Alfred the Great Statue, Pewsey
This statue, made of Portland stone, was built in 1913 to commemorate the coronation of Alfred’s eventual successor, George V (reign 1910-1936), in June 1911.
Located in the heart of the small Wiltshire village of Pewsey, it depicts Alfred gazing into the distance, bearded and crowned, with long hair, holding a lowered shield and sword. According to local tradition, Alfred visited the village following a triumph over Viking invaders, proclaiming an annual feast day – Holy Cross Day – on 14th September.
Pewey is mentioned in Alfred’s will, which divides his estates amongst his family, including his sons, daughters, wife, nephews and “my kinsman Osferth” – perhaps an illegitimate son. The village was left to his son and heir, Edward the Elder (reign 899-924), and later gifted to the church by Edward's son, King Edmund (reign 939-946).
License & Copyright
Based on Wikipedia content that has been reviewed, edited, and republished.Original image by Digitalfort. Uploaded by Michael McComb, published on 26 June 2025. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon a work even for commercial reasons, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. When republishing on the web a hyperlink back to the original content source URL must be included. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.
