A FORTNIGHT ago, we were in Darlington’s South Park looking at the Sebastopol Cannon – one of 3,000 Russian weapons captured by the British in the Crimean War of the 1850s, and they are scattered all over the North East.

The Northern Echo: South Park cannon

The Sebastopol cannon in Darlington's South Park

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Some of the captured cannons were melted down – the first Victoria Crosses were made out of their metal – but 553 of them were given to towns which expressed an interest in having one as a memorial to the local soldiers who lost their lives in the war.

Darlington’s pacifist Pease family prevented the cannon from being mounted triumphantly in the town centre, and so it was relegated to the park.

The Northern Echo: South Park cannon

The Russian double headed eagle on the South Park cannon

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But Darlington is not alone in having such a memorial. In Middlesbrough’s Albert Park, there is an almost identical cannon – on the trunnions of both cannons are markings that show they were made in 1824 in the Alexandovsky foundry in the city of Petrozavodsk. Darlington’s has a serial number of 19,632 whereas Middlesbrough’s is 19,180.

There’s a very similar looking cannon on the Headland at Hartlepool (below). It was transported from London on a steamship called Margaret at a cost of £2 19s 3d in September 1858. Has anyone ever looked for its serial number?

The Northern Echo: An elderly couple look outy to the sea from the Headland in Hartlepool where the ghost ships will come into view within days. Behind them is a cannon trophy from the battle of Sebastopol - D04/11/03AL

We think they are the only original Sebastopol cannons in the area, as several others were melted down during the Second World War.

There was one in Stockton’s Ropner Park, next to the fountain. In fact, when the Mandale Road connecting Stockton to Middlesbrough was opened in November 1858, the Stockton cannon was wheeled out and fired a 21 gun salute to which the Middlesbrough cannon replied from the other end of the new road.

Sunderland had two cannons, named Joshua and Caleb, in Mowbray Park. Although they were melted down in the war, replicas of them were made in 1999 during the park restoration. Similarly, two cannons face out to sea from a South Shields roundabout on Lawe Road, but they are replicas from the 1980s.We believe that Durham, Richmond, Ripon and Whitby were also given Sebastopol cannons. Richmond’s, for instance, arrived by train in 1858 and was pushed up the steep bank from the Swale, through the Market Place and into the grounds of the castle where it remained until the Second World War. None of those cannons have ever been replaced and so the towns remain cannonless.

Can you tell us anything about these cannons?

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