Artist: Thomas Milnes
Location: Upper Close
Previously: A few yards to the east of the Guildhall, opposite to the entrance to Dove Street
Description: Corrosion, Deterioration
Description (iconographical): Nelson is shown in the full-dress uniform of a vice-admiral, with epaulettes and three stars on the cuff. He stands with his left leg forward, his empty right sleeve (he lost most of the right arm in 1797) is pinned to his uniform to support the cloak which falls from his left shoulder. He rests a telescope on a cannon, with a rope hawser. Portraits of Nelson invariably showed all his insignia; in this instance the stars of the Bath, St Ferdinand, the Crescent and St Joachim, while two medals hang around his neck. Milnes adapted the lower part of Nelson's pose from his 1848 Duke of Wellington, now at the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich, but Nelson turns and looks to his left. This gives the statue more movement than Baily's statue on the Nelson monument at Trafalgar Square. Unfortunately Milne's choice of Portland stone, both here and in his statue of Wellington, has not worn well and the statue has now lost what must have been the original definition of detail. The statue was first shown in St Andrews Hall on 19 February 1852, having been sent from Milne's studio in London after many delays. The statue cost £700 but by 1852 the subscriptions only amounted to £400, barely enough to repay the sculptor for the purchase of the block and his out-of-pocket expenses. On 16 April 1856 it was removed from its original site on the Market Place, opposite the entrance to Dove Street (presumably in front of the East End of the Guildhall), to the Cathedral Close, opposite the Grammar School at the suggestion of Sir Richard Westmacott, transmitted to the Town Council in a letter from the hon. secretary of the Nelson Statue Committee dated 24 March 1856. Thus it now faces the school where Nelson (born 1749) had been a pupil briefly around 1770, after leaving the Paston School, North Walsham and before beginning his naval career in 1771, and is orientated towards the spectator entering through the Erpingham. Gate. Rephotographed, April 2014 Rephotographed and entry revised April, 2014
Installed: In the Close, 16 April 1856
Inscriptions: On plinth: NELSON