News / Edward Colston
Colston statue given ball and chain
The statue of Edward Colston in the centre of Bristol will soon be getting a new plaque as the city continues to wrestle with the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade.
The exact wording of the plaque is yet to be confirmed, but for the first time it will acknowledge Colston’s role as a notorious slave trader, albeit one who donated much of his wealth to benevolent causes in Bristol.
In recent years, a fake plaque has been put on the statue, Colston’s face has had paint thrown over it, and the hoarding that surrounded it during MetroBus works was covered with posters branding Colston a human trafficker, kidnapper and murderer.
is needed now More than ever
Continuing Bristol’s proud yarn-bombing tradition, the legs of the statue have now been shackled in a woolen ball and chain.
Both of Colston’s ankles have been wrapped up in the blood-red chains, with the ball falling over the top of the pedestal beneath the statue that was erected in 1895, more than 170 years after his death.
The appearance of the ball and chain comes only two days after Colston’s Primary School announced that they would be changing their name to Cotham Gardens Primary School from September to end their association with Colston.
The pedestal contains the inscription, ‘Erected by citizens of Bristol as memorial to one of the most virtuous and wise sons of their city’
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