NEWS RELEASES
Shelley tribute is ten years old this month
10th November 2006
THE world famous poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley, was born in the parish of Warnham in 1792, educated up to about the age of seven by the local parish priest and during his formative years lived at the grand family home, Field Place.
On the centenary of his birth in 1892 the people of Horsham were invited to make donations towards a £10,000 Shelley Library and Museum, an appeal backed by such notables as Lord Tennyson and George Bernard Shaw. This challenge was not met, mainly it seems because the leading citizens of those times couldn’t forgive the radical young poet for his controversial views on religion, marriage and politics. Only £230 was raised and in the 1920s, the county council decided to use the money to set up the Shelley Prizes for excellence in local schools.
One hundred years later in 1992 on the 200th anniversary things were a bit different. A very strong Shelley Bi-Centenary Committee organised a comprehensive programme of talks, plays, readings, exhibitions and special events which included rare opportunities to see inside Field Place. The first Horsham Town Centre Festival in October of that year also commemorated his birth.
Recognition of the poet’s life and work was accorded at Horsham Museum through a new Shelley Gallery and Library painstakingly brought together by curator Jeremy Knight, now comprising over 400 books, first editions, letters and historic documents, many of which are of keen interest to historians and students. Visitors can also see a rare bronze bust of the poet, believed to be the work of Ambrose Louis Vago in 1880.
As a result of all these activities, many Horsham people wanted to see a more public tribute to the great man and that opportunity came four years later with the completion of new pedestrianisation at the junction of West Street and Bishopric.
Thanks to a very generous donation by Sainsbury Properties, on November 13, 1996, crowds gathered in the new piazza to witness the unveiling of 'Rising Universe', a spectacular fountain inspired by Shelley’s poem Mont Blanc and created by sculptor Angela Connor. Members of Horsham Symphony Orchestra played a new work by composer Martyn Harry, also inspired by Mont Blanc. The poem was written in 1816 and aimed to imitate what the poet called 'the untameable wildness and inaccessible solemnity' he had experienced at the mountain.
Since that day ten years ago people have come to know the Shelley Fountain as a notable landmark, many have enjoyed its spectacular releases of seven tonnes of water every five minutes and others have hotly debated its artistic qualities.
The water used in the fountain was turned off to help with regional water shortages and, now that the Council is successfully reducing the water it uses in other areas, it is now to be turned back on again. Conserving water remains very important and we will continue to monitor this.
The Shelley Fountain remains a sight to see and a focal point for Horsham, now known far and wide.
Ends
Councillor Bernard Baldwin, The Chairman, Horsham District Council, Park North, North Street, Horsham, RH12 1RL.
Email: contactchairman@horsham.gov.uk