47-505: The Clarkson Memorial in Wisbech , Isle of Ely , Cambridgeshire , England commemorates Thomas Clarkson (1760–1846), a central figure in the campaign against the slave trade in the British empire , and a former native of Wisbech. It was erected in 1880–1881 and is a Grade II* listed building . The memorial consists of a statue mounted on a high platform. Above this rises
94-607: A ' Commission of Sewers ' meeting at the Castle, a crowd of soldiers plundered shops of some of his supporters. The town was near the frontier of the Parliamentary and Royalist forces in 1643. The Castle and town were put into a state of readiness and reinforced. A troop of horse was raised. Locally based troops took part in the Siege of Crowland in 1642. The town controlled the route from Lincolnshire to Norfolk particularly during
141-408: A canopy, in the form of a spire . The whole structure is 68 feet (20.6 m) high. On three of the four sides are carved bas-reliefs , representing William Wilberforce and Granville Sharp , both prominent figures in the campaign against the slave trade, and a manacled slave in a beseeching attitude. The fourth side bears an inscription to the memory of Clarkson. Clarkson was born in the town in 1760,
188-519: A crowd formed and smashed the windows of Meacock's residence on the North Brink. The police charged the crowds and cleared the streets. The Wisbech Canal joining the River Nene at Wisbech was subsequently filled in and became the dual carriageway leading into the town from the east (now crossing the bypass). Wisbech War Memorial was unveiled on 24 July 1921. In 1929 The Wisbech Pageant
235-403: A field and the other in a residential area. Two houses and a bungalow were demolished on Ramnoth Road, causing the death of Bob Bowers, his two-year-old son Jonathan Bowers, and former town mayor Bill Trumpess. The 5-mile (8 km), £6 million A47 Wisbech/West Walton bypass opened in spring 1982. The Horsefair shopping centre opened by Noel Edmunds in 1988 is on part of Hill Street and
282-543: A population of 31,573. The town lies in the far north-east of Cambridgeshire, bordering Norfolk and only 5 miles (8 km) south of Lincolnshire . The tidal River Nene running through the town is spanned by two road bridges. Wisbech is in the Isle of Ely (a former administrative county) and has been described as "the Capital of The Fens". Wisbech is noteworthy for its fine examples of Georgian architecture , particularly
329-488: A riot, when 2 were ordered for execution the following Saturday and twelve for transportation. The Wisbech Working Men's Club and Institute was formed as a result of an inaugural meeting in 1864. It was once considered one of the most financially successful of its type in England. It remains one of the oldest. In 1864 the Castle estate was purchased by Alexander Peckover. In 1932 his descendant Alexandrina Peckover gave to
376-757: A third (temporary structure) in the High Street are referred to. A new theatre (now part of the Angles Theatre had been built in Deadman's Lane (later Great Church Street, now Alexandra Road) now Angles Theatre c1790. It was used to hold the auction of the contents of the castle, part of the estate of Edward Southwell on 8 November 1791. One of the earliest Female Friendly Societies was the Wisbech Female Friendly Society instituted on 1 February 1796. Wisbech and Ely shared
423-423: A third tier of local government. The council has been under Conservative control since 1999. The first election to the council was held in 1973, initially operating as a shadow authority alongside the outgoing authorities until the new arrangements came into effect on 1 April 1974. Political control of the council since 1974 has been as follows: The leaders of the council since 2014 have been: Following
470-552: A wealthy port handling agricultural produce. It was from this period that much of the town's architectural richness originates. Wisbech sat on the estuary of the River Great Ouse , but silting caused the coastline to move north, and the River Nene was diverted to serve the town. In 1781 Wisbech Literary Society was formed at the house of Jonathan Peckover. Theatres in both Pickard's Lane (a barn) and North End and
517-605: Is associated with the Fens. A flag with a tiger is now linked with this part of the county. A number of organisations such as the Fenland Archaeological Society (FenArch) and publications such as the Fenland Citizen and The Fens magazine cover much or all of the district. The Wisbech & Fenland Museum for many years was the only museum covering the area, the district council ceased funding
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#1732787329814564-418: Is now well established, and related processing, storage, packaging and distribution has become more sophisticated and diverse. The predominantly rural economy of the area also includes a strong industrial tradition, including brewing, brick making, can making, pet food production, printing and engineering, and many local residents commute outside the district to work or study. The River Nene provides access to
