Although largely out of fashion now (Ken Livingston, Mayor of London, has recently begun a campaign to remove some of the statues of "old forgotten generals" from the streets and squares of the capital), statues and memorials can provide an interesting way into history, and local history too.

Take these two memorials in Boston Parish Church, for example. Click on the image to view its inscription.

They can be used either to explore the lives of these people from Boston and the surrounding villages, or they could be used to explore the links between Boston and in this case the USA and Australia, with exploration and discovery, with Empire, trade and so on. They could provide a starting point for exploring reasons so many men went away or to ask why these people are remembered and not others.

Here is a photo of a statue in Boston market place.

• Who was he?
• Why is he commemorated in Boston?
• What are his links with the town?
• Why is he holding a book?

Any statue like this gives the opportunity for research, and to raise the question as to why contemporaries regarded them as important, and would we today choose to commemorate them in the same way. (He is Sir Herbert Ingram, founder of the Illustrated London News, who was born in Boston.)

This is a photo of Spilsby's most famous son, Sir John Franklin.

He has several claims to fame - exploring the Pacific with Captain Cook, Governor of Tasmania, famous Arctic explorer, and leader of the expedition of 1845-1847 to discover the North West Passage. Three ships with all their crew perished. It was one of the first naval expeditions to use tinned food, and was supposedly one of the best-prepared voyages ever. Even today no-one is quite sure of the exact cause of this, the Navy's largest peace-time disaster, or just how close he came to discovering the famous passage. A perfect subject for biographical research, leading out in all kinds of directions.

We hope we have given you a few ideas on how you might use statues and memorials as a stimulus to a local history study. Most towns and villages have statues or memorials in their local church or chapel. Have fun!

For more information on this you might try:

• www.biography.com the web site of the biography channel is just one of many sites which have brief biographies of many people. Warning - many are very American-biased!

Other web sites you might find helpful include:

• www.imagesofengland.org.uk A growing photographic record by English Heritage of all the national monuments in England - mostly houses but if you search you can find statues there.
  
  
• www.shu.ac.uk This is a photographic record of Victorian Liverpool
  
  
• www.birmingham.gov.uk Monuments in Birmingham
  
  
• www.ejr.ndo.co.uk has pictures of many of the statues in and around Newcastle.