A FAKE blue heritage plaque that was hung from King Charles the Martyr, Falmouth, on Sunday in protest at a slave-trader memorial inside the church has been taken down, the diocese of Truro has confirmed.
The 1.2 metre sign, designed to resemble the UK’s commemorative signposting, was installed on the outside of the building by “a group of concerned Falmouth citizens” to coincide with the installation of the Bishop of Truro, the Rt Revd David Williams (News, 13 December 2024), a spokesperson for the group said this week.
It read: “Thomas Corker 1670 to 1700 Slave Trader Memorialised here 1700 to 2015.”
The sign had been funded by private donations, the spokesman said. “Despite four years of calls from our community, the Church have time and time again failed to meaningfully confront this harm, instead recently choosing to commission yet another historical report on the issue.”
On Tuesday, the diocese of Truro confirmed that the plaque had now been removed. The diocese had, it said, facilitated two reports on the Corker memorial on behalf of the PCC; one to look at its condition, and a second to consider its heritage impact.
The latter, published in April, was written by Dr Alice Kinghorn, a specialist who has worked with other dioceses on contested heritage. Her 49-page report sets out the physical, historical, and social context for the “elaborate” marble memorial and the motivations for its contextualisation or removal. This includes its “problematic” position close to a modest commemoration of the West African composer Joseph Antonio Emidy (1775 to 1835), who was known to have been trafficked and enslaved.
The findings of the report were with the PCC, the diocesan statement said, which was currently “considering the options” in line with national guidance. According to the report, this includes relocating the memorial to a less prominent position within the church, removing it elsewhere, such as to an educational setting or museum, or displaying a “corrective” artwork alongside it.
The diocesan statement continued: “At this point a decision has not been made about how best to allow this contested story to be presented in a fair and appropriate manner. The diocesan team are supporting them in that and in working through what now needs to happen.
“We understand that it is frustrating that this process cannot move faster but there is funding that needs to be applied for, there are plans that need to be drawn up, there are legal processes that need to be applied for. The report was only published a month ago.”
Another option open to the PCC would be to leave the memorial in place but add explanatory material. This had been “complicated”, however, by the unauthorised installation last year of a brass plaque next to the memorial, Dr Kinghorn said.
The PCC said at the time that this had been done by “a lone individual, who purports to be ‘the people of Falmouth’”, without their permission or knowledge. “We don’t feel this is helpful at all and detracts from the very good and inclusive work we are doing in partnership with others,” they said.
The diocese confirmed on Tuesday that the brass plaque had since been removed on the advice of the diocesan chancellor. The Bishop of St Germans, the Rt Revd Hugh Nelson — who was, until Sunday, the Acting Bishop of Truro — would continue to be involved in the process, it said.
