painted statues, two male and seven female, commonly referred to as the Ancient Britons. The largest male of the chestnut, Flemish style figures is believed to represent Hercules. They were separated from the newel posts for protection against students who pelted them, and placed for safe display on the nearby Old Hall's minstrels' gallery. Imperial College sold the statues in 2009 as reproductions. English Heritage and Ashford Borough Council ordered that Imperial College repurchase and return them, which it did. Students' Union A dedicated Students' Union complete with swimming pool opened in 1974, replacing the Wheelroom complex. The Wye College Union of Students was NUS affiliated and a constituent union of ULU. Originally established at the South Eastern Agricultural College in 1894, in 2000 it merged with Imperial College Union. Wye Crown and quarry During a parish meeting in 1902, the South Eastern Agricultural College's principal offered to celebrate the coronation of King Edward VII with a hill figure, carved into the North Downs scarp, above the college. Horses and humans carved into hillsides are well known, but the tall crown motif chosen was to be unique. It had to be distorted to take account of the viewpoint below and took 35 students four spring days, and 7,000 wheelbarrow loads of turf, soil and chalk to excavate. The King's 30 June coronation was delayed by illness, but there was still a bonfire on the Crown. When the coronation did take place on 7 August the Crown was illuminated by 1,500 candles. The King was able to view the Crown himself, as a guest of Baron Frederic John Gerard at Eastwell Manor, two years later when it was lit by electric light. To mark the 1977 retirement of principal Harry Darling, before Wye College owned the crown field, students pegged out Goodbye Harry and marked it with herbicide, visible for all to see across the Stour Valley. In 1991, gabions, filled with white-washed flint, were embedded at a cost of £29,000 to delineate the motif and reduce maintenance. Previously students had regularly scoured the exposed chalk and rebuilt its edges. The work was followed up in 2003, when a bench and carved slate compass rose were installed above the Crown, on the North Downs Way. The Millennium waymarker identifies directions to historic towns including Canterbury, Hastings, York and is inscribed with the motto Floreat Wye or may Wye flourish. It rests