News

What a start to the year! By the time this was written on the 18th January, much of the snow had disappeared but only after covering the higher reaches of the Peak District for 33 DAYS!!

Inevitably, things only got moving rather slowly but we have already received some interesting orders and commissions:

Dartford Bandstand

Working for Tony Cohen of Britannia Architectural Metalwork, we are to build and erect a complete new bandstand with copper clad roof within three months. The design is fairly typical of late Victorian / early Edwardian structures, though the horizontal projecting eaves are replaced by upswept curves from the soundboard (the soundboard is the tongue and groove boarded ceiling).

The new Dartford Bandstand

Slightly smaller than the typical Victorian ‘full’ bandstand, this one measures just under 7000mm across the eaves.

Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) Memorial, National Arboretum

Our next military memorial is an unusual one, consisting not of bronze plaques or murals but of a large pierced stainless steel disc on a slate base. The RAF badge, in full relief in bronze, will sit in the centre of the disc and the pierced lettering in the disc will cast shadows on the ground below. Illustrations in a couple of months…..

A Trail of Sand!

Heritage Trails cover some unusual old crafts and industries but we haven’t previously made any plaques for the sand quarrying industry. We now have a commission to produce a series of plaques in the format below for the Sands of Time Trail in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire. Leighton Buzzard was and is a major centre of sand quarrying, the sand being hand-dug and conveyed by narrow gauge railway until about 30 years ago.

Apologies for the lack of news updates since July. As ever, we continue to make interesting things and here is a quick summary of the last few weeks.

Autumn always sees a flood of orders for plaques of all kinds, particularly for award ceremonies and listed buildings. Our customer base for plaques is unusually diverse, two examples in October being Sir Roger Moore and the Court of King Zog Appreciation Society! We are working our way a lot of plaques for Co. Tipperary in Ireland and have just received our first order from India - a bronze plaque for a pharmaceutical company.

An interesting project for the National Trust involves some prototype brass rubbing plates for children - as shown below.

A lorry from Barcelona …

Arrived in October with a 12ft long human hand and forearm in h.d. foam. All the Spanish sculptor required of us was the whole thing in cast aluminium, returned to Barcelona in 4 weeks! Casting from solid foam originals is very tricky and only made possible by our skilled and very experienced moulders. The photo shows Chris Morris weighing up how and where to split the hand up into sections.

October also saw the installation of a very unusual set of gates for a Cheshire estate. The stone gateposts would not carry the weight of iron gates and no support rollers or wheels were allowed, so we made them entirely in aluminium. As it’s hardly a good metal to forge, the scrolls and gate frames were cast and the infill bars laser cut and rivetted. The main gates operate electronically while the side gates are conventional.

Tactile Map nears completion

This lengthy project - to re-create a 19th century canal basin in miniature - is almost finished. At some stage, almost every member of staff has been involved in modelling, lettering, casting, assembly and very careful finishing processes.

The map is roughly 2 metres long by 1 metre wide and cast entirely in aluminium so that it can survive the weather and (hopefully minimal) vandalism.

It’s been a very enjoyable challenge from start to finish and we’ll be sorry to see it leave the works!

(Work has just started on a more conventional toposcope or viewpoint panel for Beaudesert Park in Cannock Chase, Staffs - formerly the home of the Marquis of Anglesey)

Brighton Bandstand finished!

Not only is this large bandstand now fully restored but the public can actually get into it! The iron bridge which formerly linked it to the promenade disappeared many years ago but we have built a new bridge which was installed a couple of weeks ago. Apart from a little paint touch-up here and there, the whole structure is almost ready to hand over to Brighton Council. Photos in the next News Issue.

More signposts restored

It’s heartening that a good many of the old village signposts we’ve been working on recently were originally made by us in the 1920s. The various makers active in that period used a bewildering range of designs and strange methods of fixing fingers to columns. The one illustrated is to a simple format and, fully restored, looks superb.

The Transport Trust

This respected organisation has initiated a nationwide plaque scheme covering significant sites for all kinds of transport. We’ve now made and installed the first few and think the design and colour scheme are very effective.

