The Jurors - Audio tour

The Jurors, by artist Hew Locke, at Runnymede and Ankerwycke, Surrey, composed of 12 intricately worked bronze chairs incorporating imagery representing key moments in the struggle for freedom, rule of law and equal rights, photographed beneath a stormy sky — Learn about the artwork on each chair the form The Jurors. | © National Trust Images/John Miller

Rowena Willard-Wright and artist Hew Locke talk in detail about each chair in The Jurors. Expand each image to help identify each chair and artwork on each side.

An investigation of the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child. Here we see it debated in a modern classroom, but it was based upon a 1923 document drafted by British social reformer Eglantyne Jebb.

Chair 1. The Jurors - Children's Rights

Hew Locke describes his classroom scene, inspired by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child

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01:36

Close-up of chair 1 of The Jurors by Hew Locke, on display at Runnymede, Surrey: showing a woman in a jacket with badges, who is the suffragette Lillie Lenton

Chair 1. The Jurors - Lilian Lenton

Hear suffragette Lillie Lenton talk about her famous escapes.

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02:48

Close-up of chair 2 of The Jurors by Hew Locke, an artwork on display at Runnymede, Surrey, with the words The Ballad of Reading Gaol, showing window bars

Chair 2. The Jurors - Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde’s Ballad of Reading Gaol, published while he was in exile in France, with a specially recorded reading by Simon Armitage.

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02:07

This chair depicts the 1989 oil spillage in the Gulf of Alaska when the Exxon Valdez tanker ran aground, one of many environmental disasters which led to the creation of a new moral code of environmental conduct.

Chair 2. The Jurors - Exxon Valley Oil Tanker

Hew Locke talks about the 1989 oil spillage in the Gulf of Alaska when the Exxon Valdez tanker ran aground.

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01:06

Cornelia Sorabji, the first woman to practise law in India. She was an advocate for women in purdah, whose religion prevented them from speaking to men outside their family.

Chair 3. The Jurors - Cornelia Sorabji

An introduction to Cornelia Sorabji, the first woman to practise law in India.

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00:51

Close-up of chair 3 of The Jurors by Hew Locke, an artwork on display at Runnymede, Surrey: showing an excerpt from the Magna Carta in Latin

Chair 3. The Jurors - Magna Carta Excerpt

Hew Locke talks about his vision of the Magna Carta and its principle of trial by jury.

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01:21

Close-up of chair 4 of The Jurors by Hew Locke, an artwork on display at Runnymede, Surrey: Amerindian headdress, forest and a river clustered with gold nuggets

Chair 4. The Jurors - Indigenous Land Rights

Hew Locke talks about this Amerindian headdress and the ideas that it invokes.

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01:20

This chair depicts the march of blind trade unionists who converged on Trafalgar Square in 1920 in support of the Blind Persons Act, which became law later that year, establishing disability rights in the UK.

Chair 4. The Jurors - Blind Person's Act

Hew Locke and Curator Rowena Willard-Wright tell us about the extraordinary march of blind trade unionists in 1920.

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01:05

a combination of images depicting the Emancipation of the Serfs (1861) by Tsar Alexander II. Serfdom was the feudal system that tied Russian peasants irrevocably to their landlords.

Chair 5. The Jurors - Emancipation of the Serfs

Curator Rowena Willard-Wright and Hew Locke describe the imagery on this chair that refers to serfdom, activism and resistance in Russia.

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01:57

Close up of chair 5 of The Jurors by Hew Locke, an artwork on display at Runnymede, Surrey: a portrait of poet Phillis Wheatley

Chair 5. The Jurors - Phillis Wheatley

Hew Locke talks about Phillis Wheatley, the first published African-American woman and Mary Prince, the first woman to present an anti-slavery petition to the British parliament and the first black woman to write and publish an autobiography.

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01:10

Close-up of chair 6 of The Jurors by Hew Locke, an artwork on display at Runnymede, Surrey, showing a loudhailer belonging to Harvey Milk, gay rights campaigner

Chair 6. The Jurors - Harvey Milk's Megaphone

Hew Locke talks about Harvey Milk, gay rights campaigner and first openly gay person to be elected to public office in California.

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00:48

A portable charkha, or hand spinning wheel for cotton, designed by Mahatma Gandhi and used as a political symbol of resistance to British imported goods and British rule.

