Tag Archives: history

Monumental Task

Posted on by
23

I’ve used this database created by the Public Monuments & Sculptures Association a lot. It’s a national recording project that aims to collect information on all British public sculpture and monuments, whether historic or contemporary.

As well as including Lichfield’s usual suspects, the database also features some of our less obvious works such as the Calming Stone in Beacon Park, the etched glass in the Library foyer, the facade of Boots in Tamworth St and the Standing Stones I formed a bit of an attachment to back in November 2011.

 

Facade of Boots created 1908. Decorations include an owl, a beehive and a piper. There must have been a good reason for this motley crew!

They're outside!

 

Not everything on the list is still around – there’s an entry for Dean Denton’s Market Cross which was pulled down in 1849. There are also entries on the database that don’t seem to have made it as fully fledged pieces of Lichfield public sculpture.  Since Pat brought it to our attention back in November 2011 an entry has now appeared on the database about the Vision & Youth sculpture.

As the association says,  ‘The database is an excellent resource for students & researchers, conservators, local historians, art buffs, enthusiasts, genealogists and all who want to know more about public sculpture: statues; obelisks; columns; sculptures; installations; fountains; follies; commemorative clocks; wayside markers; and towers – from the Stuart era to the present day.’ I think it’s fantastic and you can read more about future plans & how you can get involved in contributing information here.

One to be added to the database in the future is the proposed statue of Erasmus Darwin at Cathedral Walk (I think there’s another one planned for Beacon Park too). I’ve just been reading a few of the comments about this on the S106 document. One person said that they were in favour of the statue, as Darwin is a local hero we should be proud of. However, the comment goes on to say that Lichfield should also celebrate more contemporary heroes relevant to young people and also more women ‘not just old blokes’.* I think this is potentially a whole new blog post but this is a really interesting point. Who or what should we be commemorating with our future public art & monuments?  

*I remember when I was a young person. A young person who used to go out on a Saturday night instead of sitting in reading the comments on S106 consultations 😉

Shopping Daze

Posted on by
18

Dam St is one of the most wonderful places in Lichfield, offering a winning combination of varied architecture, independent shops, duck feeding and ice-cream on route to the Cathedral. 

Three small signs above the shops at the Market Square end may well go unnoticed. They say ‘J Dean Putney Maker’ and have little hooks on them. A quick google search leads to the website of ‘Deans Blinds & Awnings’ established 1894 and tells how the company was started by a policeman’s son called Tom Dean, and was taken over by his brother John. It seems John Dean and subsequent generations of his family were involved in the ownership of Fulham FC as well as manufacturing blinds and awnings.

 

J Dean Putney

 

The listed buildings describes them as ‘late C19 shop fronts with bracketed cornice and canvas canopies’. Another look at these buildings and you can also see the chains attached to these awnings, which presumably must still be there, tucked away from sight. I wonder when they were rolled shut for the last time? What kind of shop was this when these canopies were added? There was a drapers & silk merchants in this area of Dam St in 1914, could this have been it?

J Dean 2 with Metal erm thing

On the second photo, there is also a metal….thing. I first came across these in Tamworth, where nearly every shop seems to have one albeit slightly newer looking.

Tamworth version of 'the metal thing'. They have lots of interesting things on buildings in Tamworth including mermaids.

Someone got in touch on flickr and suggested they were holders for flags or Christmas trees. I was in Bakewell in Derbyshire last week where they seem to be using them for the latter, as you can see here in the Matlock Mercury. Looks pretty, doesn’t it! I’m guessing the Dam St one was a flag holder but am more than happy to be proved wrong by memory or photographic evidence or just a convincing argument as to what else it might be 😉

You can also have a look at the Street View here, perhaps whilst eating a mincepie by a roaring fire (although it is out of date, as The Staffs Bookshop is now Realwoods).

Last weekend someone spotted something else interesting high up on another building in the city centre. I’m not saying anymore, as I’m hoping that they might consider doing something on this themselves. No matter how well you think you know your surroundings, there are always still things to discover. So whilst out and about shopping in the 8 (is that all!) shopping days left until Christmas try looking at Lichfield from a different angle. Who knows what you might notice…..

Edit 23/12/2011

Pat’s been on googlemaps and has spotted not only a whole load of these brackets on Tamworth St but also one actually in use outside the Scales! So I think that definitely answers this little Lichfield mystery!