611-429: The 2023 election , the composition of the council was: The next election is due in 2027. Since the last boundary changes in 2023, the council has comprised 43 councillors representing 18 wards , with each ward electing one, two or three councillors. Elections are held every four years. In the 2019 election , twelve councillors – all Conservative – were returned unopposed to Fenland District Council, which topped
658-616: The Electoral Reform Society 's list of ' rotten boroughs '. The council is based at Fenland Hall in March. The original building had been built in 1909 as the county hall for the former Isle of Ely County Council . The whole district is divided into 16 civil parishes . The parish councils for Chatteris, March, Whittlesey and Wisbech take the style "town council". The local economy has traditionally been built upon farming and food related industry. The food industry
705-492: The Local Government Act 1972 . The new district covered the area of six former districts, which were all abolished at the same time: The new district was named Fenland, referencing its position within the Fens . Fenland District Council provides district-level services. County-level services are provided by Cambridgeshire County Council . The whole district is also covered by civil parishes , which form
752-642: The Martyrs' Memorial (1841–3) in Oxford, and the Albert Memorial (1876) in Hyde Park. Responsibility for the execution of the monument was assumed by John Oldrid Scott after his father's death. The stone carvings were by Farmer & Brindley of Westminster Bridge Road. A four-year renovation project was completed in 2011 and a new supplicant panel installed to coincide with the 130th anniversary of
799-671: The Mayflower to the New World with her husband William Bradford later to be Governor Bradford. Across the Eastern Counties, Oliver Cromwell 's powerful Eastern Association was eventually dominant. However, to begin with, there had been an element of Royalist sympathy within Wisbech. Bishop Matthew Wren was a staunch supporter of Charles I but even in 1640 was unpopular in Wisbech, after discovering his absence from
846-681: The Quaker Peckover banking family in the 1790s. It is now owned by the National Trust (NT). Now known as Peckover House, the house was renamed in honour of the Peckover family by the NT. The Peckover Bank became part of Barclays Bank . In the 17th century, the inhabitants of the Fens became known as the "Fen Tigers" for their resistance to the draining of the common marshes. But the farmland created by drainage transformed Wisbech into
893-507: The 1853–54 cholera epidemic 176 deaths were reported in the town in 1854. The Wisbech death rate (49 per 10,000) was the fourth highest in the country. The following year saw £8,000 expenditure on sewerage works and £13,400 on water supplies. New public buildings such as the Exchange Hall and Public Hall (1851) provided modern larger venues for theatrical and other events. When Fanny Kemble gave her Shakespearean readings in 1855, it
940-656: The Borough council a piece of land to be laid out as an ornamental garden adjoining the War memorial. The town hosted the British Archaeological Association 's annual Congress in 1878. In August 1883 Wisbech and Upwell Tramway opened. It eventually closed in 1966 (passenger services finished in 1927). The steam trams were replaced by diesels in 1952. The Wisbech Standard newspaper was founded in 1888 and ceased printing in 2022. In April 1904
987-527: The Burgesses of Wisbech. Thomas Steed Watson, Mayor, 1858. The Isle of Ely and Wisbech Advertiser was founded in 1845. The new Wisbech & Fenland Museum building opened in 1847 and continues to collect, care for and interpret the natural and cultural heritage of Wisbech and the surrounding area. On 1 March 1848 Eastern Counties Railway opened Wisbeach ( sic ) station (later renamed Wisbech East railway station ). It closed on 9 September 1968. In
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#17327873298141034-719: The Buttermarket. In 1856 the Old Bridge was rebuilt, and the Customs House pulled down to make way for the bridge improvements. In 1880, when work started on the Clarkson Memorial the location was chosen because of its central position. The Clarkson Memorial cost £2,035, and was paid for primarily by a large donation from the Peckover family, local Quaker philanthropists . The shortfall was made up by public subscriptions. Work started on 28 October 1880 and
1081-567: The Isle of Ely Assizes , as a result the 1819 trial of Israel Garner and James Colbank, two local men, took place in Ely and sentence of hanging took place in Wisbech. Wisbech Regatta was first held in 1850. June 1858 The Russian Gun. —During the past week a brass plate has been added to the Russian Gun, bearing the inscription: — "This trophy of the late Russian War, presented by Queen Victoria to
1128-792: The Siege of King's Lynn in 1643 as it prevented reinforcements by land of the Royalists holding the Norfolk port. A town library was founded c. 1653 . In 1656 the bishop's palace was replaced by Thurloe 's mansion however after the Restoration the property reverted to the See of the bishop of Ely. Soap was taxed and manufacturers such as the Wisbech Soap Company required a licence. Based in an Old Market property facing
