Boundary Wall to Robert Owen Memorial Garden with Low Relief Panel

Cadw's description

Location

Wall forms the rear boundary of the memorial garden at the junction of Shortbridge Street and Gas Street. The sculptural panel is mounted on the centre of the wall, behind the statue of Robert Owen.

History

The boundary wall is probably C19 – it is visible in a photograph of c1900. The sculptural panel is assumed to form part of the same commission as the statue of Robert Owen which was completed in 1956. It was the work of Gilbert Bayes, finished after his death by William Charles Holland King. It is not clear which of the two artists was responsible for the panel, but the reliefs are stylistically similar to work attributed to Bayes on the earlier Commercial Bank building, Bothwell Street, Glasgow.

Robert Owen (1771-1858) was born and died in Newtown. Owen’s supporters sought a memorial soon after his death, and a fund was set up at the time. However, the town fathers of Newtown opposed the erection of a statue in the town on account of Owen’s atheism, and it was not until 1950 that a committee was established to consider the erection of a statue. Funds were provided by the Cooperative Union, and Gilbert Bayes was commissioned in 1951, but he died in 1953, and the work was completed by William Charles Holland King.

Robert Owen was an instigator of the co-operative movement, a founder of British socialism and a campaigner for education and improved conditions for working people and the reduction of child labour. He said in 1817 his aim was to benefit “my fellow men of every rank and description, of every country and colour”. Born in Newtown, Owen became a manager of cotton mills including New Lanark in Scotland, which became well-known as a model industrial community after Owen established free schools and an Institute for the Formation of Character there. Owen’s mills relied on slave labour in Britain’s colonies and the United States for their raw material. In principle Owen disapproved of slavery which he said would “die a natural death” within a generation if his plans to transform society and the economy were put into practice, and he praised the Republic of Mexico for abolishing slavery. He argued against immediate abolition in the British Empire though and suggested that British slaves would be worse off if they were emancipated from their “humane masters” and “urged forward beyond the present happy ignorant state in which they are”. In A New View of Society and later books Owen argued that people’s character was shaped by their environment and advocated for planned co-operative villages of workers without money or private property. In 1825 he left New Lanark and attempted to put his ideas into practice, purchasing the town of New Harmony, Indiana in the USA. Owen then moved to London where he continued to argue for social change and fairer rewards for the working class, returning to Wales near the end of his life.

Gilbert Bayes (1872-53) was a well-known and prolific sculptor, whose varied output included many public commissions. He was President of the Royal Society of British Sculptors between1939-44. William Charles Holland King (1884-1973) won the gold medal of the Royal Society of British Sculptors in 1954, and was president of the society 1949-54. He specialised in portrait sculpture, but also undertook significant commissions for architectural sculpture.

The garden was created on previous open space in 1936, originally dedicated to the memory of George V, who died that year. It acquired its new name following the erection of the Robert Owen statue in 1956, and was refurbished in 2016.

Exterior

Low relief panel mounted on brick boundary wall. Bronze panel in three parts, with central inscription reading ‘Robert Owen Pioneer, Social reformer and Philanthropist 1771-1858’, flanked by figurative representations of industrial and agricultural workers. Wall forms curved boundary at rear of the memorial garden.

Reason for designation

Listed for its special architectural interest as a fine piece of commemorative sculpture by noted sculptors, mounted on a wall forming a historical boundary feature, and for its association with Robert Owen. Group value with statue.