Cromwell online exhibition

St Ives

Cromwell lived in St Ives from 1631 - 1636, and the link is celebrated by the statue in the Market Place. Proposals for a monument to mark the 250th anniversary of his birth in 1849, had faltered. Fifty years later there was sufficient energy and enthusiasm to ensure success.
St Ives Town Council formally supported the statue proposal in May 1899, a fortnight after the tercentenary itself. A parallel proposal to fund a statue in Huntingdon had been launched two months earlier but was failing. The Free Church movement took up the St Ives appeal and the statue was over subscribed. The design was selected in 1900 and the statue unveiled in 1901. It is the only monument to Cromwell in England paid for by public subscription.

Unveiling the St Ives Statue 1901. A large crowd prayed and sang a hymn before being addressed by Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice, clearly a notable event.

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