5491

 

II  

Designated  

20/04/1998  

09/11/2021  

Statue of Nelson on shore of Menai Strait  

 

Isle of Anglesey  

Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll  

Llanfairpwllgwyngyll  

Britannia Bridge  

253642  

371038  

 

Situated on a rocky outcrop on the northern banks of the Menai Strait, SSW of the Parish Church of St. Mary.  

Commemorative  

 

Lord Clarence Paget, a son of the first Marquess of Anglesey, was a sailor and whilst secretary to the Navy had initiated the Naval Reserve Force. In 1853 he purchased Plas Llanfair and in 1873 commissioned a statue of Lord Nelson, to commemorate his death at Trafalgar in 1805. The statue was erected at the water’s edge below the Plas as a landmark for mariners. Horatio Nelson (1758-1805) is regarded as the greatest figure in the history of the British Royal Navy. In his personal correspondence Nelson described himself as a defender of “our present colonial system”, which in the West Indies was based on slavery. In his early career Nelson fought against the Indian Kingdom of Mysore and the American colonies in the Revolutionary War. His reputation though is based on his role in the Napoleonic Wars, in which notable victories included the Battles of the Nile in 1798, Copenhagen in 1801 and Trafalgar in 1805, in which Nelson's fleet defeated the combined French and Spanish fleets. Nelson lost his life in the fighting at Trafalgar, but the victory ended the threat of an invasion and secured Britain's dominance at sea, as well as Nelson's status as a national hero.  

Square, battered chamber built of rubble masonry with a limestone dressings and roof platform surmounted by an octagonal plinth and a statue of Lord Nelson in naval uniform looking out over the Menai Strait, the circular base of which reads: Clarence Paget Sculpt. 1873. Chamber with tapering, square headed doorway in N face and square headed narrow rectangular doorway in NNE face of octagonal plinth, both with studded plank doors. Upper door leads out on to railed platform with 3 cast iron balusters each side. Slate tablets in W and E faces of chamber read: FELL / AT / TRAFALGAR / 1805, to W and A LADDWYN / YN / TRAFALGAR / 1805 to E.  

 

Included for special architectural interest as a striking example of commemorative sculpture, and for special historic interest to naval history, prominently sited on the shores of the Menai Strait.