The making of the Oakham Jeffrey Hudson statue by Stephen Nicholson Stone Mason
I’m Stephen Nicholson a retired stonemason who was commissioned by Roy and Joan Walton to make the statue. My story is based mainly on by memories backed up with photos, newspaper reports and a few relevant documents going back 25 years to 2001.
I’m trying to be as accurate as possible. Roy a retired butcher and his wife Joan who has links to the Constance Grant Dance School were from Sheffield they moved to Oakham when they bought 29 Melton Road. The cottage which the blue plaque stating it was the birthplace of Jeffrey Hudson.
Realising the history attached to their new home, Joan developed the urge to have a statue made as there was no evidence of one in Oakham. She discovered there was a statue of him in Folkestone and corresponded with Shepway District Council but nothing became of that.
One Monday in late May 2001, Bridget McGlynn my partner was manning our market stall in Bakewell where we sold our hand carved stone ornaments. When I returned to pack the stall up in the afternoon, I was met with great excitement from Bridget. She said we’ve had a very usual request. A couple from Oakham being impressed with our work asked her “Would the mason be able to make a statue of England’s smallest knight?”. After taking their contact details this was the start of was to be a very challenging but interesting project. I’d not heard of this little historic character before but after a few weeks of research aided by Joan I was begging to get some ideas.
From archived photos of Jeffrey statues found in various locations in the UK. I was able to offer 3 design options. Roy and Joan decided on the day they preferred my friend Pete Dixon a professional design writer with experience in heraldry designs made some full working drawings, four elevations. From these I was able to make templates. Next I sourced a suitable block of Gritstone from Stoke Hall Quarry, by applying the templates they cut it roughly to size. Back at the workshop where I live in Sheffield the task commenced.
Stephen junior was my apprentice and John my younger brother who was the head mason at Stoke Hall Quarry and had a big hand in helping me. John could only come in his spare time at weekends. Roy and Joan made several visits to see the progress, we kept photos for their records. On completion we arranged to install the statue in the garden of Hudson cottage, it was a Sunday morning late in March 2002. From memory the Mayor at Oakham was present for the unveiling ceremony along with two curators from the museum (One possibly Tim Clough), I don’t have the documents to verify this.
After all the effort that went into this project not to mention the cost. I think Joan and Roy would have been very sad and disappointed with the outcome. The statue now after “improvement or transformation” bared no resemblance to Jeffrey Hudson. When he was young he was said to be only 18” Tall but after the age of 30 he has a growth spurt and bolted to a height of 3ft. Yes they’ve given him a boyish face and if he has been demilitarised why is he holding a rifle?. Just a few points to bear in mind, I don’t think he should be in the museum as this isn’t a good representation of the subject. For my own piece of mind I’ve commissioned my Son Stephen (Natural Stone Carved Creations) he’s now a renowned sculptor. He’s going to make me half size relief plaque of Jeffrey Hudson from the same stone as the original. My brother John is now Co-owner and director of Stoke Hall Quarry where all this began. I can’t wait to see how the plaque comes out, Stephen will vastly improve the face and make it look more like the image of the original archived design. He will show its progress of his Facebook page called Natural Stone Carved Creations.
