9505

 

II  

Designated  

19/05/1981  

09/11/2021  

General Nott Monument and railings  

 

Carmarthenshire  

Carmarthen  

 

 

241264  

220001  

 

Situated in middle of the square.  

Commemorative  

 

Statue of Major-General Sir William Nott (1782-1845). The commission was given to Edward Davis (1813-78) Carmarthen-born sculptor, after a competition in 1848, and the statue was made in 1849 of bronze from guns captured at the battle of Maharajpur and given by the East India Company. The battle of Maharajpur was fought in December 1843 against Maratha Indians seeking to regain their independence from the East India Company. Erected in 1851 on a pedestal designed by J.L. Collard. The statue stands in the former Market Place, formerly occupied by the open market and before that the medieval town cross taken down in 1783. Nott was born near Neath and aged 16 joined the volunteer corps in Carmarthen, where his parents were innkeepers. In 1800 he left Wales to join the army of the British East India Company, which among other business was engaged in the opium trade and owned enslaved labourers. In 1804 and 1805 Nott took part in a military expedition against natives of Western Sumatra. Nott was promoted to a Major-General in 1838. He achieved fame during the first Anglo-Afghan war which was an attempt to install a pro-British government in Afghanistan, to prevent its use by Russia to threaten India. In 1842 he held the city of Kandahar against a widespread revolt. During the British withdrawal from the country Nott’s army took the city of Ghazni, where under orders from the Governor-General of India he looted the tomb of Mahmud of Ghazni. He then marched on Kabul to join up with General George Pollock’s Army of Retribution whose orders were to rescue hostages and demolish the ancient bazaar of Kabul only, but in fact much of the city was destroyed before the army withdrew to India. Nott was rewarded with a knighthood and a large pension. He denied allegations that his troops had committed murders and rapes during the retreat from Afghanistan, calling these “gross and villainous falsehoods” and writing “never did an army march through a country with less marauding and less violence than that which I commanded in Afghanistan.” Nott returned to Wales ill in 1844 and died at Carmarthen in 1845.  

Bronze standing figure of Major-General Nott in contemporary dress with full-length draped mantle falling from shoulders. Right leg and knee inclined backwards and held taut, with the right hand on hip; the left leg inclined forwards with the knee bent, the left hand holding the pommel of a sword with its tip touching the base. Silver granite pedestal on 2 steps, the pedestal with stepped plinth. Inscription: ''Nott Born 20th January 1782. Died 1st January 1845''. The monument is enclosed by cast iron railings, on stone coping. Railings are also of 1850-1 to a diagonal cross design with centre roundel and spikes, also spikes on top rail. Cast-iron panelled tapering corner piers with pyramid caps, one marked T. Jones & Son, Priory Ironworks Carmarthen 1901 (presumably a repair). Within the railings, tablet of 1902 to Dr Robert Ferrar, Bishop of St David's, burnt in 1555 near this site.  

 

Included for its special architectural interest as a prominent piece of Victorian urban statuary by a noted Welsh sculptor and for historic interest as commemorating General Sir William Nott, a notable military figure at the time.