Statue to Sir Charles Mark Palmer

Statue to Sir Charles Mark Palmer, Jarrow

A bronze statue on a Portland stone pedestal, erected in 1903 and designed by the renowned sculptor Albert Arthur Toft.

The pedestal is rectangular with freestanding Ionic columns at each corner supporting a frieze and overhanging cornice. The whole stands on a square stepped base with blind inset panels on each face. The pedestal bears panels on all four sides. The north face carries a lengthy inscription recording that the statue was erected in 1903 by the workmen of Palmer's Company and a few friends to commemorate a life devoted to the social advancement of the working classes, the prosperity of Jarrow, and the industrial progress of Tyneside. The inscription also details Palmer's life: born at South Shields on 3 November 1822, founder of the Palmer Works and of the town of Jarrow of which he was first Mayor in 1875, originator of the first steam screw collier built at Jarrow in 1851, and Member of Parliament for North Durham from 1874 and subsequently for the Jarrow division. The east face carries a replacement relief of the SS John Bowes. The south face depicts a coal miner. The west face carries a replacement relief of HMS Resolution.

The statue commemorates Sir Charles Mark Palmer (1822-1907), a Victorian coal owner, ironmaster, shipbuilder and benefactor to Jarrow. Palmer first expanded the Marley Hill Coal Company, which by the mid-1850s owned fourteen collieries producing a million tons of coal annually. With his brother, he leased a shipyard near the Jarrow staithes to control coal and coke shipments. In 1852 they launched the John Bowes, the first screw propelled water-ballasted collier, which carried 650 tons of coal to London and back within five days. This vessel revolutionised the Tyne-London coal trade and enabled coastal coal trade to compete with rail haulage. Palmer later achieved success in warship building and subsequently produced cargo vessels, oil tankers and passenger ships, eventually moving into shipping lines and becoming the first Chairman of the Tyne Shipping Company in 1864. He further diversified into ironstone mines and established iron, boiler and engine works at Jarrow, achieving total industrial integration. By the 1880s, Palmer's Iron and Shipbuilding Company was the largest such concern in the country.

Palmer was also a great benefactor to Jarrow and a responsible employer who supported the Mechanics' Institute, schools, churches and hospitals. Through his works' building society, nearly half the town's houses became owner-occupied. He served as Jarrow's first Mayor and as its Member of Parliament until his death in 1907.