Latest feedback from customers:

“Now that we have received our first blue plaque from you, I thought I would drop you a note to let you know how delighted we are with it. Indeed, it is just what we envisaged and meets our needs magnificently” Treaddur Bay Council, Anglesey  13th July 2009

“I’d like to say thank you very much for a great product (plaque) - we are very, very pleased with it.” H. Harwood, Great Shelford, Cambs. 16th July 2009

‘Derbyshire Life’ feature

This well-known magazine decided to do an in-depth article on Leander and its work in their April issue. Amongst the responses it generated was one from the former archivist of Rolls-Royce. A few years ago we made a series of bronze RR Centenary plaques for locations at home and abroad. To reach one awkward site, we had to transport the works fork lift truck to an adjacent street, off-load the plaque and its massive mounting boulder and negotiate some tricky pathways to reach the spot.

Anyway, the RR man wrote “you are very demonstrably artists in your own right, as well as first-rate founders. It all reinforces what I said to Sir Ralph Robbins, then Chairman of RR - your operation is one of which Derbyshire should be proud.”

Bronze tympanum for French chateau

This curious image was an allegorical twisting of a famous image which showed the Devil feeding peasants into the Mouth of Hell. The image we cast showed the opposite - the monks being pushed in, rather than the peasants! We cast it from a broken plaster relief brought from the chateau and the bronze is now on its way to its new home. We used a thick murky patination to make the plaque look anything but new.

An image of the original can be found at www.conques.com/visite23

McFarlane Fountain Restoration

Roger Lees assesses the job!

A goodly number of McFarlane 4-column and 8-column drinking fountains still survive in the UK and overseas. Made by Walter McFarlane, Saracen Foundry, Glasgow in the late Victorian era (hence the over-the-top decoration!) they have survived mainly in parks and occasionally in town centres. We dismantled this one at Whitehall Park, Darwen, Lancs on 24th April for complete refurbishment.

Work across the Irish Sea

Some interesting work is being generated in Ireland. A sizeable order for signage metalwork in Co Cork has been followed by two interesting projects in Limerick. One comprises ductile iron (rowing) oars with text on the blades as a novel form of historical plaque. The second involves four large lectern-mounted full colour plaques with crests and motifs. The Limerick Civic Trust have achieved great things over the past twenty years or so and we’ll enjoy working with them on these projects and others to follow.

Sculpted balustrades

Bespoke bronze

The first (low-res unfortunately) photos of cast bronze balustrades for a new swimming pool at a Cheshire house. Each panel was sculpted in wax by Denise Dutton and cast, patinated and installed by us in early April. Close-up and high-res photos to follow, hopefully!

PLAQUES and ‘PLAQUEES’

‘Plaquee’ is our word for the (usually deceased) subject of a plaque and this month has seen a particularly good inflow of very diverse ‘plaquees’. Several are still very much alive! Here are some examples:

Marlon Devenish, athlete : Sir Nigel Hawthorne, actor : Don Luigi Sturzo, Italian politician : Vince Hill, singer : Billie Whitelaw, actress : Philip Larkin, poet : Clive Owen, actor : Charles Early, blanket manufacturer : Ronnie Hazlehurst, composer of much BBC programme music : Hazel O’Connor, singer/actress : Robert Lochner, inventor of (part of) the wartime Mulberry Harbours.

Perhaps the most interesting is Kelso Cochrane, a young Antiguan carpenter, whose violent death in 1959 led, ironically, to much improved race relations in Kensington. The one which would really appeal to pub quiz compilers is William Gunther who invented, in case you didn’t know, the OXO cube!

Many monoliths

An order has been received for 11 of our large ‘Rotherham’ type monoliths as shown in the site photo gallery. These incorporate a range of hand-modelled and photographically-reproduced information on the history of the sites in question. For the first time, 5 of the monoliths will be double ended - imagine two as illustrated but joined in the middle like Siamese twins. 

We’ve also started casting the sculpted poetry monoliths for St Helens, Merseyside. These are massive aluminium castings weighing about 200kg apiece, with poems snaking around their surface in relief. Photos next month when they’re finished.

Thank you letters

Two more this month:

“I would just like to record our thanks for the superb signs for the Broseley Jitties (alleyways in Shropshire). The signs are all in place and look tremendous. They will add greatly to the other work we are doing in the area.” Community Regeneration Officer, Bridgenorth District Council 23/03/09

“The lecterns (6 etched stainless steel panels recording a thousand years of local history) were greatly admired by those attending the opening. You’ve done a great job and the Museum and I are very happy with the finished product.” Town Centre Manager, Brentwood, Essex 30/03/09

(photos of both to follow)

P.S. Further to last month’s plea to help other firms who are desperately short of work, February’s outsourcing of work and materials was 27% up on the same month last year.

