Walker Park, Robert Burns Memorial Fountain

HER Number

13508

District

Newcastle

Site Name

Walker Park, Robert Burns Memorial Fountain

Place

Walker

Map Sheet

NZ26SE

Class

Commemorative

Site Type: Broad

Commemorative Monument

Site Type: Specific

Commemorative Monument

General Period

20TH CENTURY

Specific Period

Early 20th Century 1901 to 1932

Form of Evidence

Structure

Description

In 1901 a statue commemorating Rabbie Burns was erected in Walker Park by the local Burns Club supported by the numerous ship builders who moved to Walker from Clydesdale.The plaque reads 'THIS STATUE WAS ERECTED IN WALKER PARK BY THE WALKER ON TYNE BURNS CLUB ON 13TH JULY 1901 TO MARK THE VISIT TO NEWCASTLE BY ROBERT BURNS ON THE 29TH MAY 1797. REMOVED TO THIS SITE BY THE CITY OF NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE ON THE 27TH SEPTEMBER 1975'. It is a bronze cast and is in very poor condition. It is presently stored at Jesmond Dene Nursery. The Walker Park lottery bid [2010] has plans to recast the statue and put it back into the park.

Easting

428910

Northing

564170

Grid Reference

NZ428910564170

Sources

pers comm Seamus Tollitt, Ouseburn Parks Manager, 2010; Spence & Dower LLP, June 2011, The Walker Park Memorials 0 Condition Surveys; Evening Chronicle 24 February 1984; Robert Harris Conservation (Conservators of Fine Metalwork, Historic and Modern Sculpture), June 2011, Report and Estimates for the Repair of the Cast Iron Statue of Robert Burns