Hull – William de la Pole Statue

The statue of Sir William de la Pole, who served as the city’s first Mayor between 1332 (or 1331, history is often a bit vague) until 1335. He was very friendly with King Edward II, something which certainly did his political career no harm at all. He was equally helpful to King Edward III, who had managed to use his royal crown as collateral in a loan from the Archbishop of Trier, but de la Pole paid that debt off to prevent embarrassment. He might be buried in Hull Minster, but no-one is quite sure, but there’s a tomb there for him anyway, just in case.

The base of the statue, designed by William D Keyworth Jnr, which was paid for and presented to the city by Alderman Robert Jameson. The statue was initially placed at the Town Hall, but that got demolished by the council, so the city authorities moved the statue around the city for a while. One of the locations was when it was moved to a prominent location at the junction of King Edward Street and Jameson Street in 1901 and it then came to its current location on Nelson Street in 1920.