Skip to main content

The 'Mexico Monument' and Public Sculpture in the North West

 A piece of writing I completed for my PhD before Christmas looked at the work of the Sculptor William Birnie Rhind. In the process of researching and writing this  I found it very interesting to consider the  Mexico Monument in relation to public monuments  in other towns and cities in the closer vicinity and across Lancashire in 1888.

An Edwardian Postcard of the Mexico Monument

As you might expect, the major cities of Manchester and Liverpool had several public statues by the early nineteenth century and, when the Mexico Monument was unveiled, Manchester had prominently placed monuments to Robert Peel, John Dalton, the Duke of Wellington, James Watt, Prince Albert, Richard Cobden, Oliver Cromwell and James Fraser, Bishop of Manchester. Similarly, Liverpool contained monuments to Nelson, Wellington, George III, Prince Albert and Queen Victoria.

Nelson Monument, Liverpool
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nelson_Monument,_Liverpool_6.jpg 

 The only monument the neighbouring town of Lytham had at this point was a memorial drinking fountain erected in the marketplace to the late lord of the manor, John Talbot Clifton and there were no similar figurative public monuments in Blackpool, Fleetwood or even Lancaster. Looking at  major industrial towns Preston had monuments to the Earl of Derby in Miller Park (1873) and one of Robert Peel on Winckley Square (1852). Blackburn only contained an allegorical statue of Flora outside Corporation Park (1871) and another to the former headmaster of Queen Elizabeth's school, Thomas Atkinson, outside the school (1855). In 1888 St Anne’s was a very small development with the population in an 1885 trade directory being given as only around 1,300. For this small, emerging town to have such a large and well-crafted monument was making  quite a statement.  In this context, the erection of the Mexico Monument can be seen as an attempt to establish the town as a place of importance alongside the larger industrial towns of the county.  St Anne’s was, in effect, joining the Victorian boom in monument building and putting itself on a par with, and in some cases, surpassing its larger near neighbours.


The Clifton Memorial Fountain, Lytham.
Now at Station Square/Ballam Road

It is also conspicuous that these figurative monuments in other local towns and cities are, without exception, related to and usually representations of, notable figures from royalty, the nobility, the navy or military, politics, science, industry, or local worthies. By comparison, the St Anne's monument is of a lifeboatman and representative of the local fishing community rather than a national hero or one of the elites of the town and general locality. The inspiration for a figurative representation of a working lifeboatman rather than an abstract or symbolic form came from William Birnie Rhind himself.  Such a representation of a ordinary man was highly unusual for the time and possibly unparalleled in civic sculpture. There is no direct evidence in any primary sources to show what his thought processes may have been in terms of subject matter, however, representations of orninary people were not uncommon in painting and other artistic fields. The most impactful of these is, perhaps Ford Madox Brown’s painting Work which hangs in the Manchester Art Gallery. There is more than a passing similarity between the muscular labourers in the centre of this piece and Rhind’s stalwart, gallant lifeboatman on St Anne's promenade.


Work, Ford Madox Brown.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_(painting)#/media/File:Ford_Madox_Brown_-_Work_-_artchive.com.jpg



Sources

David A. Cross, Public Sculpture of Lancashire and Cumbria, Public Sculpture of Britain, 19 (Liverpool: University Press, 2017).

General and Commercial Directory of Preston, Blackpool, Fleetwood, Lytham, St. Anne's, Poulton-Le-Fylde, Garstang, Longridge, Walton-Le-Dale, Leyland, Croston, and Adjacent Villages and Townships (Preston: Barrett, 1885).

 'List of Public Art in Greater Manchester', Wikipedia,  <https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_public_art_in_Greater_Manchester&oldid=984838095>

'List of Public Art in Liverpool', 'Wikipedia',  <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_public_art_in_Liverpool



Andrew Walmsley, May 2021

https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/people-profiles/andrew-walmsley 



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Story of the 'Mexico' Disaster

In terms of loss of life, the Mexico Disaster, as it has become known, is still the most significant lifeboat disaster in the United Kingdom. The events of the night of 9 December 1886 in the Ribble estuary have been well documented, particularly in books and pamphlets by Frank Kilroy, Gilbert and John Mayes,  David Forshaw and J Allen Miller /Andrew Farthing. Anyone wanting full accounts of the events should consult these works (see 'Sources' below) but here are the essential details. A few days before the Mexico disaster the lifeboats Laura Janet and Charles Biggs (from Lytham) had gone out to rescue the crew of a coast steamer, the Yan Yean , which had attempted to anchor in the Ribble estuary in adverse weather conditions but ended up on a sandbank and taking in water. The crew took to the rigging, only being rescued at the last moment. This was the first successful rescue by the St Anne's lifeboat station. The storm that had wrecked the Yan Yean worsened and on ...
1 comment
Read more

Working Class Heroes?

'Life Boat Monument, St Anne's on Sea', Wyndham Series Postcard, 1902 One thing that continues to fascinate me about William Birnie Rhind's Mexico Monument is the depiction of an ordinary man as the focal point of a piece of civic sculpture. In present times, with a now established interest in local history and 'history from below', we are much more used to seeing working-class heritage and the lives of ordinary people celebrated in sculpture.* For example, we have a recently unveiled monument to Wigan miner s or, closer to home,  The Shrimper  in Lowther Gardens in Lytham. Miners' Monument (2021), Steve Winterburn, Wigan However, when the  Mexico  Monument was unveiled in May 1886 it would have been highly unusual to see an ordinary man, or for that matter, even an ordinary seaman or soldier, as the focal point of a piece of statuary in Great Britain. One of the few examples might be considered to be Rhind's memorial to the Black Watch, unveiled in 18...
2 comments
Read more

The 'Mexico' Disaster and the Poetry of Commemoration

The Mexico monument at St Anne’s was, and is, a focal point for collective mourning and a means of continuous celebration of the heroism of the lifeboatmen lost in the disaster of 1886. Although the monument formalized these processes they really began very soon after the disaster happened as emotive depictions of  the event and its aftermath appeared across various print media. It is a common conception that as a nation (and I speak here perhaps more of England than Britain collectively) we have latterly become far more likely to express emotion both as individuals and collectively. Critics of this perceived trend suggest that we have become emotionally incontinent, less inclined to traditional English stoicism and reserve. However, a quick study of newspapers relating to national events over the preceding 150 years shows that the desire to express emotion collectively over a national event has been with us for a long time The mourning and commemoration surrounding the Mexico ...
Post a Comment
Read more