Photo: David Sloan

Photo: David Sloan

Photo: James Pasby

Photo: James Pasby

Sunderland Echo 30/08/1966 carries a picture with a letter which reads “I wonder if someone can throw some light on what happened to the two guns that once stood next to General Havelock’s statue on Building Hill in Mowbray Park bearing the following inscription: ‘Russian gun taken at Sebastepol, September 9 1855. presented by Lord Panmure, Secretary of War, to the Borough of Sunderland, placed here May 11th 1857. George Smith Ranson, Mayor, William Snowball, Town Clerk, Sunderland.’”

The reply from the Editor reads:
“The guns to which our correspondent refers were melted down for munitions during the second world war at a time when metal railings outside public parks and private houses were also taken for the war effort. The guns themselves were captured from the Russians at Sebastopol on September 9, 1855. Early in 1857 the Mayor and Town Clerk were in London on business when they made application to Lord Panmure (Secretary for War) for two Russian guns to be placed on Building Hill. The Government acceded to the request and the guns were brought from the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, to Sunderland, on May 5th, 1857, in the London trader Linton, which berthed at Holmes’s Wharf. The guns became known as “Joshua” and “Caleb”. Caleb Wilson, founder of the firm of Joshua Wilson, was a grandson of Rowland Wilson, of Westmorland, the Cromwellian soldier who turned Quaker.”

David Sloan says: "These guns are replicas made in 1999 as part of the park revamp. I think the originals went for scrap in WW2. They were recreated by Smiths of South Shields. They used old photos to produce a design and patterns to allow them to recast the guns."