Archives Document of the Month September 2014
To give some idea of the archives available for access, we highlight a range of examples over the year by choosing a document of the month and publishing them on this local history web site.
The documents are selected by one of the members of staff at the Archives and help make visible the vast and varied historical sources available to researchers at the Archive.
The documents are selected by one of the members of staff at the Archives and help make visible the vast and varied historical sources available to researchers at the Archive.
The National Wallace Monument
Over five hundred years after the Battle of Stirling Bridge a movement rose to build a permanent monument to William Wallace in Stirling. Many credit the initial campaign to build the monument to the Rev. Charles Rogers who, despite having the reputation of falling out with anyone he ever met and attracting scandal at every turn, managed to set in motion efforts to raise support and money leading to a monument design competition and fundraising from 1856, when a ‘National Meeting’ was held in the King’s Park in Stirling on the 24th of June.
The Abbey Craig was chosen for the location of the new monument as it was thought at the time to be where Wallace oversaw the battle and it was also held to be ‘geographically the centre of Scotland’ according to publications at the time (‘The National Wallace Monument’, Rev. Charles Rogers, 1860, p4). Rogers wrote of the Crag in flowery prose:
‘Around is the conflict ground of Caledonian freedom; while the Crag seems a high altar, reared by nature’s hand, and consecrated a memorial of the nation’s victories’ (‘Ibid, p5).
The land the monument stands on was gifted by the Patrons of Cowane’s Hospital and for this reason the first accounts for the monument appear within Cowane’s Hospital material (held in Stirling Council Archives, who also hold the Minutes of the Custodiers of the Monument).
The winner of the design competition was John Thomas Rochead of Glasgow, one of the leading architects of the day and the builder named as Mr Harvie of Hamilton. Unlike other national monuments, the monument was funded by contributions from the public rather than by government, and partly for this reason fundraising was difficult to the extent that on more than one occasion it was questionable whether the monument might ever be completed. After intermittent and not altogether straight forward fund raising, the foundation stone was laid on the 24th of June 1861 by the Duke of Atholl to wide public enthusiasm. When the monument was finally inaugurated in 1869 after eight years of building work, it was wildly over budget (almost double the original estimate) and had taken much longer than planned.
Full details of article here.
Over five hundred years after the Battle of Stirling Bridge a movement rose to build a permanent monument to William Wallace in Stirling. Many credit the initial campaign to build the monument to the Rev. Charles Rogers who, despite having the reputation of falling out with anyone he ever met and attracting scandal at every turn, managed to set in motion efforts to raise support and money leading to a monument design competition and fundraising from 1856, when a ‘National Meeting’ was held in the King’s Park in Stirling on the 24th of June.
The Abbey Craig was chosen for the location of the new monument as it was thought at the time to be where Wallace oversaw the battle and it was also held to be ‘geographically the centre of Scotland’ according to publications at the time (‘The National Wallace Monument’, Rev. Charles Rogers, 1860, p4). Rogers wrote of the Crag in flowery prose:
‘Around is the conflict ground of Caledonian freedom; while the Crag seems a high altar, reared by nature’s hand, and consecrated a memorial of the nation’s victories’ (‘Ibid, p5).
The land the monument stands on was gifted by the Patrons of Cowane’s Hospital and for this reason the first accounts for the monument appear within Cowane’s Hospital material (held in Stirling Council Archives, who also hold the Minutes of the Custodiers of the Monument).
The winner of the design competition was John Thomas Rochead of Glasgow, one of the leading architects of the day and the builder named as Mr Harvie of Hamilton. Unlike other national monuments, the monument was funded by contributions from the public rather than by government, and partly for this reason fundraising was difficult to the extent that on more than one occasion it was questionable whether the monument might ever be completed. After intermittent and not altogether straight forward fund raising, the foundation stone was laid on the 24th of June 1861 by the Duke of Atholl to wide public enthusiasm. When the monument was finally inaugurated in 1869 after eight years of building work, it was wildly over budget (almost double the original estimate) and had taken much longer than planned.
Full details of article here.
