Names of Wick's Distinguished Visitors could feature on new stone at riverside
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From royalty to prime ministers, from an American president to adventurers and writers, Wick's Distinguished Visitors plaque contains a litany of famous names from the Victorian age and the early 20th century.
Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, William Gladstone, David Lloyd George, Sir Ernest Shackleton, Robert Louis Stevenson, Sir Henry Rider Haggard and General Ulysses S Grant, 18th president of the United States, are just some of those listed on the 100-year-old stone tablet built into a wall halfway up Station Road.
It can be tricky to stop and study the plaque, as there is no pavement on that side of the road, but a project by the Royal Burgh of Wick Community Council could ensure that the assorted VIPs get a second mention at a more accessible site nearby.
The idea is to copy all the Distinguished Visitors' names onto one side of a new stone placed beside the riverside fountain. The other side would contain a set of facts about the history of Pulteneytown.
At the same time, the original plaque would be given a clean-up.
Chairperson Joanna Coghill outlined the proposal at the April meeting of the community council on Monday night.
She said later: "We are looking at copying the names and dates from the Distinguished Visitors tablet and having these put onto Caithness stone, then installing it down by the fountain – a walk-around standing stone, to so speak. On the other side of the stone, we plan to list historical, really interesting, little-known facts about Pulteneytown.
"We had thought about removing the tablet. But, due to the nature of that boundary wall, the requirement for traffic orders to remove it and so on, it was agreed to leave it and clean it up but replicate the information onto a new tablet down by the fountain."
Other notable names on the plaque – which has the dates 1850-1923 engraved at the bottom – include philanthropists Andrew Carnegie and Elihu Burritt; Randall T Davidson, Archbishop of Canterbury; William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army; Sir Roderick Murchison, the eminent geologist; and Sir Frederick Treves, the surgeon known for his friendship with Joseph Merrick, the so-called "Elephant Man".
- Who are Wick's Distinguished Visitors of the past century? There are no plans to create a plaque commemorating the famous people who have spent varying amounts of time in the town from 1923 onwards... but if there ever were, which names would you suggest? Email editor@nosn.co.uk and let us know!
