Family Group

John Whiskerd, who made the statue, writes:-

The sculpture was commissioned from by Gloucester City Council in 1959. Fountain Square development in Westgate Street (Architect - Tony Ault, at that time working for the City's Architects Department) had been completed and it may have been Tony who encouraged the council to site a sculpture adjacent to St Nicholas Church. I was teaching at Gloucester Art School and was asked to submit proposals.The City Council viewed macquettes, approved one and offered £400 to complete the work.The sculpture was made at The Redlands, Minsterworth in a disused cowshed. It was constructed in clay on a welded metal armature and hollow cast in sections in ciment fondu. It was erected in 1961, causing a considerable amount of comment in the local press. On two occasions it was vandalised. The head of the female figure was removed. Found by the police, I reclaimed it from their lost property section, and eventually replaced it on the figure. The next destructive incident caused the child of the group to be separated. This damage proved to be too difficult to repair. The Group was dismantled, probably about 1980. (There are now four metal shapes in the concrete base where the sculpture stood!).

It was taken to the City's Highways Department and used as hard-core. I was unhappy about that. In my view the sculpture had qualities of form and composition of some merit, although, of course I was very aware of its shortcomings. Degas once responded to a question as to how his recent portrait commission was going by commenting "I am moderately pleased with the shirt front." That's how it usually is.

Cedric Titcombe, who was John Whiskerd's student at Gloucester Art College at the time, did this drawing of the clay stage during construction in 1960.