Below are links to posts on L&RUK relating to “contested heritage”, a phrase of which it has been noted “in itself causes unease because the contested nature confirms that it is the heritage of two or more parties, albeit from different perspectives” *.

• Rustat Memorial
• Colston and other memorials in Bristol
• Cecil Rhodes statue
• London Borough of Lambeth
• Consistory court judgments – Links to judgments
• Consistory court judgments – Reviews and Case Notes
• Church of England – L&RUK posts
• General issues – L&RUK posts
• Other examples of contested heritage

Rustat Memorial

• Rustat Memorial removed from Jesus College Chapel... …but only virtually (and briefly). (5 June 2022).
• Rustat Memorial, On 12 April, Jesus College, Cambridge issued a statement that having taken advice and after much thought, the College Council had decided not to appeal the judgment in Re The Rustat Memorial, Jesus College Cambridge, [2022] ECC Ely 2  (17 April 2022).
• Rustat Memorial: reaction by the Archbishop of Canterbury, (13 April 2022).
• Rustat Memorial: no appeal on judgment, (12 April 2022).
• Re the Rustat Memorial: a casenote (30 March 2022).
• Dunking, Breaking, Moving, (Re)Making…: Thoughts on the inherent contests of heritage, and on Rustat In this guest post, Simon Hunter, of 13 Old Square Chambers, muses on the inherent contests of heritage, and on Rustat, (28 March 2022).
• Rustat memorial: judgment. On 23 March 2022, HH Judge David Hodge handed down his judgment Re The Rustat Memorial, Jesus College Cambridge, [2022] ECC Ely 2. This post includes a link to the judgment and summaries by the ELA and by the Deputy Chancellor. (23 March 2022).
• Rustat memorial, Jesus College, Cambridge: procedural and evidential issues, A Case Note on Re Jesus College Cambridge [2022] ECC Ely 1, (26 January 2022).
• Law and Religion round-up, 20 February. Verb sap. Criticism of Archbishop Welby’s comments at the February General Synod.
• Rustat memorial, Jesus College, Cambridge: procedural and evidential issues, A Case Note on Re Jesus College Cambridge [2022] ECC Ely 1, (26 January 2022).
• Re Jesus College Cambridge [2022] ECC Ely 1. The Petitioners (the College) wished to remove the memorial from the Chapel, for conservation and retention elsewhere, as they wished to avoid the risk of people worshipping at the Chapel being offended by the memorial, in view of Rustat’s involvement in the slave trade in the late 17th century. There were several objectors to the proposal. This judgment concerns with procedural and evidential issues, including refusing the objectors’ application to adjourn the hearing listed for 2-4 February 2022 in order to obtain the expert evidence of a historian, and refusing the petitioners’ application to call an eighth witness.

Colston and other memorials in Bristol

• Criminal damage to the Colston statue: AG’s reference. (28 September 2022).
• Contested heritage – Bristol Cathedral. “All God’s children” is an exhibition in Bristol Cathedral and on College Green, 22 August  2022 to 21 October 2022, which explores the impact of the slave economy on Cathedral life, past and present. Research that informed the exhibition discovered that between 1670 and 1900, roughly 1,000 people were buried or memorialized in the Cathedral and its grounds. Around 200 of them had a close connection to the slavery-based economy. (21 August 2022).
• Contested heritage – St Mary Redcliffe. Following the removal of the four panels at the bottom of the church’s north transept window which bore the name of Edward Colston, and their replacement with plain glass as a temporary measure, the church has launched a competition to design four dedication panels for the bottom of the Good Samaritan stained-glass window located in the North Transept, (29 May 2022).
• AG seeks clarification on human rights and criminal damage, The referral relates to the Colston statue protest. The AG concluded that this case has led to uncertainty regarding the interaction between the offence of criminal damage and the rights relevant to protest peacefully(13 April 2022).
• “Contested heritage” and the Colston statue. In R v Graham & Ors [2022] Bristol Crown Ct (unreported), the jury acquitted Sage Willoughby, Rhian Graham, Milo Ponsford and Jake Skuse on charges of criminal damage after they and others pulled down a statue of the 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston and threw it into Bristol harbour]. (9 January 2022). 
• Research at Bristol Cathedral, (scroll down), Round-up item on Research Partner for audit of the Cathedral monuments, (9 May 2021).
• Bristol Cathedral, Edward Colston and slavery, Press release and interview with the Bishop, (24 February 2017).

Cecil Rhodes statue

• “Contested heritage” again, Round-up item on removal of the statue of Cecil Rhodes from the Rhodes Building, Oriel College, (23 May 2021).

London Borough of Lambeth

• Contested heritage – Lambeth Borough The London Borough of Lambeth has published the results of a two-month public consultation on “statues, memorials and street names with associations with the trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and colonialism”. (5 June 2022)

Consistory court judgments – Links to judgments

• In the Matter of Dorchester, St Peter, Holy Trinity and All Saints, [2022] ECC Sal 4.
• Re The Rustat Memorial, Jesus College Cambridge, [2022] ECC Ely 2.
• Re Jesus College Cambridge [2022] ECC Ely 1.
• Re St Peter and St Paul Olney [2021] ECC Oxf 2.
• Re St. Mary Barnes [2021] ECC Swk 10.
• Re St Margaret, Rottingdean (No. 2) [2021] ECC Chi 1.
• Re St Margaret Rottingdean [2020] ECC Chi.

