The Beaney Barons

Our project is to make accessible and share with a wide audience a Magna Carta Baron statue which depicts Saher de Quincy, Earl of Winchester from the Canterbury City Collection. The statue will feature in a new permanent Magna Carta display at The Beaney House of Art and Knowledge, Canterbury’s art museum. The project comprises:

• The conservation of the Earl of Winchester statue.
• A new permanent display of recently conserved Robert de Fitzwalter and Stephen Langton statues and the Earl of Winchester statue in one of The Beaney’s permanent galleries, People and Places. This gallery displays and interprets the history and stories of the people and places of East Kent.
• Engaging and accessible learning activities located within the gallery to accompany the new display.

The Earl of Winchester statue has been selected for this project by Professor Louise Wilkinson, Professor of Medieval History at Canterbury Christ Church University because the Earl was closely allied to Lord Fitzwalter. Saher was one of the twenty-five barons appointed to enforce Magna Carta’s terms on King John.

Chairman of Canterbury City Council’s Communities Committee, Cllr Neil Baker, said: “We are very pleased to have secured this generous funding from the Magna Carta 800th Committee. These figures have a strong presence that connects Canterbury and our collections to the watershed event of 1215 and the individuals responsible for it.

“Our planned programme of restoration and a new permanent display will secure these sculptures for future generations and support our ethos of using our collections to inspire, learn, participate and create.”

Click here to visit the Beaney’s website.

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David Davis

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