Samuel Taylor Coleridge statue one step closer after funding boost

Fundraising towards building a life-size statue of Ottery St Mary's most famous son – Samuel Taylor Coleridge has successfully reached its first milestone.

The Coleridge Memorial Trust have previously been granted permission by East Devon District Council planners to the bronze statue in honour of the poet.

The statue of the Kubla Khan poet will be built in the grounds of St Mary's Church and will be the first life-size memorial of Coleridge anywhere in the world, and will cost an estimated £80,000, with £50,000 needed for the first phase of works..

East Devon District Council's community grants panel on Tuesday morning agreed to give the Trust £5,160 to ensure it hits the £20,000 crowdfunding target they had set and to go alongside the £30,000 they had already raised.

While the total costs are estimated as being £80,000, the campaign said that if they had £50,000 in hand, they will be in a better position to reassess and potentially reduce their costs from £80,000 and have been promised some of the £30,000 shortfall already.

Mike Ferguson, from the trust, said: "This would be a very positive celebration and will help to remind us of our cultural heritage and to educate on the significance of his legacy. This is not just celebrating history, but making history, as the statue, the church and the town will outlive us, and this is the final jigsaw piece of the memorial to him."

Coleridge was born in 1772 in the School House in Ottery. His father John, was the vicar of the parish and master of the King's Grammar School, and documents submitted with the application say it is the duty of the town to acknowledge to honour the writer of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

The statue will be installed on the south side of the church, where the poet spent his youth in the grounds, and will stand on a granite plinth made out of a Devon stone.

Supporting the project, councillor Paul Millar said: "It is not very popular to erect statues these days, but Coleridge campaigned against the slave trade, as well as being an important poet."

Councillor Helen Parr added: "This is a very worthy project and I think as they have gone a good way to raise the funding they want, I think we should support them. Coleridge is an extremely important poet – I read English at University – and he has a tremendous connection to Ottery and a statue would be a worthy memorial to him."

The statue had been granted planning permission back in 2019, when East Devon District Council planners said it was a fascinating and commendable project which will promote the work of Coleridge and also encourage greater numbers of visitors to explore the ancient and beautiful church.

Documents with the application submitted by Chris Wakefield, honorary secretary of the Coleridge Memorial Trust added: "The re-appearance of Samuel Taylor Coleridge in Ottery St Mary will be a cause for huge celebrations and a media jamboree.

"There has long been a wish in Ottery St Mary that the poet should be appropriately memorialised in sculptural form close to his birthplace, and the churchyard has been favoured as a preferred location.

"Coleridge's genius is rationale enough for the memorial project and it was a lengthy process to determine the churchyard was indeed the most appropriate location.

"The reasons for focusing on St Mary's are many – but chief among them has to be the role of Coleridge's father as the incumbent, and he spent much of his frequently lonely childhood in the churchyard."

They add: "In the longer term, it will be for local schools to use the sculpture as a way to introduce cultural history to the students, and the work should inspire those seeking truth and beauty to examine and benefit from Coleridge's work as a poet and philosopher.

"There is an unquantifiable benefit to the town as a whole if the church, which is already a draw for visitors, is ornamented with an additional level of interest in its association with the poet Coleridge. Tourism is a significant factor in Ottery's local economy and anything that bolsters this effort is of great value."

Fundraising for the project has begun and Nicholas Dimbleby has been chosen as the sculptor for the project. It is hoped the statue will be installed in advance of the 250th anniversary of his birth in 2022.

Supporting the fundraising campaign, internationally acclaimed writer Dame Hilary Mantel Dame Hilary Mantel, said: "There has long been a wish in Ottery St Mary that the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, born in the town in 1772, should be appropriately memorialised in sculptural form close to his birthplace.

"He was a visionary who helped shape our national imagination, and it is right that he should have a memorial in the place that shaped him: and in the very churchyard where he told the secrets of his heart to the grass and the nettles."

Former Poet Laureate Sir Andrew Motion added: "There is no memorial statue of Coleridge anywhere in the world to recognise and honour his shaping of our modern view of the world through his literary and philosophical contributions. It seems completely astonishing that such a thing doesn't exist already. Coleridge is one of the greatest poets and thinkers who ever lived, as well as being one of the most fascinating human beings, and Ottery St Mary should honour and celebrate him."

The Community Grants Panel unanimously agreed to donate the maximum of the £5,160 they could give to the Coleridge Memorial Trust to ensure the crowdfunding target was met.