Consistory court judgments – Reviews and Case Notes

• It is appropriate to remove the memorial to a slave owner from a listed church building. Report of Re Dorchester St Peter (£). Times Law Report, 2022, 17 October.
• “Contested heritage”: further considerations in Re Dorchester St Peter, “Contested heritage”: further considerations in Re Dorchester St Peter. With the judgments Re St Mary Barnes and Re The Rustat Memorial, Jesus College, this addresses a wide spectrum of circumstances which might guide future determinations. (6 September 2022).
• In the Matter of Dorchester, St Peter, Holy Trinity and All Saints, [2022] ECC Sal 4. The Chancellor determined that the public benefit to be derived from the removal of the memorial, subject to its replacement with a memorial omitting details which might cause offence, would outweigh the harm caused. (31 August 2022).
• Re The Rustat Memorial, Jesus College Cambridge, [2022] ECC Ely 2 On 23 March 2022, HH Judge David Hodge handed down his judgment in which he refused to grant a faculty to the College for the removal of the memorial.
• The Times: Church judge to rule on plaque celebrating Dorset slaver John Gordon. Plaque at St Peter’s Church, Dorchester, documents John Gordon’s role in brutally stopping an uprising known as Tacky’s War, or Tacky’s Rebellion, in 1760 in Jamaica, then a British colony. (25 March 2022).
• Re Jesus College Cambridge [2022] ECC Ely 1. Procedural and evidential issues were considered in the hearing conducted on Zoom on 8 January 2022.  (judgment, 18 January 2022).
• Contested heritage – a further consideration. Consideration of Re St. Mary Barnes [2021] ECC Swk 10, the petitioners were granted permission to install a wall-mounted monument commemorating the Hoare Family of Barn Elms to replace a previous memorial which had been destroyed by a fire in 1978. None of the family members to be commemorated had links to the slave trade, only a member of the family two generations earlier than the oldest of these. (19 December 2021).
• Contested heritage: Reverend John Newton (1725-1807), Case Note on Re St Peter and St Paul Olney [2021] ECC Oxf 2,  (29 May 2021).
• “Contested heritage” and offensive inscriptions: Re St Margaret Rottingdean (2), Review of Re St Margaret, Rottingdean (No. 2) [2021] ECC Chi 1.  Postscript in judgment comments on indirect link to Eric Gill. (4 February 2021)
• Of graves, headstones and “offensive” inscriptions: Re St Margaret’s Rottingdean, Review of in Re St Margaret Rottingdean [2020] ECC Chi 4, (14 June 2020).

Church of England – L&RUK posts

• Commission on Racial Justice – Second Biannual Report. Extracts from the Press Release and the associated material.
• Commission on Racial Justice: First Biannual Report, 28 June 2022.
• Contested Heritage Committee. Establishment of new Contested Heritage Committee in CBC. Round-up, 13 March 2022.
• Contested heritage and the Church of England, 11 March 2022.
• Contested heritage – A review of the Church of England guidance in this guest post, Trevor Cooper, of the Historic Religious Buildings Alliance, looks at the issues surrounding “contested heritage”. (21 January 2022).
• Church of England guidance on “contested heritage”, Review of CofE Guidance Contested Heritage in Cathedrals and Churches, (11 May 2021).

General issues – L&RUK posts

• Contested Heritage, L&RUK round-up 4th September. Comment on In the Matter of Dorchester, St Peter, Holy Trinity and All Saints, [2022] ECC Sal 4. (4 September 2022).
• Church appoints Racial Justice Director. On 23 August 2022, the Church of England announced that it had appointed Revd Guy Hewitt, a former Barbados High Commissioner to the UK, as its first Racial Justice Director. He will take up the post in November, heading the Church of England’s Racial Justice Unit. (23 August 2022).
• Racial Justice First Report: consistory courts (I). Summary of this aspect of the report.
• Commission on Racial Justice: First Biannual Report. (26 June 2022).
• Varsity: Slavery researcher quits after Fellows try to silence damning report. A report investigating Caius College’s links to the slave trade has been delayed following objections from Fellows at Gonville & Caius College. (3 June 2022).
• Contested heritage, L&RUK round-up, 30 January 2022. Update on listing of statues &c, (30 January 2022).
• And finally…II, Law and religion round-up – 13th June, Hartlepool’s monkey statue given explanatory sign, (13 June 2021).
• “Contested heritage”, the Charity Commission and the National Trust, Round-up item, (14 March 2021).
• “Contested heritage” and listing statues: new proposals from MHCLG, (19 January 2021).
• Hymns (and other things) to avoid? Guest post by Michael Ainsworth, (28 October 2015)

Other examples of contested heritage

• Contested heritage in Germany, (19 June 2022).

* IHBC response to Consultation on Historic England’s draft Guidance on dealing with Contested Heritage, (16 February 2018). 

Last updated, 23 February 2023 at  13:59.