February is often our busiest month of the year and, luckily, given the state of the economy, this year has proved to be no exception. We have secured some excellent orders and will be fully occupied into the summer at the very least.

BUT the time has passed when we can only think of our own business. Every day, we get more and more calls from foundries, patternmakers, engravers, fabricators, etchers, out-of-work skilled tradespeople, draughtsmen, artists and many others DESPERATE to keep their own businesses alive. Many are working a four day week, short-time, on reduced wages or just working when there’s work and going home when there isn’t.

So the focus of our work-seeking has changed. Now, we’re looking for still more orders, not for us, but to share out with those who are close to the edge, who need work more than we do. In many cases, these are family businesses with whom we have worked for years and to whom quality and service to customers are not meaningless marketing phrases.

Sadly, many British industrialists remain motivated solely by profit and, it’s fair to say, greed. The economy is in a downward spiral but they’re only interested in maximising their own and, perhaps, their shareholders’ income. The prosperity and welfare of the community is of no genuine interest to them.

if we don’t work together to arrest the accelerating decline in manufacturing industry, a great many skilled and loyal people are going to suffer and a lot of small, good, hard-working businesses will go to the wall.

Leander is a minnow in this great pond but we have managed to treble the amount of work we pass on or sub-contract since Autumn 2008 and we will do everything we can to increase that steadily throughout 2009.

Quick summary of February developments

Plaques for Llanelli, Leeds, Westminster, Hawkhurst, Barnsley, St Neots, Weaverham and many more.

A massive stainless steel illuminated entrance feature for the National Space Centre, Leicester

Bronzes for Lloyds of London, the Korean War Veterans, the National Trust and elsewhere

Our first sizeable orders for Ireland - Co Cork and Co Limerick

The history of Brentwood, Essex in a series of six lectern panels - each with acres of text and dozens of images.

…………….and next week we install a new cast aluminium open market for Bedford Council.

Here we go again. Another year, another raft of plaques to make. Current ones commemorate Keith Moon (The Who), the Beatles, Peter Cook and John Bellingham from St Neots(who?) Mr Bellingham was a failed businessman but he achieved lasting  notoriety by assassinating the Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval, in 1812 because he blamed the government for his failure! Sounds like a potential quiz question for QI, but hopefully not an invitation to any 21st century failed businessmen!

New work includes a large pair of aluminium gates for a Georgian manor house. They’re aluminium because steel or wrought iron would be too heavy for the gate posts. The design evolved is decorative but not in the least Victorian!

Other interesting orders include a large relief map of a canal basin for British Waterways, featuring buildings and tramway tracks as well as the general topography.

There’s been a big upturn in work connected with the restoration of old village signposts. We have large projects on the go in Brecon, South Yorkshire and Hampshire at the moment.

The basic structure of Brighton Bandstand was re-erected on site 15/16 December - a month ahead of schedule. Videos are on YouTube and the BBC also filmed the work. There’s still much work for us to do making balustrades, gutters, other decorative sections and a bridge to the promenade.

Just a few photos to follow:

Bronze wine cellar gates

A Scottish king - but which one?

This month’s news starts with an apology. We keep forgetting to include on our web site the following important information and several of our regular customers keep reminding us!

ALL OF OUR ALUMINIUM AND BRONZE CASTINGS ARE MADE FROM 100% RECYCLED MATERIAL

Right, that’s that out of the way. On other fronts, we’ve been commissioned by Nuneaton & Bedworth council to replace all their existing fingerposts with new stainless columns and aluminium fingers. Stainless disc finials will carry the name of the street on which each fingerpost is located.

We’ve also been awarded two contracts to supply the signage for Stanley Park in Liverpool as part of a large HLF refurbishment adjacent to the new Liverpool FC stadium. We are to supply signposts, ‘Welcome’ signs, interpretation panels and ‘assistive way markers’ - bollards with tactile route information cast into the cap.

Our Tanat Foundry has completed two projects - the Brian Bailey sculpture for Coventry and a large compass for Crewe & Nantwich BC.

Patternmaking is now complete for the new Bedford Open Market project - a range of new covered market stalls designed and built by Leander. Here’s a snapshot of some of the rather elegant columns which we’ve started to cast.

