Bagehot Memorial Fund

The origins of the Bagehot Memorial Fund lay in the desire of various individuals and groups within the Langport area to commemorate Walter Bagehot more prominently in his home town. Other than a few references to him in the names of, or inside one or two buildings, the only visible memorial was a faded stone plaque installed in 1916 above the front door of his birthplace, Bank Chambers, in Cheapside. He seemed to be relatively little known, even in the Langport area, perhaps in part due to his unusual surname.

The immediate catalyst for the formation of a dedicated group arose in late 2010 and early 2011 from the need to repair both the border wall in the south east corner of All Saints’ Churchyard and the adjoining Bagehot gravesite, a listed monument. The Town Council had been advised that the deterioration of the wall was caused in part by the weight and pressure of the Bagehot memorial. Unfortunately, the legal liability for the repair and maintenance of the churchyard and its graves was complex, and the projected financial costs of repair were estimated at around £10,000 each for the wall and the Bagehot grave. With the very small council tax base of the population of Langport itself, these costs would have been a severe burden on the local community. There was little prospect of tracing any surviving descendants of the Bagehot family who might be responsible for the upkeep of the grave.

Several local people, including Janet Seaton & Barry Winetrobe from the local History Society, and Andrew Lee, the editor of the Langport Leveller newspaper, approached Langport Town Council with proposals to seek external funding support for the repair of the Bagehot grave, and to use this as an opportunity to promote the more general local commemoration of Walter Bagehot. Some local media coverage had also raised the possibility of external financial support from those connected with Bagehot’s life and work, such as The Economist newspaper, which Bagehot had edited for many years. Barry Winetrobe spoke briefly on this at the Town Council meeting on 11 January 2011, and the Council agreed that the Town Clerk, Robin Williams, should continue discussions with local interested parties.

The idea of a ‘Bagehot Memorial Fund’, with an initial list of founding supporters connected in some way with Bagehot who would be willing to publicise their support for the initiative, was then pursued. A document was drafted and sent to potential founding supporters in the spring of 2011, and by the autumn a list of founding supporters had been gathered and some early donations received. In particular, The Economist had expressed its positive support and wished to discuss their involvement further. A productive meeting took place on 19 January 2012 at the newspaper’s London office between Robin and Barry, for the Fund, and a number of their staff, led by the editor, John Micklethwait. In March 2012, it generously offered a substantial donation to the Fund.

At the same time, Fund organisers were developing proposals for Bagehot-related activities that would promote the aims of the Fund, including a Bagehot Memorial Debate as part of the inaugural Langport Festival in June 2012, and a talk on Bagehot as part of the History Society’s programme, to take place in March 2012 at Hurds Hill, the former Bagehot family home just outside the town. The Fund and its activities were beginning to gain local media coverage, which helped to promote it and to attract further support and finance.

Contact was also established with other people and organisations interested in Bagehot and the aims of the Fund. The new owners of Hurds Hill, Clifford Lee and David Holmes, offered positive support for the Fund, including the use of Hurds Hill for appropriate Fund activities. Ruth Dudley Edwards, the noted journalist and author, who had written a book on Bagehot as well as an official history of The Economist, together with Helen Mann, The Economist’s archivist, began a productive relationship with the Fund, and became an invaluable source of advice and support. Following the sad death in early March 2012 of Lord St John of Fawsley (who, as Norman St John-Stevas, was the modern biographer and chronicler of Bagehot and his works), who had agreed to be a supporter of the Fund, initial contact was made with his executors to express our sympathy at their loss and our hope that they would continue his support for the Fund.