by Sam Hawcroft
From the towering figures beside the road to the sign above its village pub, Welwick keeps its connection to the Gunpowder Plot in plain sight.
This November 5 marks 421 years since the failed attempt to blow up King James I and Parliament – a conspiracy that counted Welwick-born brothers John and Christopher Wright among its members.
The brothers grew up at Plowlands Farm and attended St Peter’s School in York, where Guy Fawkes was also a pupil. John was among the original conspirators, while Christopher joined later.
Led by Robert Catesby, the plotters planned to destroy the House of Lords during the state opening of Parliament, kill the king and pave the way for a Catholic monarch.
Their plans unravelled after an anonymous letter warned Lord Monteagle to stay away. Fawkes was discovered guarding 36 barrels of gunpowder beneath the House of Lords on the night of November 4-5, 1605.
The Wright brothers fled London and were subsequently killed alongside Catesby at Holbeche House in Staffordshire.
Welwick historian and artist Larry Malkin says the brothers’ story needs to be understood against the religious persecution of the time.
“The turn of the century was a hard time for Roman Catholics,” he said.
He said fines imposed on their mother and grandmother had left the young men feeling “as though they were fighting for their right to worship as they wished”. However, he was clear about the consequences of their plans.
“In Welwick we remember Christopher and John as tormented individuals, but that did not give them the right to endanger others by trying to blow them up and cause an uprising that would have caused death and suffering to thousands of innocent people,” he said.
“Today they would be considered as terrorists and it is a good thing that they were discovered.”
Larry also highlighted the account of Fawkes’s death in January 1606, when he was due to be hanged, drawn and quartered.
“As he was taken up to the gallows, he dived off head first and broke his own neck,” he said.
His death spared him from enduring the later stages of the punishment while still alive.
The village’s monument commemorates the plot’s defeat. Its four 8ft figures depict Fawkes, Catesby and the Wright brothers, close to where the brothers were born and raised.
Unveiled by Graham Stuart MP on July 6, 2013, the Corten steel statues were the result of a community arts project involving villagers from Welwick and Weeton, with Arts Council support.
Farmers, tradespeople and engineers worked together under the leadership of artist Steven Fletcher. Larry produced the final drawings after the originals were lost when the vehicle carrying them was stolen.
More recently, he has helped preserve the village’s historical links through the name and sign of the Plotters’ Bar.
Landlady Jeanette Templeman, who took over the pub in July last year, said: “I wanted a name change that would reflect the history of the village.”
Before opening, she visited Larry and his wife Jenny with her niece Emma and Emma’s fiancé George to discuss the name. They agreed on Plotters’ Bar, and Larry also painted the pub sign.
“I often get customers travelling through the village who ask about the meaning of the pub name and the sculpture on the way into Welwick,” Jeanette said.
The history remains a talking point among villagers, too. Larry said a recent discussion in the pub had turned to the idea of a blockbuster film about the plot, with Fawkes as its central character.
“There have been two or three television documentaries on it, but no great adventure films. Perhaps Welwick is too far from Hollywood,” he said.
