Thames Ditton Statues to the World
Earlier this year my wife and I were in Penang visiting her family and friends and escaping the worst of the English winter. During our stay we decided to explore historic Georgetown and in particular visit Fort Cornwallis which has been comprehensively rebuilt in its original form over the last few years. The site is where the early English colonialists - working for the East India Company - set up their outpost for what became the first of the Straits Settlements on the Malay peninsula. The Fort and its exhibits give a very good feel for the hardships which those early settlers must have experienced in far away lands, the tropical heat and humidity, the constant exposure to malarial mosquitoes (plus many other ailments and insects), extremely primitive living conditions and almost no communications with home. How things have improved in the last 250 years!
However what really intrigued me and
caught my eye was the imposing three
metre high statue of the founding father -
Sir Francis Light - at the main entrance to
the Fort and in particular the plaque which
advised that :
"the statue was first sculptured by F. J. Wilcoxsan and Thomas Ditton at Burton's Foundry"
The name Thomas Ditton had a familiar ring about it and after a couple of minutes deliberation I decided the inscription should have read :
"the statue was first sculpted by F. J. Willcocks and Son at Burton's Foundry, Thames Ditton"
It's wonderful how a bit of transformation can change meaning. It set me wondering just how far and wide the products of Burton's foundry had spread themselves around the globe during the days of Empire in the 19th and 20th centuries. The foundry was located on the south side of Summer Road next to Burton's Court - opposite Ferry Works. It was in operation from 1874 until the early 60's.
On my return to TD, I asked a few
questions and did some research and found
that Martin and Maureen Wilberforce had
discovered Thames Ditton statues in
Australia and New Zealand this spring.
"The Statue Foundry" began as Cox and
Sons (becoming Burton's at the turn of the
19th century) and its rapid rise to fame
came from its ability to reliably turn out
huge castings from models by leading
sculptors of the Victorian era. A very early
work was the statue of Robert Burns in
Glasgow, but size and complexity were
achieved almost at once with a statue of
Captain James Cook, 16 feet high and 6
tons in weight, which was unveiled at Hyde
Park, Sydney, in 1879 . The Duke of
Wellington and General Gordon were revealed in London before long.
Queen Victoria was, of course, a popular
subject. By a lucky chance she was the
Lady of the Manor of Esher! Her statue in
Auckland, New Zealand is but one
example. Other well-known statues coming
from Thames Ditton included "Physical
Energy", (Hyde Park, London), and
"Persimmon", the horse that won the 1896
Derby (Sandringham).
The masterpiece was the largest sculpture casting ever done in this country, the "Peace Quadriga", sculptor Adrian Jones, 32 feet high and 38 tons in weight. It took 31/2 years to cast, and went to the arch at Hyde Park Corner in 1912.
Around the world the magnificent statue of Raffles in Singapore and that of Lord Mayo in Calcutta greatly contributed to the Orient and additionally a significant number found their way to Australia, New Zealand and Canada. I particularly enjoyed the emerging co-incidences behind the statue of Queen Victoria in Adelaide. In the 1830s when the Colonial powers decided they should have a portrait of Francis Light to hang on the walls of the Governor's residence in Penang they found that no likenesses of him had been made during his lifetime. They concluded that his son should bear a strong family resemblance, so an artist was dispatched to Australia to paint the great man's son. By then Colonel William Light had been quite successful himself, having been appointed Surveyor General of South Australia and almost single handedly laid out and designed the city of Adelaide. Many years later that portrait was used as the basis for the Penang statue which was cast in Thames Ditton.
The South Australians retained their Englishness and in the late 19th century commissioned Burton's Foundry to cast a statue of Queen Victoria for their city - this has stood the test of time although their modern day web designers have also mangled their historical references to our favourite village: "It was cast in England at the Thames and Dutton foundry from a model by Charles Bell Birch."!!
However William Light's city designs flourished and they so inspired Ebenezer Howard with the English Garden City movement that they transported his ideas back to England in the late 19th century and built Letchworth in Adelaide's likeness. I spent my whole career with ICL whose administrative and manufacturing operations were centred on Letchworth and some time later retirement allowed me to start discovering the wonders and history of Thames Ditton. I now know Celestion Ditton speakers were not the only historic things to have been made at the east end of Summer Road, and that well designed streets weren't just a matter of luck and Elmbridge town planning!
Councillor David Lowe