Hunts Post 7 May 1987

The picture at the left is titled: Town clerk Mr Bocking (left) and chairman of the Brighter Huntingdon sub-committee Mr Mike Bloomfield admire the statue of Minerva which will soon be put on top of the town’s Commemoration Hall.

Minerva is back (in fibreglass)

for the top position.

A statue of Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom and knowledge, is next week due to be returned to its position on top of Huntingdon’s Commemoration Hall.

But it is not the original stone one which graced the high street building from the 1840s until 1960. It is a fibreglass replica, with a bronzed finish, which was specially commissioned by the town council’s Brighter Huntingdon sub-committee at a cost of £3,350.

It is hoped the statue will soon be floodlit along with several other buildings in the High street.

Mr Mike Bloomfield, chairman of the sub-committee, said that the contractors Fredrica Banks Ltd. Of South London, had done a “super job”.

The hall was erected in 1840 to house the Huntingdon Literary and Scientific Institute, founded by Godmanchester historian Robert Fox.

Soon after its construction, a stone statue of Minerva was put on top, where it stayed until 1960, when the name of the building was changed to the Commemoration Hall to recognise those who died in the Second World War.

Minerva was removed because she was in a state of disrepair and because of the effect that such a heavy statue was having on the building itself.

By now, the statue was in three pieces, head and upper and lower body, and was stored in the basement of the hall. In 1984, she was moved to the foyer of the county records office in Huntingdon.

The town council has spent £13,000 restoring the façade of the building and replacing the top cornices with fibreglass ones, and decided to restore Minerva as well.

The original

The original stone statue, still in three pieces, was taken to London early in March, and brought back to Huntingdon on Wednesday.

Town clerk Mr Ted Bocking said that, when the original was found in 1984, both arms were missing. At the contractors, the three pieces were joined together and new arms were made before the replica was cast.

The original has also been brought back to Huntingdon, now in one piece complete with new arms and it may be given, on permanent loan, to the Huntingdonshire College.

“As she is the goddess of wisdom and knowledge it would be appropriate for the college to have her. The college also has the facilities to finish off the statue with a coat of paint,” said Mr Bocking.

The work at the Commemoration Hall will form part of what Mr Bloomfield described as a “complete transformation” of Huntingdon town centre. The District Council has plans to pedestrianise the High Street, and various schemes have been drawn up for other projects by the Brighter Huntingdon sub-committee.

Floodlights

These range from floodlighting certain buildings, such as the churches, Cromwell museum and town hall, to putting up hanging baskets and installing old-fashioned street lights.

The war memorial on the Market Square and the drinking fountain behind the town hall will be renovated and fingerpost signs to the main attractions will be put up.

Seats will be installed and there are plans to replace a cannon, a memorial to the Crimean war, next to the former Huntingdon County Hospital.

The cannon was erected as a memorial but in 1942 it was taken away and melted down. It is twin to the one that stands outside Ely cathedral, and there are plans to replace it with either another, original one, or with a fibreglass replica.

So far, the committee’s researchers have not been able to find another cannon which they can have.

The sub-committee is spending £20,000 a year for three years on brightening up the town.