Somerset’s Sevastopol cannons

The Siege of Sevastopol was the final battle of the Crimean War, when the Allied forces (British, French and Ottoman) defeated the Russians in 1855 and took control of the Black Sea port. Trophies of the war were claimed by all sides, but in the British case, most of the trophies were cannons, with some bells and other smaller items. Over 900 guns, mostly made of iron, were shipped back to Woolwich Arsenal, along with 10 bells.

Despite a desire in some Government quarters to avoid triumphalism or the glorification of war, public pressure built up for the cannons to be kept as a memorial to those who had sacrificed their lives in the campaign. Eventually, in January 1857, the Government decided to distribute the guns to military and naval establishments and to deserving or desirous British and Irish towns and cities ‘as have proper public places to put them in’. Many were also sent to other parts of the Empire, mostly to Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The only conditions were that the recipients should agree to pay the transport costs, and to have the guns properly mounted and displayed.

In Langport, Edward Quekett, a manager in Stuckey’s Bank and member of the Corporation, was quick off the mark in writing to Lord Panmure, Secretary-at-War, to ask for a Sevastopol cannon. It arrived by train in April 1857 and was installed in a copse on The Hill, near Vincent Stuckey’s house and across the road from All Saints’ Church. It was the first cannon to be presented anywhere in Somerset.

Other places quickly followed suit. Taunton and Bridgwater’s guns arrived in June 1857; Bristol and Bath’s in August and September, and finally one for Wells. Langport was lucky to get its request in early: by September that year the large number of applications forced the Government to introduce restrictions. When Faringdon in Oxfordshire applied for a cannon, they were refused, being told that ‘it has been found necessary to regulate their distribution by the population of the towns applying for them …the only exception made to the population rule have been where towns are the capitals of counties, royal boroughs, or places with castles.’ (Wilts & Gloucestershire Standard, 5 Sep 1857)

There was a certain amount of ‘cannon envy’ in some towns, and this was the case in Wells. A letter to the editor of the Wells Journal on 23 May 1857 complained that ‘Langport and Taunton, in this county, has each been presented with a Russian gun, merely by asking for it. Surely there can be no reason why the city of Wells should be less favoured than either of these places … .’ When their request was granted, however, there was some controversy over where it should be displayed. Cathedral Green was suggested, but it was thought inappropriate to have a cannon pointing at a place of worship. Market Place was preferred as being more central, and importantly, nearer the police station, where ‘there would be less danger of its being injured or defaced, or of its becoming the lounging place of the idle’.

Taunton’s cannon was given pride of place outside the newly built Shire Hall, where it remained until 1940, when it was melted down for scrap metal to help the war effort. The other Somerset cannons met the same fate.

The Bridgwater cannon was originally sited in Salmon Parade, outside the house of Bridgwater soldier Denis Heron, who had ridden in the Charge of the Light Brigade. In 1883 it was moved to the junction of the Bath and Bristol roads, which became known as Cannon Junction. It too went to help the war effort, but a replica was made and installed on the roundabout there. Refurbished in 2014, it is the only reminder of the Sevastopol trophy cannons that came to Somerset.