Britannia Monument

The Britannia Monument stands on the Denes in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, a tall Doric column topped by a statue of Britannia. It was designed by William Wilkins and built between 1817 and 1819 to honour Admiral Horatio Nelson. The monument is 44 metres high and reached by 217 steps. It was restored before the bicentenary of the Battle of Trafalgar in 2005 and removed from the Buildings At Risk register the following year. The original Coade stone caryatids were replaced with concrete copies in the late 19th century, and the figure of Britannia was replaced by fibreglass in 1982. The monument commemorates Nelson’s four main victories over the French and Spanish. Inscribed on the base are the battles of the Nile, Copenhagen, St Vincent and Trafalgar, with the ships he sailed in each engagement named on the top plinth. An inscription on the western face declares Nelson a native of Norfolk, praising his talents, manners and mind. The monument was the first custodian’s charge, James Sharman, a former crew member of HMS Victory who helped carry Nelson below decks after he was shot. Visitors find the monument standing in its own small railed plot within an industrial estate. The statue of Britannia holds an olive branch and a trident, looking inland towards Nelson’s birthplace in Burnham Thorpe. The caryatids support the figure on a globe inscribed with Nelson’s coat of arms motto. The surroundings include the Denes, a stretch of open ground beside the sea, where the monument was raised by local magnates. A song and a poem by George Croly also celebrate the monument’s place in Great Yarmouth’s history.