This Monument, which forms the centrepiece to Dalton Square Lancaster, creates considerable interest. Many people want to know who the figures at the base of the Monument represent and why they are there. The Queen Victoria Monument was erected in 1906 but interestingly without a ceremony on the 13th June that year. It was paid for by Lord Ashton, who lived at Rylands house and owned huge textile and linoleum interests in Lancaster down by the River Lune on The Quay. The Monument itself was originally intended to stand in Williamson Park, although with having the the plans drawn up to build the Ashton Memorial there and the plans for a new Town Hall situated opposite Dalton Square, the plans changed and it was instead erected in the centre of the square.

The Queen Victoria Monument shortly after being erected (pictured above)

Together with the balustrade and laying out of the oval, it cost a total of £14,000. The sculpture of the Monument was a Mr. Herbert Hampton who with this, produced a number of Royal Monuments including one which stands in Ipswich, two which stand in India and another in New Zealand. The sculptures which stand as part of the Monument in Dalton Square are made of bronze with the pedestal being granite and the base being made of Furness limestone.

The Queen Victoria Monument which was erected in Dunedin, New Zealand in 1905 by Herbert Hampton.

There is no evidence to say why Lord Ashton felt it was needed to erect a Monument of Victoria, 6 years after her passing. Perhaps he felt that even though he moved into the Edwardian era, he still portrayed that of a Victorian and felt a little out of image when compared with that of an Edwardian.

Lord Ashton (pictured above)

All together there are 52 figures which surround the base of the Monument, being 50 men and 2 women. They each represent eminent Victorians and illiterate Politics, Science, the Arts, Education and the Church. On the corners stand figures representing Truth, Wisdom, Justice and Freedom. Key names include the likes of Mr.James Williamson, the Father of Lord Ashton. His eminence is probably somewhat less than the others which stand around the Monument.

The names of around Victoria's Monument include that of:

South Side:
Lord Darby
Lord Aberdeen
Sir Robert Peel
Lord Salisbury
Lord Beaconsfield
Mr. Gladstone
Lord Rosebery
William Lamb 2nd Viscount Melbourne
Mr. Richard Cobden
Lord John Russell
Mr. John Bright

North Side:
Sir Isaac Pitman (inventor of shorthand)
Florence Nightingale (pioneer of nursing)
Sir John Franklin (architect explorer)
General Gordon (soldier, engineer and philanthropist)
Dr. Livingstone (missionary and explorer)
Canon Kingsley (writer)
General Booth (founder of salvation army)
Lord Shaftesbury (statesman and philanthropist)
Lord Russell of Killowen (lord chief justice)
Sir Rowland Hill (pioneer of penny post)
James Williamson (founder of Lancaster firm)
William Whewell (master of trinity college)
Bishop Fraser (bishop of manchester)
Lord Brougham (lord chancellor)

East side:
Prince Consort (prince albert)
Sir Henry Irving (actor)
Lord Tennyson (poet)
Sir Arthur Sullivan (composer)
Lord Leighton (artist)
Joseph Mallord William Turner (artist)
John Ruskin (artist and critic)
Sir John Millais (artist)
Sir Lukes Fildes (artist)
Sir Charles Barry (actor)
William Hamo Thorneycroft (sculpture)
Alfred Stevens (artist and designer)
George Frederick Watts (artist)

West side:
Sir William Turner (vice chancellor, edinburgh university)
Sir Edward Frankland (professor of chemistry)
Sir Richard Owen (anatomist)
Charles Robert Darwin (zoologist and pioneer of evolution theory)
Charles Dickens (writer)
Mary Ann Evans (George Eliot) (writer)
William Makepeace Thackeray (writer)
George Stephenson (engineer)
Sir Charles Wheatstone (electrical pioneer)
Michael Faraday (physicists)
Lord Lister (inventor of antiseptic surgery)
Lord Kelvin (physicist)
Lord Macaulay (writer)
Thomas Carlyle (writer)