The façade of the Town Hall is adorned with thirty-five 7 ft. (2 m) high statues of English and British monarchs. Each figure is carved in immense detail from a single block of Cliffe Wood Quarry stone, local to Bradford. From the east at Norfolk Gardens they are in chronological order, except that Victoria and Elizabeth I on either side of the main entrance. Unusually, the line of monarchs includes Oliver Cromwell and his statue number is 25 in the sequence.
The statue
This statue makes a point about how different in aspect from a king he is – the dashing hat, the almost wild-western appearance, the baggy trousers and big boots; one hand holds some crumbled piece of fabric perhaps, the other, behind him, is close to the hilt of his sword. There is a lot of character to this statue, and this with the bulk of the figure gives him a certain extra weight beyond one figure out of well over thirty, suggestive of some sympathy with the concept of Cromwell as a representative of democracy, thus particularly fitting on a town hall, centre of local democracy.
Oliver Cromwell
"Oliver Cromwell was a fanatical puritan who enforced the abolition of Christmas. He rose from relative obscurity as an MP to become one of the most controversial figures in British history.
Cromwell won the first civil war involving the whole of Britain and was the key figure in the execution of Charles I. Find out how a revolutionary who toppled a king, only to become a despot himself, paved the way for parliamentary democracy.
Cromwell was born into a fairly wealthy family of landowners in Huntingdonshire. He was the only surviving son.
His religious beliefs were shaped at school. He was influenced by his teacher, Thomas Beard, who wrote a well known puritanical book called The Theatre of God’s Judgement, which portrayed the Pope as the Antichrist. It likely made Cromwell more anti-Catholic. He studied briefly at Cambridge University, but chose sport over his books. After his father’s sudden death, Cromwell returned home to assume control of the house.
Cromwell became MP for Huntington. His first term in Parliament lasted less than a year, not enough time to make an impression.
King Charles I didn’t recall Parliament for another 11 years and Cromwell remained in obscurity. He became increasingly opposed to the King’s interpretation of Protestantism, which was at odds with his own austere puritan outlook.
When the King declared war on Scotland and was forced to recall parliament to raise taxes to pay for it, Cromwell became a leading opposition figure.
He encouraged MPs to turn down the King’s request. Charles I responded by entering the House of Commons with troops to arrest five rebellious MPs, but they had already fled. A radical group formed with Cromwell as one of the leaders, which responded by demanding the surrender of much royal power to Parliament. Indignantly, Charles I refused. Britain was set on the path to civil war.
Cromwell further established his military prowess at the Battle of Marston Moor, when Parliament took control of northern England for the first time.
His horsemen broke the Royalist cavalry and successfully attacked their infantry from the rear. Cromwell led from the front, even though he was injured in the neck. He returned to the battlefield to take part in the Parliamentarians' biggest victory to date. Now, Cromwell epitomised their cause.
Cromwell helped establish the New Model Army, for the first time a force recruited on merit, not social class - the basis of today's army.
He introduced discipline into his troops, which allowed his officers to better control and direct their men. For the first time, the soldiers were paid their wages on a regular basis. The result was a loyal and dedicated army. The most feared section of the New Model Army was the ‘Ironsides’ cavalry. A devastatingly effective military force, it inflicted the Royalists’ biggest defeat at the Battle of Naseby in 1645. Within a year the Civil War was over and Charles I was under house arrest.
The Royalists regrouped and allied with the rebellious Catholics in Ireland. They aimed to invade Britain and overthrow the parliamentary regime.
Cromwell invaded Ireland and attacked a heavily fortified stronghold at Drogheda, on Ireland’s east coast. He stormed the city and slaughtered thousands – a bloody act, which he said was retribution for a Catholic massacre of Protestants in 1641. Cromwell returned to England and in 1651 crushed a Scottish invasion led by King Charles I’s son at the Battle of Worcester. Cromwell called it his ‘crowning victory’. Now Parliament had full control of the country.
After the fighting had ended, Cromwell turned his attention to replacing an English government he thought had become corrupt.
He found a ‘Rump Parliament’ of MPs, who appeared determined to extend their rule indefinitely. Cromwell harangued them on the floor of the House of Commons for being self-serving and then his troops forcibly shut down Parliament. He replaced it with ‘the assembly of saints’, a nominated group of men he considered suitably puritan. But, when they too proved unsatisfactory, he had them removed as well.
Cromwell died on September 3 of natural causes. An event still commemorated by the Cromwell Association.
His son Richard inherited the title of Lord Protector, but he could not control the army. So in 1660 Charles I’s son was restored to the throne. When Charles II became King the British celebrated the end of Cromwell’s rule with arguably the biggest booze-up the country has ever seen. However the Restoration Settlement did not give back to the King financial control over the government and military. It was the start of the road to parliamentary democracy. This was Cromwell’s greatest legacy."
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