The Colston Memorial had been standing for just 13 years old when Little photographed it on a snowy April day in 1908. The bronze figure of Colston was pulled off the plinth by ropes, dragged to the harbourside and thrown into the water on 7th June 2020 during Black Lives Matter demonstrations. It was targeted as Colston was a seventeenth century slave trader merchant. Bristol history in the making!
Royal Visit 1908. A photograph from the middle of a busy street was an unusual setting for a Fred Little image. The impressive over hanging decorations were part of the celebrations of the visit of the King, Queen & Princess Victoria. The boarding to the right marks the pavement /road widening alterations to the Dutch House. Fred successfully captured a candid glimpse into Edwardian Bristol life in this postcard.
Despite it's gruesome looking state this is actually carved stone. The memorial dates from the 1650s and belongs to the Newton family. It actually depicts an effigy of a priest who fasted himself to death hence the bones we can see. This may be the only photograph recorded of the carving, it is thought lost to the air raids of 1940.
The Colston Memorial had been standing for just 13 years old when Little photographed it on a snowy April day in 1908. The bronze figure of Colston was pulled off the plinth by ropes, dragged to the harbourside and thrown into the water on 7th June 2020 during Black Lives Matter demonstrations. It was targeted as Colston was a seventeenth century slave trader merchant. Bristol history in the making!