A new statue honouring the influential writer Sylvia Townsend Warner has been unveiled during the Dorchester Christmas Cracker celebrations.
Townsend Warner was a pioneering literary figure and an early LGBTQ+ trailblazer. She lived openly with her lifelong partner, the poet Valentine Ackland, and her writing consistently challenged convention while enriching British literary culture.
The statue, which was unveiled on Saturday 14 December, marks a significant moment in Dorset's history as it is the second public statue in the county to depict a real woman, following the 2022 Mary Anning statue in Lyme Regis, also spearheaded by the charity Visible Women UK.
Anya Pearson, Programme Leader for the School of Arts, Media and Creative Industries Management at Arts University Bournemouth (AUB) and Founder, Trustee and Chair of Visible Women UK, the group leading both the Sylvia Townsend Warner campaign and the Mary Anning project, says she hopes the new monument will encourage broader conversations about representation.
“Who are we putting on pedestals?” she says. “When 95% of statues in the UK commemorate men, and mostly for wars and battles, what are we really telling society? Our children literally look up to these figures. Statues shape how towns choose to honour those they consider worthy, and visibility in our public landscapes genuinely matters.
“There are more statues in the UK of men called John than of all named, non-royal women combined. John Lennon alone has over six.”
Across the whole of the South West of England, there are only three statues of real, named women, making this installation part of a very small but growing effort to diversify who is represented in public spaces.
Nationally, the new statue will be only the second in the UK to celebrate an openly lesbian woman. The first was of Anne Lister in Halifax, which followed the success of Sally Wainwright’s acclaimed BBC drama Gentleman Jack, bringing Lister’s life and legacy into the public eye.
In a town that proudly celebrates its literary men, Thomas Hardy, William Barnes and the Powys brothers, Pearson says it's long overdue that Sylvia Townsend Warner takes her place among them in Dorchester.
Townsend Warner (1893–1978) was an LGBTQ+ novelist, poet and musicologist who lived and worked in Maiden Newton, Dorset, with her partner and fellow poet Valentine Ackland at a time when same-sex relationships defied societal expectations. The literary couple collaborated on a collection of works titled Whether a Dove or a Seagull.
A contemporary of Virginia Woolf and Djuna Barnes, Warner gained early recognition with her debut novel Lolly Willowes (1926), which was shortlisted for the Prix Femina and marked her out as a fresh voice in modernist fiction.
Visible Women UK continue to raise funds to catalogue the extensive Sylvia Townsend Warner and Valentine Ackland archive, which has remained boxed and largely untouched at the Dorset History Centre since Warner’s death in 1978. The charity hopes to uncover manuscripts, poems and correspondence that have never been publicly seen.
“Our Crowdfunder remains open,” adds Anya. “The archive is extraordinary, and the thought of what might be discovered is genuinely exciting. Every donation helps ensure these stories are preserved for future generations to enjoy.”
To find out more or contribute, visit the Sylvia Townsend Warner statue Crowdfunder page.