Dedication to duty

As shown by our Julie and Anya in not the most comfortable of poses as they highlight casting details in colour. Only took two days……!

Architectural castings

We haven’t so far managed to upload details of the vast range of architectural patterns we have accumulated but the New Year will see the first group appearing….

Brighton Bandstand now in Buxton!

Despite the usual wet and windy weather, the famous 1884 bandstand on Brighton sea front was successfully dismantled and moved to our works about ten days ago. It looks a mess but it won’t do by the time we’ve finished with it! The roof design is unique and so different from the usual Victorian designs that I’m going to do a little article on it on this site sometime soon.

Paint analysis reveals 40 old coats of paint!

All the castings are big  - the columns are 1.25 tonnes apiece - and braced together so rigidly that they were immune to anything the last 120 years could throw at them, the odd hurricane included. The balustrades, gutters and ‘frilly bits’ are in a mess but the main components look good. More to follow…….

One coat of paint and much crisper castings.

The column capitals were made in eight sections and pinned on afterwards. The design is a curious mixture!

Casting without patterns!

Casting in metal can be tricky at the best of times but at least we usually have casting patterns to work from - basically wooden models of whatever we want to create. Over the last month, we’ve had to make a range of large architectural castings without any patterns at all! The projects involved replicating existing castings in a Burnley park and on the facade of an ASDA store in Co Durham, but the original suppliers and their patterns had long ago disappeared.

Using only cleaned-up old castings, we’ve managed to mould and cast new columns, spandrels, beams and pendant posts, a great credit to Steve Thorpe and his team in our aluminium foundry.

Pendant column and 3500mm crossbeam - cast without patterns

 Another steam locomotive takes shape

In a rather cluttered corner of our erecting shop, the once derelict and rusting hulk of a World War 1 trenches locomotive is now well on the way to full restoration. Built by Kerr Stuart in Stoke in 1917, it was sent to France and went to work in a quarry when the war was over. It then spent nearly fifty years doing absolutely nothing before being bought by a preservation group. A new boiler has been ordered and it is hoped to have the loco in regular use at the Moseley Railway Trust’s Apedale, Staffs HQ by late 2010.

Just the boiler, tanks, cab, fittings......to go!

A six-wheeled 2ft gauge loco weighing about 9 tonnes, No 3014 was built for the network of behind-the-lines railways ferrying ammunition, supplies and drinking water for the artillery and infantry in WW1

Despite the credit crunch and overall air of gloom, we’re keeping busy. Our friends in the street furniture trade tell us that trade for them is very patchy with less major projects under way. Our sculptor friends still have lots of work but new public commissions are not plentiful.

Here’s a little summary of our recent news:

For the first time in years, we’ve exhibited at shows - Arts Fairs in Buxton and Sheffield. We do this not with the intention of selling anything but to make contacts with artists in different media so that we can learn from other craftspeople and collaborate on projects in the future. The Sheffield Fair was under canvas during the now-traditional August Monsoon whereas Buxton was held in the magnificent Dome - one of the largest unsupported domes in Europe and the source of some incredible acoustics whereby people talking quietly a hundred feet away could be heard perfectly!

Two large architectural metalwork projects have just started (see separate stories for details). These are the creation of a new and decorative cast aluminium open market in Bedford and the complete refurbishment of the famous Brighton Bandstand, adjacent to the gaunt skeleton of the West Pier.

Our bronze foundry is set for a busy six months with a wide range of work - balustrades and grilles for a large house in Cheshire, an abstract sculpture for Coventry, large history panels for Burntisland in Fife and sculptural work for our friends and neighbours Castle Fine Arts.

Signs and plaques continue to provide our bread-and-butter. Recent projects include Welcome signs for Colne Valley in Lancs, new nameplates for locomotives on the Manx Electric Railway, and an attractive bronze for Marple in Cheshire.

As ever, one-off projects continue to materialise. We’re just finishing some brass church windows for a beautiful little church in Warwickshire ; a very early Baguley petrol locomotive is being stripped down for a rebuild ; and we’ve just completed some large ductile iron floor lettering for Silvertown in the East End.

And finally… we had a memory-jerking steam boat holiday in Scotland with Chris Topp of Chris Topp & Co, masters of real wrought iron and Dave Hodgson of Dorothea Restorations. We’ve been friends (and occasionally competitors) since school days - rather more years than we like to count!

Ted & Sue McAvoy, Leander Architectural