Devizes' Queen Vic gets a new home (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Devizes' Queen Vic gets a new home

8:17am Thursday 4th December 2008

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The beleaguered statue of Queen Victoria by the Kwik Fit roundabout in Devizes has been moved to a place of safety and repair after being repeatedly vandalised.

The statue, which is thought to date from the 1870s, has had its head wrenched off no fewer than three times in the last 12 years.

Eventually, the Trust for Devizes, which was set up to look after the historic fabric of the town, stepped in and was granted legal ownership.

Yesterday the small statue was removed to the Wiltshire Heritage Museum in Long Street, where it will receive expert restoration from stonemason Geoffrey Stephenson.

The queen originally stood in an alcove in the wall of nearby Victoria Cottage, created by the first owner of the cottage, professional stonemason Charles Salmon.

After the Second World War the cottage came into the ownership of Blue Star Garage, which moved the statue to its position close to the roundabout.

Over the years the Queen Victoria statue suffered at the hands of vandals.

In 1996 the head went missing and was found in Brickley Lane, evidently having been used as a football as the nose and part of the chin were missing.

Kwit Fit, which took over the Blue Star site, paid to have the statue repaired.

However, two years later the head went missing again.

Local historian John Girvan said: “This is more than just a restoration job.

“We are calling it a rescue as the face was quite unsympathetically restored the last time.

“Queen Victoria was originally holding a sceptre and only a fragment of that is left.”

Stone carver Geoffrey Stephenson of Calne is taking on the restoration work and is confident he can return the statue to something near its original condition.

Jeff Ody, chairman of the Trust for Devizes, said: “The removal of the statue is no simple task and thanks are due to Gaiger Brothers for taking it to the museum for us.

“We would also like to thank Andrew Brewer at Kwik Fit, Clive and Amanda Gough, the present owners of Victoria Cottage, and the St Mary’s Almshouse Trust.”

Once repaired, the statue will find a permanent and safer home in the grounds of St Mary’s Almshouses in, appropriately, Victoria Road.

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