The Naval Temple with surrounding retaining wall, Monmouth (Trefynwy), Monmouthshire

History

1800. Erected by Admiral Sir Charles Thompson, MP for Monmouth with other members of The Kymin Club and dedicated to the Duchess of Beaufort, daughter of Admiral Boscawen. The temple was erected as a tribute to the British Navy and sixteen admirals with notable victories in the Seven Years War, the American Revolutionary War and the wars against revolutionary France. The surnames or titles of the Admirals are given on plaques along with the year of their most outstanding achievement.

Edward Boscawen (1711-1761) commanded the Royal Navy when it defeated a French fleet near Portugal at the Battle of Lagos in 1759. Later in 1759 Edward Hawke (1705-1781) oversaw the defeat of another French fleet at the Battle of Quiberon Bay ending the threat of a French invasion of Britain during the Seven Years War.

George Brydges Rodney (1718-1792) was in command at the Battle of the Saintes in 1782, when the Royal Navy defeated a French fleet acting in support of the American Revolution and ending its threat to Jamaica and other British colonies in the West Indies. A year earlier Rodney’s fleet had captured the Dutch colony of Sint Eustatis and confiscated a huge quantity of goods from the inhabitants, with the island’s Jewish community treated particularly harshly.

Early in the French Revolutionary War, a squadron under John Gell (1740-1806) captured several French ships in the raid on Genoa in October 1793. Also in 1793 Samuel Hood (1724-1816) oversaw the sinking of French ships during the Siege of Toulon. In 1794 Richard Howe (1726-1799) commanded the naval battle with France in the north Atlantic known as the ‘Glorious First of June’. William Cornwallis (1744-1819) is noted for ‘Cornwallis’ Retreat’ in June 1795 when his squadron was attacked by a much larger French fleet but escaped largely unscathed. The fleet Cornwallis had escaped from was then defeated by British forces under Alexander Hood (1st Viscount Bridport, 1726-1814) at the Battle of Groix also in 1795.

After Spain allied itself with Revolutionary France and declared war on Britain, the Spanish fleet was defeated near Portugal in the Battle of Cape St Vincent in 1797 by the Royal Navy under John Jervis, who became Earl of St Vincent (1735-1823) with Charles Thompson (1740-1799) as his second-in-command. Similarly, Adam Duncan (1731-1804) commanded the defeat of a Batavian (Dutch) fleet at the Battle of Camperdown in October 1797.

In 1798 Horatio Nelson (1758-1805) commanded the British victory over the French Navy in the Battle of the Nile, which was a major blow to French empire building in the Middle East. In October 1798 a squadron under John Borlase Warren (1753-1822) won the Battle of Tory Island off the coast of Donegal, preventing French troops from reinforcing the Irish rebellion against British rule. George Keith Elphinstone (1st Viscount Keith, 1746-1823) commanded the British fleet in the Mediterranean in 1799 and prevented any reversal of the strategic gains made by Britain after the Battle of the Nile. Meanwhile in August 1799 Andrew Mitchell (1757-1806) received the surrender of a Batavian (Dutch) fleet during the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland. Finally Hyde Parker (1739-1807) commanded the British victory over Denmark and Norway at Copenhagen in 1801, which was a pre-emptive attack on a neutral country which Britain feared might ally with France.

The Temple was twice visited by Nelson, who commended Monmouth for having erected such a monument. It should be noted that the plaque to Parker 1801 (for the Battle of Copenhagen, at which Nelson was second-in-command) post-dates the construction of the building and it can be surmised that this was added to the temple before Nelson's visit in 1802 since he was unlikely to have 'turned a blind eye' to it being missing. Monmouthshire County Council gave the building to the National Trust in 1902 after a public subscription. The temple was rebuilt by the National Trust in 1987 without the previous timber verandah and replacing the missing plaques and other details, and restored again in 2012.

The Royal Navy in the period was tasked with defending British colonial interests. Three of the admirals commemorated are known to have supported the slave trade. George Brydges Rodney gave evidence in 1788 to the select committee appointed to examine the slave trade that he had seen no evidence that Africans were treated with brutality during many years in the West Indies. Rodney also spoke in the House of Lords against the passage of the 1788 Slave Trade Act. John Jervis opposed the Slave Trade Abolition Act in the House of Lords in 1807 stating that “the West-India islands formed Paradise itself, to the negroes, in comparison with their native country”. In his personal correspondence Nelson described himself as a defender of “our present colonial system” and was critical of the abolitionist “Wilberforce and his hypocritical allies”.

Exterior

Neo-classical square stone temple formed of two back-to-back porticos in antis of unfluted and unbased Doric columns. These, and the plain side walls carry a moulded cornice and a large plinth, a decreasing roof of stone slates then supports an arch flanked by anchors, and this, in turn, carries a replica statue of Britannia. Around sides of the plinth there are plaques commemorating sixteen admirals and their victories in date order. These are Hawke 1759, Rodney 1782, Gell 1793, Hood 1793, Howe 1794, Cornwallis 1795, Bridport 1795, Duncan 1797, Warren 1798, Keith 1799, Mitchell 1799, Parker 1801 (existing at resurvey 1974), and Boscawen 1759, Vincent
1797, Thompson 1797 and Nelson 1798 (replaced in 1987). The plaques are red, white or blue according to the colour of the admiral's squadron. The portico entablatures carry inscriptions 'BRITAIN'S GLORY' (west) and 'GLORIOUS VICTORY' (east). There are also two oval inscribed marble panels, one of which explains the monument
THIS NAVAL TEMPLE
WAS ERECTED AUGUST 1ST 1800
TO PERPETUATE THE NAMES OF THOSE
NOBLE ADMIRALS
WHO DISTINGUISHED THEMSELVES BY THEIR
GLORIOUS VICTORIES FOR ENGLAND
IN THE LAST AND PRESENT WARS
AND IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED TO
HER GRACE THE DUTCHESS OF BEAUFORT
DAUGHTER OF
ADMIRAL BOSCAWEN
while the other refers to two lost paintings (now restored): 'The Standard of Great-Britain waving triumphant over the fallen and captive of France, Spain and Holland' (concerning the Seven Years War) and 'The Glorious and Ever Memorable Battle of the Nile'.
The temple is surrounded by a roughly circular retaining wall of rubblestone with a single opening into the temple enclosure. It suggests that it provided a terrace for contemplation of the remarkable view, which is no longer available due to the tree growth since.

Reasons for Listing

Included for its special historic interest as a very early war memorial and as an important landscape feature.

External Links

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.