News

Weather and War Memorials

As I write, the first sleet of the year is falling. Our works is at the 1100ft contour which guarantees us more than our fair ration of sleet and snow.

The effects of the recession and local government cutbacks are very difficult to assess for a small diverse business like ours. We are managing to keep busy but some projects in the pipeline have been cancelled whilst others seem unaffected.

We are in the last week of this year’s ‘War Memorial Season’ - making, altering and repairing memorials in time for Remembrance Sunday. Despite funding cutbacks, we’ve had more memorial work than ever and, even though today is the 8th November, we still have three more bronze memorials to finish and deliver to Cardiff Station for Network Rail before the 11th.

The Women’s Auxiliary Air Force memorial we created was erected at the National Arboretum last week. It’s an unusual mixture of slate, bronze and laser-cut stainless steel as the photo shows.

Arches and Canopies

Work is under way on a street archway for Bedford (see photo), spanning an alleyway off one of the main streets. Drawings have also been approved for a large traditional cast-metal-and-glass canopy in Cheshire which will be erected just after Christmas. As ever, one or two schemes for new bandstands are floating around but we never count our ‘bandstand chickens’ until they’ve hatched!

Architectural castings

We are almost ready to launch part of our range of architectural castings. Over the years, we have amassed very many casting patterns for columns, spandrel brackets, friezes and finials and it’s high time that they were made available to the market as individual castings, rather than only as components of larger structures.

Look out for the first data sheets and drawings in the New Year!!!

Actually very late news as updates since the beginning of the year are singularly lacking! Not that we’ve been idle, though………..

McFarlane Fountain, Darwen, Lancs

Restoration of this eight-column cast iron drinking fountain was completed recently and the fountain installed on its original site. Photos will follow and may surprise people as this fountain is entirely WHITE! The local Friends Group decided that, as it was white when unrestored, it should stay white.

A lot of components were missing - all the grinning cast iron gryphons, parts of the cast dome roof, the fountain head and sculpted heron for example. all these have been recast and all the original parts blast-cleaned, revealing some lovely casting detail, buried by the umpteen layers of paint applied over the last century and more.

War Memorials

We’ve always been involved with war memorials - recasting sections, adding names and creating new bronze panels and tablets. This year has seen a big upturn in our memorial orders, including some large projects:

‘Cockleshell Heroes’

Older readers may remember the 1955 film, based on the exploits of Royal Marine Commandos in small canoes launched from submarines to attack German ships in Bordeaux.

The Royal Marines have decided that a a memorial to the Commandos is long overdue and we have been commissioned to create a series of bronzes. These include RN and RM insignia, text panels and a mural, based on a painting by John Lawrence which will be copied in 3D by our modellers.

North Eastern Railway WW1 Memorial, York

This fine Portland stone memorial close by the original York railway station is suffering because the names of the 2,236 NER employees who perished in the Great War are becoming indecipherable. We have been commissioned to transcribe and cross check all the names, and then produce a series of large bronze panels to preserve the names for perpetuity. There are 3 surviving lists of names and many differences between the lists, making the paperwork side of this project very complex.

On the subject of memorials, our friends at the Western Front Association sent us this photograph of a memorial tablet we made for the site, at Contalmaison in France, where the 12th Battalion Manchesters first ‘went over the top’.

The 12th Manchesters Memorial at Contalmaison

 Signs and plaques

Nice layout on this plaque

Demand for plaques has been exceptional lately with the usual diverse range of ‘plaquees’ ranging from Learie Constantine to the world’s oldest railway station (Manchester), from a Senegalese coal merchant to a helicopter museum. In September, Pope Benedict XVI will unveil one of our plaques in Birmingham.

A recent commission covers four very large ‘plaques’ in the surreal form of steam locomotive wheels with inscriptions round the rim to commemorate railway pioneers.

After a quiet spring, sign orders have also stepped up. We’re just finishing a large order for Fethard in Co Tipperary and two quite beautiful monolith history panels for Carluke in Scotland.

Architectural metalwork

It looks as though we’ll be busy on the metalwork front until at least February 2011. More on this later but here’s a photo of some very unusual post tops for the Free Form Arts Trust in E. London. These were cast from carved foam originals created by sculptor Tim Shutter and were cast by the ‘lost-polystyrene’ process whereby the original remains in the mould and is vaporised when the metal is poured. There is a fairly obvious potential hitch if the process goes wrong………but it didn’t!

Work is about to start on a large traditional cast metal and glass canopy for a new development in Chester.

We’ve added some new architectural component patterns to our range, including two structural (and decorative) columns and several spandrel brackets. Drawings will be posted shortly.

Human sundial!

We have been jointly commissioned, with artist/ceramicist Caroline Chouler to create a human sundial for a community arts trust. This type of sundial uses you (the human) as a gnomon to cast a shadow. The human stands on the appropriate month square and his/her shadow falls onto an hour disk. There are 28 hour disks - work that one out if you can!

The disks and month squares will have cast aluminium frames, into which Caroline will inlay mosaics.

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.

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….

Erecting these two storey balconies in West London was complicated by the sunken garden in front and an access gateway too narrow for a crane. The problem was solved with a specialist articulated Hiab vehicle and a lot of hard work! The balconies were designed and made by Leander for the Cast Iron Company, and installed on the 25th June 2008.