Queen Elizabeth II statue to be unveiled in Newcastle - how to be there
A statue is to be unveiled to Queen Elizabeth II. The new Queen of Queens Gardens will be unveiled in Newcastle-under-Lyme at 11am on Friday 11 October.
Crowds are being invited to gather on the Ironmarket side of Queens Gardens - facing Castle House.
Newcastle Borough Council commissioned the statue to mark the town’s 850th anniversary in 2023. The cost of the statue has been met by digger giant JCB and developer Capital&Centric.
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The design is based on photographs of Her Majesty taken during her visit to Newcastle-under-Lyme in 1973 when she joined celebrations for the town’s 800th anniversary. Cast in bronze, the statue will be one-and-a-quarter times life size, but, unusually for a memorial to a Monarch, will stand virtually at ground level rather than on a tall plinth.
Council leader Simon Tagg said: “This wonderful statue of the late Queen Elizabeth is unique to Newcastle-under-Lyme and inextricably linked to our history and our celebrations of the town’s 850th anniversary. Sculptor Andy Edwards has done a remarkable job and I’m excited to see how residents react to having such an iconic memorial at ground level, rather than up high.”
The statue - weighing one ton - will be positioned looking across Queens Gardens and will stand close to a statue of Queen Victoria, Queen Elizabeth II’s great-great-grandmother, which was unveiled by Grand Duke Michael of Russia in November 1903.
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