1175-688: The back of the (River) Ouse", Ouse being a common Celtic word relating to water and the name of a river that once flowed through the town. A more scholarly opinion is that the first element derives from the River Wissey , which used to run to Wisbech, and that the name means 'the valley of the river Wissey'. A wide range of spellings is found on trade tokens in the Wisbech & Fenland Museum and in newspapers, books, maps and other documents, e.g. Wisbece , Wisebece , Wisbbece , Wysbeche , Wisbeche , Wissebeche , Wysebeche , Wysbech , Wyxbech , Wyssebeche , Wisbidge , Wisbich and Wisbitch , until
1222-575: The borough council contracted with the National Electric Construction Company Ltd for the installation of electric street lighting. On 30 October 1913 the Riot Act was read by the mayor in response to civil unrest in response to the death of the popular surgeon Doctor Horace Dimock. He had been arrested on charges of criminal libel on the information of Dr Meacock. On hearing that Dimock had taken his own life
1269-547: The building of the monument. The monument is used as the saluting point for the town's Remembrance Day parade. 52°39′53″N 0°09′30″E / 52.66469°N 0.15841°E / 52.66469; 0.15841 Wisbech Wisbech ( / ˈ w ɪ z b iː tʃ / WIZ -beech ) is a market town , inland port and civil parish in the Fenland district in Cambridgeshire , England. In 2011 it had
1316-651: The church and much of the rural part in Norfolk. The suburb of New Walsoken is now largely built up. A boundary marker in Wisbech Park was erected to record the event. Ring's End was transferred from Wisbech to Elm. In 1939 Wisbech Society and Preservation Trust was founded to safeguard the history and heritage of Wisbech. In 1949 the borough celebrated the 400th anniversary of receiving its charter. The Pageant in Sibalds Holme Park, Barton Road featured over 600 performers. The first Wisbech Rose Fair
1363-528: The first authentic references to Wisbech occurs in a charter dated 664 granting the Abbey at Medeshamstede (now Peterborough ) land in Wisbech and in 1000, when Oswy and Leoflede, on the admission of their son Aelfwin as a monk, gave the vill to the monastery of Ely . The folktale of Tom Hickathrift or Wisbech Giant is sometimes set about the time of the Norman Invasion . In 1086, when Wisbech
1410-408: The largest of the four. Since 2017 the district has been a constituent member of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority , led by the directly-elected Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough . The neighbouring districts are East Cambridgeshire , Huntingdonshire , Peterborough , South Holland and King's Lynn and West Norfolk . The district was formed on 1 April 1974 under
1457-566: The major issues of the day". The Wisbech & Fenland Museum houses Clarkson's chest which contains examples of 18th century African textiles, seeds and leatherwork which he used to illustrate his case for direct trade with Africa in place of the slave trade. The memorial is near his former home in Bridge Street, on the South Brink of the River Nene . It is on the site of the old Customs House , built in 1801, which itself replaced
Clarkson Memorial - Misplaced Pages Continue
1504-541: The parade of houses along the North Brink, which includes the National Trust property of Peckover House and the Crescent , part of a circus surrounding Wisbech Castle . The place name "Wisbech" is first attested in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 656, where it appears as Wisbeach . It is recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book as Wisbeach . The name Wisbech is popularly believed to mean "on
1551-405: The population was that of a large village. Some were farmers and others were fishermen. Richard I gave Wisbech a charter. King John of England visited the castle on 12 October 1216 as he came from Bishop's Lynn . Tradition has it that his baggage train was lost to the incoming tide of The Wash . Treasure hunters still seek the lost royal treasure. On 12 November 1236 the village of Wisbech
1598-488: The river, they were able to receive oil from the blubber yards of King's Lynn as well as coal, wood for casks and olive oil used in making the coarse, sweet and grey (speckled) soaps they produced from 1716 to about 1770. Wisbech's first workhouse located in Albion Place opened in 1722, it could accommodate three hundred inmates and cost £2,000. Bank House , with its walled garden, was built in 1722 and purchased by
1645-616: The sea via the Port of Wisbech . Other waterways provide opportunities for angling and other water based activities. Marinas are located in Wisbech and March. The council run markets in three of the towns (the market in Wisbech is run by Wisbech Town Council ) and a number of festivals and other events. A proposal for a new Fenland rail link was agreed in June 2020. Fenland council gave £370,400 to its chief executive Tim Pilsbury when he took early retirement in 2010–11. The term " Fen Tiger "