Chair 6. The Jurors - Ghandi Charkha

A description of the portable charkha, or hand spinning wheel for cotton, designed by Mahatma Gandhi and used as a political symbol of resistance to British rule.

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00:44

Close-up of chair 7 of The Jurors by Hew Locke, an artwork on display at Runnymede, Surrey, showing documents being shredded

Chair 7. The Jurors - The Shredder

Hew Locke tells us why he has included the image of a shredder – representing the destruction or ‘redaction’ of evidence.

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01:15

Nelson Mandela's prison cell, where he served 18 years of his life sentence for sabotage and conspiracy to overthrow the state.

Chair 7. The Jurors - Nelson Mandela

Hew Locke tells us about Nelson Mandela's prison cell, where he served 18 years of his life sentence.

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02:17

Portraits representing ‘The Disappeared’ – a collective name for those who have been taken away at the behest of a state or political organisation across the world.

Chair 8. The Jurors - The Disappeared

Hew Locke explains what his imaginary ‘disappeared’ faces represent, and Curator Rowena Willard-Wright tells us about the Victorian language of flowers.

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01:23

Close-up of chair 8 of The Jurors by Hew Locke, an artwork on display at Runnymede, Surrey: two representations of freedom of speech, public and online, featuring hands typing on a keyboard

Chair 8. The Jurors - Freedom of Speech

Hew Locke talks about Speaker’s Corner and Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the world wide web, who called for an online Magna Carta.

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02:05

a boat carrying refugees inscribed with the names of sea vessels connected to legal cases which marked changes to maritime law, the responsibilities of nations towards refugees, and maritime search and rescue protocols.

Chair 9. The Jurors - Refugees - Law of the Sea

Hew Locke tells us why this image depicts sea vessels and what they represent.

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02:27

Close-up of chair 9 of The Jurors by Hew Locke, an artwork on display at Runnymede, Surrey, 'The Golden Rule' that states you should treat others as you would wish to be treated yourself, expressed in 14 languages

Chair 9. The Jurors - The Golden Rule

Hew Locke introduces us to 'The Golden Rule' that states you should treat others as you would wish to be treated yourself.

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01:05

The hollow boab tree found in Australia. These trees were adapted in the 1890s by police for use as temporary prisons for aboriginal prisoners. Each date and name refers to the ever-developing history of aboriginal Australians, their land and human rights.

Chair 10. The Jurors - Australian Boab Tree

An explanation of the use of the hollow boab tree, found in Australia, and their use as prisons.

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01:20

Close-up of chair 10 of The Jurors by Hew Locke, an artwork on display at Runnymede, Surrey, showing Chinese script that describes the Confucian principles of Ren (humaneness), Li (ritual) and Yi (justice)

Chair 10. The Jurors - The Confucian Principles

Hew Locke introduces us to the Confucian principles of Ren (humaneness), Li (ritual) and Yi (justice).

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01:14

Close-up of chair 11 of The Jurors by Hew Locke, an artwork on display at Runnymede, Surrey, showing the slave ship Zong

Chair 11. The Jurors - Ship Zong

Hew Locke talks about the ship Zong, from which 133 slaves were thrown overboard in 1781.

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00:57

Depiction of Ancient Egyptian Scale on one of the The Jurors chairs at Runnymede and Ankerwyce

Chair 11. The Jurors - Ancient Egyptian Scales

A description of the Ancient Egyptian scales topped with the head of Ma'at, the goddess of truth, justice and balance.

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01:02

Close-up of chair 12 of The Jurors by Hew Locke, an artwork on display at Runnymede, Surrey, showing the xiezhi, a legendary creature and symbol of justice and law in Chinese mythology

Chair 12. The Jurors - Xiezhi

Hew Locke introduces us to Xiezhi, a legendary creature and symbol of justice and law in Chinese mythology.

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01:16

Close up of Chair 12 of The Jurors by Hew Locke, showing house in Yangon, Burma, where politician Aung San Suu Kyi was held under house arrest for 15 out of 21 years until her release in 2010

Chair 12. The Jurors - Aung San Suu Kyi

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01:24

Return to Runnymede in Sound

Conservators rehanging the Knight with the Arms of Jean de Daillon Tapestry following conservation work at Montacute House, Somerset

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