What do you think of plans to remove the 'cannonball' monument and replace it with a statue of Nelson?
My feeling is that ADDING a new statue may enhance the attractively eccentric nature of Swanage. Perhaps make it small and pre-sling and patch, and give him a parrot. Not that Nelson has got much to do with Swanage.The Advertiser quotes the person proposing this as saying that "Swanage has such strong naval connections". Has it?
But let's not start on TAKING AWAY the odd anomalies that give Swanage its distinctively surreal character. The cannonball monument may be a strange way to commemorate the deaths of hundreds of Danish sailors in 877, but this it does. And why should they not be remembered? If this goes, what's next? The globe at Durslton? The iron bollards? The gothic columns? The rails on the quay ? (Oh, that's started already - looks like the process of tarmacing them over has begun).
And while we're on the subject of monuments, perhaps it's time to reinstate the Albert memorial, which was removed some years ago and now languishes in a Purbeck quarry?
Mike Hadley
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Lord Nelson on Swanage seafront - What a lot of cannon balls. Which naval tradition is Swanage most associated with? Rum, sodomy or the lash?
There are some famous figures with a Swanage connection, Noddy and the inhabitants of Toytown to be precise. If we must have a figure why not one of them. PC Plod was local man, so was Big Ears. Modern technology would even let a statue be internally illuminated.
If its a serious suggestion why not commission something original from one of our local stone carvers and scuptors instead of faking up a version of something by a totally obscure Victorian?
Don't start on the Albert memorial. My brother Mick got togeather with David Lewer to have it errected on the Quay about 20 years ago. We even put in foundations for it. All the bits could not be located. I have a wooded model of it in my loft!
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