Statue of Francis Aglionby

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Statue of Major Francis Aglionby MP, 1843 by Musgrave Lewthwaite Watson. Read the official list entry to find out more.

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1417583
Date first listed:: 21-Mar-2014
List Entry Name:: Statue of Francis Aglionby

The Missing Pieces Project

Share your view of unique places.

Add your contribution

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

There is a problem

Use of this mapping is subject to terms and conditions.

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

🏠 Buildings
🏰 Scheduled monuments
🌳 Parks and gardens
⚔️ Battlefields
⚓ Shipwrecks

Find out more about listing

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1417583
Date first listed:: 21-Mar-2014
List Entry Name:: Statue of Francis Aglionby
Location Description:: The statue stands outside the Courthouse, Earl Street, Carlisle

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: Cumberland (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: NY4034455791

Summary

Statue of Major Francis Aglionby MP, 1843 by Musgrave Lewthwaite Watson.

Reasons for Designation

This statue of Major Francis Aglionby, designed by Musgrave Lewthwaite Watson in 1843, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * Designer: Musgrave Lewthwaite Watson was a talented and distinguished sculptor of national repute; * Artistic quality: this is a statue of intrinsic artistic quality considered to be an exceptionally fine example of Watson’s vigorous style of costumed sculpture.

History

Major Francis Aglionby MP died in 1840 while entering court on his way to the bench in his capacity as Chairman of the Cumberland Quarter Sessions; at a subsequent inquest, the jury returned a verdict of Natural Death. Two years later it was determined to erect a life size statue to his memory to be executed by the sculptor Musgrave Watson. The completed statue was erected in 1843 in the large room originally intended as the grand entrance hall to the Criminal Court, within a few yards from his place of death. It remained in this location until urgent repairs in 1980 led to it being removed to an upper floor landing. When the new Crown Court was opened in 1992 the statue was moved to a new pedestal outside its main entrance, and at some point, in order to restrict deterioration of the statue, an impermeable paint was applied to the figure.

Francis Aglionby was an English Whig politician. He was elected as MP for Cumberland Eastern in 1837, and held this seat until his death in 1840. Aglionby also served in the Cumberland militia, where he rose to the rank of Major. He served as chairman of the county's quarter sessions in Cumberland from 1818 until his death.

M L Watson (1804-1847) was born at Dalston, near Carlisle, and left for London in 1824 to study sculpture. He met John Flaxman, studied for a short while at the Royal Academy Schools, and travelled abroad to study in Italy. For a time he worked with the leading portrait sculptor of the period Sir Francis Chantrey, and completed some of Chantrey’s works after the latter’s death. He exhibited frequently at the Royal Academy. Five of Watson’s works are listed including one of the four bronze reliefs on the base of Nelson’s Column, ‘The Battle of St Cape Vincent’ (Grade I), and his Earl of Lonsdale Statue, Carlisle (Grade II). Amongst his notable work is the portrait of John Flaxman which is exhibited in the Flaxman Gallery in University College London, and was awarded a posthumous Prize Medal at the Great Exhibition of 1851.

Details

Materials: Caen stone on original base surmounting a later, rusticated sandstone pedestal.

The statue is set on a high pedestal immediately outside the main entrance to the Carlisle Courts of Justice. It is a life-size portrait statue, the figure facing forward in a standing attitude; the Major is represented in the dress of a country gentleman, with an outer gown, probably referring to his judicial role, elegantly tied across his breast. He carries a volume of Justice of the Peace and Parish Officer (1755) by Richard Burns in his right hand. Some physical damage has occurred to the statue, notably parts of the fingers of the left hand and part of the left foot are missing.

The front (south) face of the pedestal bears an inscribed slate plaque which reads “Major Francis Aglionby MP 1777 – 1840 for many years Chairman of the Cumberland Quarter Sessions.”

Sources

Books and journals
Lonsdale, H M D, The Life and Works of Musgrave Lewthwaite Watson, Sculptor, (1886), 180-2
Pevsner, N, Hyde, M, The Buildings of England: Cumbria, (2010), 257
Websites
Musgrave Lewthwaite Watson, accessed from http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/28854

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.

The listed building(s) is/are shown coloured blue on the attached map. Pursuant to s.1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’), structures attached to or within the curtilage of the listed building (save those coloured blue on the map) are not to be treated as part of the listed building for the purposes of the Act.