1692-482: The site of the old Horse Fair . Fenland District Fenland is a local government district in Cambridgeshire , England. It was historically part of the Isle of Ely . The district covers around 500 square kilometres (190 sq mi) of mostly agricultural land in the extremely flat Fens . The council is based in Fenland Hall, in March. Other towns include Chatteris , Whittlesey and Wisbech ,
1739-505: The son of the Rev. John Clarkson (1710–1766). He attended Wisbech Grammar School where his father was headmaster before going on to St Paul's School in London in 1775. His prize winning essay "Is it right to make slaves of others against their will?", written whilst at St John's College , Cambridge was a turning point in his life, culminating in him turning the abolition campaign into "one of
1786-606: The spelling of the name of the town was fixed by the local council in the 19th century. During the Iron Age , the area where Wisbech would develop lay in the west of the Brythonic Iceni tribe's territory. Icenian coins have been found in both March and Wisbech. Like the rest of Cambridgeshire, Wisbech was part of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of East Anglia . It served as a port on The Wash . One of
1833-563: The statue was unveiled on 11 November 1881 by Sir Henry Brand , speaker of the House of Commons and MP for Cambridgeshire. The design was an adaption of one by Sir George Gilbert Scott RA , who first put forward his design in 1875. He was a brother of the Rev John Scott, vicar of St Peter's, Wisbech , 1867–86. The monument falls into a tradition of Gothic monuments for which Scott was largely responsible; his work in this line included
1880-528: The town to a corporation. In the same year Wm. Bellman gave a plot of land for the Wisbech Grammar School schoolhouse. In 1333–4 the kiln in the town was producing 120,000 bricks. There were several fisheries belonging to the manor of Wisbech and in the 1350s the reeves of Walton and Leverington each sent a porpoise to Wisbech Castle, and the reeve of Terrington a swordfish. During the reigns of Elizabeth I , James I , and Charles I , there
1927-622: Was a state ecclesiastical prison in Wisbech for Catholics, many of whom died there owing to the insanitary conditions. A dispute arising amongst the Catholic prisoners was widely known as the Wisbech Stirs . In 1588 it is claimed that Robert Catesby and Francis Tresham were committed to Wisbeach Castle on the approach of the Spanish Armada . Among those held there was John Feckenham , the last Abbot of Westminster . The palace
Clarkson Memorial - Misplaced Pages Continue
1974-608: Was at the Public Hall, not the old Georgian theatre . On Sunday 29 June 1857 a mob entered the town and broke the Corn Merchants windows and seized corn and demanded money from shopkeepers. On July the gentry and traders by beat of drum recruited about 500 men and went to Upwell and took 60 and placed them in irons. On 4 September a Report was made to the Lords Justices of 14 malefactors condemned at Wisbech for
2021-409: Was demolished and replaced with John Thurloe 's mansion in the mid-17th century, and Thurloe's mansion demolished in 1816 by Joseph Medworth , who also developed The Circus comprising The Crescent , Union Place and Ely Place with Museum Square and Castle Square familiar as the settings in numerous costume dramas. In 1620 former Wisbech residents William White and Dorothea Bradford (née May) sailed on
2068-499: Was held at Sibalds Holme Park on 4–5 September. The Pageant Master was Sir Arthur Bryant who had experience with the Cambridgeshire Pageant 1924, Oxfordshire Pageant 1926 and London Empire Pageants of 1928 and 1929. The Wisbech total attendance was estimated in excess of 25,000 people. In 1934 part of Walsoken parish, Norfolk was merged with Wisbech, bringing with it the schools, shops and public houses but leaving
2115-532: Was held by the abbot, there may have been some 65 to 70 families, or about 300 to 350 persons, in Wisbech manor. However, Wisbech (which is the only one of the Marshland vills of the Isle to be mentioned in the Domesday Book ) probably comprised the whole area from Tydd Gote down to the far end of Upwell at Welney . A castle was built by William I to fortify the site. At the time of Domesday (1086)
2162-465: Was held in 1963 when local rose growers sold rose buds in the parish church in aid of its restoration. The following year the borough twinned with Arles and set up a Wisbech-Arles twinning club. The first purpose-built council-run Caravan Site that accommodates travellers in the UK was built in 1975. On 21 September 1979, two Harrier jump jets on a training exercise collided over Wisbech; one landed in
2209-615: Was inundated by the sea. Hundreds were drowned, entire flocks of sheep and herds of cattle were destroyed, trees felled and ships lost. The castle was "utterly destroyed" but was rebuilt by 1246 when the constable or keeper was Wm Justice. King Edward II visited Wisbech in 1292, 1298, 1300 and 1305. The register of Bishop John Fordham of Ely appoints a Master of the Grammar Scholars in 1407 ( Wisbech Grammar School dates back to 1379 or earlier). Edward IV visited Wisbech in 1469. The Charter of Edward VI , 1 June 1549, raised
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