Row over plaque wording for empty Colston plinth rumbles on

A row is rumbling on over a plan for a new plaque on the empty plinth where the statue of Edward Colston stood. Four years ago protesters tore down the statue of the slave trader and threw it into the harbour, but Bristol City Council still can’t decide what the plaque should say.

Four short sentences are proposed for the plaque, which could finally be approved after over six years of debate. Councillors on the development control B committee will vote on granting planning permission for the new plaque during a public meeting on Wednesday, November 20.

Last February, the committee voted to approve planning permission, on the condition that the proposed wording was changed. Councillors said the initial wording “downplayed and glossed over” his acts in the slave trade.

The proposed wording now says: “On 13 November 1895, a statue of Edward Colston (1636 - 1721) was unveiled here. In the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, the celebration of Colston was increasingly challenged given his prominent role in the enslavement of African people.

“On 7 June 2020, the statue was pulled down during Black Lives Matter protests and rolled into the harbour. Following consultation with the city in 2021, the statue entered the collections of Bristol City Council’s museums.”

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This is almost exactly the same as the most recent proposal, apart from one key omission. The first sentence of the previous proposal gave the reason why the statue was put up in the first place, to which some members of the committee objected.

The original sentence said: “On 13 November 1895, a statue of Edward Colston (1636 - 1721) was unveiled here, celebrating him as a city benefactor.” The rest of the wording was the same.

The row over putting a plaque on the plinth has gone on for several years. Back in 2018, the council agreed a new plaque should be placed underneath the statue, which then still stood on the plinth, to detail Colston’s role in the slave trade.

The original one placed there in 1895 didn’t mention the slave trade but described Colston as “one of the most virtuous and wise sons of the city”. The plaque proposed in 2018 was subject to a fierce debate, with a historian and Merchant Venturer trying to water down the wording.