Glasgow approves William Wallace monument

GLASGOW has finally approved the city’s first monument to William Wallace following a four-year battle.

Plans for the new monument, which will see a medieval helmet and sword on a plinth. Picture: Deadline

The stone plinth with a medieval helmet will be placed in the garden of the city’s oldest building to commemorate a famous victory over the English.

The Society of William Wallace has been trying to get a memorial to the Battle of the Bell o’ the Brae since 2010 and has had several previous designs rejected.

Wallace is said to have routed an English force in the city in 1297.

The two metre-high sandstone monument is set to be in place by May this year in the grounds of the 500-year-old Provand’s Lordship near Glasgow Cathedral.

Gary Stewart, of the Society of William Wallace, said: “We want to have something that will be there for hundreds of years.

“It’s for a Scottish patriot and it needs to be done right.”

The image of the helmet breaking out of the plinth symbolises Wallace’s struggle against oppression, and the plinth also has a sword like Wallace’s carved into it.

Mr Stewart said Glasgow schoolchildren could have the chance to leave their mark on the monument.

He said: “We want to go around schools and have a poetry contest, the winning poem will be on the monument itself.”

The latest design, was created by artist Andy Hillhouse

Wallace was said to have marched on Glasgow after becoming infuriated at Scottish nobles capitulating to the English army.

Some have Wallace and his army surrounding and defeating a force of 1,000 English garrisoned in the town, slaying their leader Earl Percy

The clash was said to have left Wallace in charge of Glasgow Castle, which was demolished in the 18th Century, and according to one account he “carried off all [the bishops’s] furniture, arms and horses.”

Two months afterwards, Wallace led Scottish forces to a pivotal victory at Stirling Bridge.

A Glasgow council spokesman confirmed permission had been granted.

“This is for the site behind the garden at the Provand’s Lordship, Glasgow’s oldest building.”

The last monument created in Scotland to Wallace was 17 years ago in the car park of the Wallace Monument, Stirling. Critics complained the statue looked like Mel Gibson from Braveheart.