Restoration of iconic memorial set to get under way

AN iconic memorial to Stratford-upon-Avon author Marie Corelli is set to be restored by the middle of next year following a recent grant from the Stratford Town Trust.

The project to restore the statue has been led by Stratfordian Nick Birch, who runs a website dedicated to Marie Corelli.

For years the Marie Corelli memorial, featuring an angel with its arms outstretched, stood prominently in Stratford cemetery, but it was targeted by vandals three-and-a-half years ago, who knocked it from its plinth causing significant damage.

Since then Nick has seen it as his mission to restore it to its former glory, liaising with various organisations over funding and finding a suitable place to restore it.

Last month he finally received the news he was waiting for when the Town Trust agreed to pay £4,121 for the transportation costs and reinstatement of the statue.

It is not just Stratford that will benefit from the memorial, students at the City and Guild School of Art in London will restore the statue for their final year project when it arrives from storage in Stratford.

Nick said: “I’m so pleased and very grateful that the Town Trust has agreed to give us funding, I know there are a lot of worthy causes in Stratford and I’m delighted that they have chosen to help this project.

“The statue will be transported to London in October and work on it will hopefully be completed by the middle of next year.

“I’m a huge fan of Marie Corelli and I had this idea that if someone didn’t act to restore this work of art, then it could end up just being thrown in a skip. I didn’t think anyone else would take it on so I did.

“Cliffords will put the statue back on the grave when it is finished and hopefully we can organise a bit of a shindig when it’s all complete. We’re hoping to produce a booklet about Marie Corelli too so people can find out more about her."

The author, who died in 1924, wrote 30 bestselling books in the late 19th and 20th centuries, gaining millions of fans around the globe. At her height she was the bestselling author in England.