Clarkson Monument on High Cross Hill

Clarkson Monument on High Cross Hill

This commemorative monument stands on the west side of Cambridge Road at Wadesmill, erected on 9 October 1879 by Arthur Giles Puller of Youngsbury. It is constructed of white freestone and comprises a tall obelisk with chamfered arrises, raised on a square inscribed pedestal with chamfered plinth and capping. The original structure stands approximately 2 metres high.

The front of the pedestal bears an inscription reading: 'On the spot / where stands this monument, / in the month of June, / 1785, / Thomas Clarkson / resolved / to devote his life / to bringing about the / abolition / of the slave / trade.'

The monument was restored in the 1950s by members of the US Air Force stationed nearby. In June 1972, it was moved 9 yards north-west during road widening works. A major restoration project was completed in November 2007, which included replacement of the square stone plinth and the setting of the monument on a paved terrace with a seat, surrounded by a stepped stone wall.

Thomas Clarkson (1760–1846) was born at Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. At Cambridge in 1785, he wrote the winning Latin prize essay on the subject 'Anne liceat invitos in servitutem dare' ('Is it lawful to enslave the unconsenting?'). In June 1785, while travelling from Cambridge to London, he dismounted on the hill above Wadesmill and resolved to dedicate his life to ending the slave trade. This moment, celebrated in William Wordsworth's poem 'To Thomas Clarkson', proved pivotal to the British abolition movement.

Clarkson translated and published his essay, which proved highly influential. In 1787 he joined Granville Sharp and others to form the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade, and persuaded William Wilberforce to champion the cause in Parliament. He travelled extensively, gathering evidence from slave ports and slave ships, and became a celebrated national figure. In 1788, he organised witnesses and material for a Parliamentary Select Committee, including the infamous diagram of the slave ship Brookes. After temporary retirement during the 1790s, he resumed his campaign in 1804. The abolition bill received royal assent on 25 March 1807. Clarkson later campaigned for the abolition of slavery itself, and was a founding member of the Anti-Slavery Society in 1823. He died at Playford Hall in Suffolk on 26 September 1846 and was buried at St Mary's Church, Playford.

The monument was erected by Arthur Giles Puller, who owned the land, after learning of the site's significance from Charles Merivale, Dean of Ely, to whom Clarkson had shown the location in his later years. In his dedication speech, Puller noted that he had recently visited America and been moved by the circumstances of former slaves there.

Other memorials to Thomas Clarkson exist at St Mary's, Playford; at Wisbech; and in Westminster Abbey, where a tablet was placed in 1996 to mark his 250th anniversary.