... Some of the education establishments he endowed even celebrate his life with an annual Colston's Day. I just hope the children being educated are told the truth about the man whom their school is named after.

The statue should go. Anything named after him should have a name change.

[Chris from Nailsea]

An urban memorial would be more visible too.  If we want Bristolians to confront an uncomfortable past then stick the memorial where they will see it, rather than somewhere out of the way. 

There is already a very noticeable urban memorial to Bristol's involvement in the slave trade, in Perot's Bridge - between Queen Square and Millennium Square, in the very centre of Bristol.

And look at the political controversy that provoked. 

[TonyK]

An urban memorial would be more visible too.  If we want Bristolians to confront an uncomfortable past then stick the memorial where they will see it, rather than somewhere out of the way. 

I agree with CfN - near Perot's Bridge, or on Blackboy Hill would be good.

[Tim]

That would be the deal breaker for me.  Bristol's present day connection to the Slave trade is surely the wealth and fine buildings it accumulated as a result of it.  Strikes me as more appropriate to put a memorial that juxtaposes with that - in Queens Square, the Colston Hall or the grounds of some National Trust pile that was paid for by the labour of Africans.   

An urban memorial would be more visible too.  If we want Bristolians to confront an uncomfortable past then stick the memorial where they will see it, rather than somewhere out of the way. 

Agree. Stick a memorial in The Centre in place of the statue of Edward Colston. He may have been philanthropic and endowed Bristol with schools and almshouses, but the money to do these good deeds came from slave trading and selling arms to African chiefs. Not something that should be celebrated with statues, road names, office blocks, concert venues... Some of the education establishments he endowed even celebrate his life with an annual Colston's Day. I just hope the children being educated are told the truth about the man whom their school is named after.

The statue should go. Anything named after him should have a name change.

My wife is a musician and I have therefore had a few visits to Colston Hall over the years when she has been working there (mostly when she was still breastfeeding the kids - I would be found playing with them in a dressing room or pushing a pram back and forwards in the under-stage area trying to get the b****rs to sleep between feeds).  I remember a Roni Size gig she played at shortly after the extension and refurbishment of the Hall (it may even have been the first reopening concert) where I spent a lot of time during rehearsals wondering round the place both front of house and backstage.  In the upstairs caf^ there was a large Perspex suggestion box. Being at a loose end I read as many of the comment cards I could see through the Perspex.  A good many of them, perhaps as many as half, commented on Edward Colston - "change the name - stop bigging up a slave trader" was typical.  So BNM and I are not alone in thinking that the name needs to change.