Controversial Derbyshire black head pub sign 'in a safe place'

The black head removed from an Ashbourne pub sign by group keen to see it protected, did not return it to Derbyshire Dales District Council as ‘expected’.
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The group removed the wooden sculpture – believed to depict the head of a black servant boy who used to visit the town with Sir Walter Raleigh – which has been on display above St John’s Street as part of a Grade-II listed pub sign for hundreds of years, gaining legal protection in the 1950s.

The caricature-style black head – criticised as ‘racist’ by more than 50,000 petitioners calling for it to be removed – has been taken away to a secret location.

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Coun Stuart Lees, a Derbyshire Dales district councillor, is said to have orchestrated the head’s removal by the group – not authority staff – after around 150 people gathered at the scene.

The controversial black head on the Ashbourne pub sign that has been taken down this week. Photo: Google EarthThe controversial black head on the Ashbourne pub sign that has been taken down this week. Photo: Google Earth
The controversial black head on the Ashbourne pub sign that has been taken down this week. Photo: Google Earth

This was, he said, to avoid it being hacked down by other angered anti-racism protesters.

The council, the legal owners of the sign, said the sudden unofficial removal of the head to avoid a confrontation was not theft because the authority ‘did not object to what was happening in the circumstances.’

It initially expected to have possession of the head figure the day after it was taken.

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However, in an update to its original official statement, it later said: “We are aware of the location of the head figure and we are currently in the process of making arrangements for its safe and secure storage pending further public discussions on its future.”

Ashbourne district councillors also refused to disclose the head’s location when they were asked where it was hidden.

Coun Lees said the head was ‘with a local, in safe keeping.’

He said: “It’s in safe storage, until the people of Ashbourne have had a consultation on it.

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“We will consult with the district council what the future will now be for it, whether it goes back, whether it goes on display, or whatever.

“But it’s currently in quite a state, so it will have some work doing on it and it will be restored and looked after by the town.”

Derbyshire Dales Council continued: “If any decision was taken in the future to remove the head permanently, it would need listed building consent and, as a Grade II-listed structure, would require consultation with Historic England.

“Because it has a Grade II listing, we cannot grant consent to ourselves without referral.”

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The council added it would ‘not be making any further comment on the sculpture for the time being’.

Petitioners says now is the time – in the fallout of the killing of George Floyd in the USA – for the head to be removed.

They feel removing it would be seen as Ashbourne ‘doing its bit to fight back against vile racism by starting at home.’

Coun Barry Lewis, leader of Derbyshire County Council, had said the black head should remain in place.

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He said: “Although it is clearly culturally insensitive and racist, it should not be removed to satisfy the hysteria of a woke but vocal minority and cultural heritage is there to challenge us sometimes, to make us uncomfortable.”

Prof Cecile Wright, an honorary academic at the University of Nottingham, who lives in Derby, said the sculpture portrayed a ‘grotesque stereotype.’

A petition to retain the black head sculpture has now gained 6,000 signatures with signatories saying it is a part of the town’s history and should be kept.