Probably Braintree’s most noted landmark, and certainly one of the most photographed, is a bronze fountain of a young boy holding a shell with sea lions around the base. George Bartram purchased the plot of land where this fountain now stands in the 1930s, as he was concerned that the view of the church (which now stands behind it) was obscured by derelict buildings. In 1937 Sir W.J. Coultauld commissioned the famous sculptor John Hodge to create the fountain and its surrounding square in memory of King George V.
