The monument to Queen Victoria, Grade II* Listed since 1970, was designed by Herbert Hampton for Lord Ashton who, as the inscription says, gave it to "his native town" in 1906.
The bronze statue of the late queen (d.1901) faces the Town Hall, an annoying insular arrangement which optimises the Councillors' view at the expense of the electors' – anyone trying to take a photograph of the whole square gets to see the back of the queen's head.