John Cassidy - Sculptor

This site celebrates the life and work of sculptor John Cassidy (1860 - 1939).

This page is for news, comments from readers and other odds and ends that don't need their own page.

Bust of Sir Charles Hallé, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester.

News and comment: updated 4 August 2010

A recently-discovered work

This commemorative plaque for Martin Hawke, 1861-1928, signed on the back 'John Cassidy RBS 1929' was recently brought to our attention by the current owner.

The Carborundum company was formed in the USA in 1891 to manufacture indstrial abrasives. The company history relates:

Edward Acheson (1856-1931) born in Washington Pennsylvania, had been performing experiments using electricity in order to create artificial diamonds. Instead of diamonds, Acheson discovered a new type of crystal created as a by-product of his experiments. He quickly determined that the crystals were able to cut not only glass, but diamonds as well. The crystals also possessed excellent refractory properties. Acheson decided to commercialize the new product, adopting the name Carborundum because he mistakenly believed that the crystals were a combination of carbon and aluminum oxide, also known as corundum. The crystals were later revealed to be silicon carbide, and recognized as the world's first man-made mineral. Acheson set up his company in 1891 and began producing grinding wheels using the new substance.

Carborundum opened its British subsidiary in 1913, with Martin Hawke as Managing Director, and established a factory in the Trafford Park industial estate in Manchester.

Martin Hawke was actually born in 1862, in Cornwall, the son of an ore dresser in the tin mining industry. He married Bessie Hill, from Plymouth, and the couple emigrated to the United States in 1886 where he found a job with the Carborundum company and rose to a managerial position, becoming an American citizen. His sons Irving Joseph Hawke and Clarence Ewart Hawke also worked for the company. He returned to England to set up the Trafford Park factory, and made his home at 'Maynwood', Leicester Road, Hale, Cheshire, a wealthy suburb of Manchester. His name appears many times on the passenger lists of transatlantic liners, although he must not be confused with another Martin, later Lord, Hawke who was a famous cricketer of the day.

After several mergers and changes of ownership, the company changed its name in 1997 to Carbo PLC, and in 2004 the Manchester factory was closed down, and later demolished, production being transferred to Germany.

New feature - Catalogue of a Small Collection

Thanks to Nick Wall of the Slane Historical Society we have obtained a copy of a small booklet entitled 'Catalogue of a Small Collection of Sculpture', published by Cassidy. The 'small collection' comprised 100 works! It is undated, but appears to date from 1914. We have transcribed it, and the result appears as a feature.

'Adrift' plaque installed

The plaque above was fitted to the plinth of 'Adrift' in St Peters Square, Manchester on 30 November 2009. The picture was taken in bad weather and suffers from wide-angle lens distortion: a better picture will hopefully appear here soon. (Had we been given opportunity to look at the proposed text, we might have pointed out that Gresham's qualifications would have been better expressed as 'M.I.C.E, J.P.', or 'M.Inst.C.E., J.P.' as he was a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers.)

Damage to Cassidy statues

Public sculptures are prone to accidental and deliberate damage, and recent months have seen two incidences of this to Cassidy works in Greater Manchester.

Two more of the four portrait plaques have been stolen from the Lancashire Dialect Writers Memorial in Rochdale: one has been missing for some years. Local sculptor Tony Smart is planning to create replacement plaques, using pictures of the lost ones supplied by ourselves.

We also note that the top part of the Manchester Jubilee Fountain has been removed for repair, following damage by 'late-night revellers.' Let us hope it is back in place soon.

'The Glorious Dead'

The Glorious Dead, a new, and very exhaustive book on the figurative sculptures on British war memorials, written by Geoff Archer, was published in November 2009 by Frontier Publishing of Norfolk. Mr Archer is himself an artist as well as a historian: his website gives examples of his paintings. The book has developed from an interest in his local memorial, leading to travel over the UK visiting others.

Cassidy's large memorials are listed and illustrated, as well as those of many other sculptors of the time who created figures for memorials, mostly in the 1920s. The book has 416 pages, and 260 black-and-white pictures, nearly all taken by the author himself. The book costs £30.

Two pictures from the family archive

Here are two pictures kindly sent to us by Doug Cassidy, grandson of John Cassidy's brother Michael Cassidy who lived in New York City after leaving Ireland. On the back of this one - "The old home." Just beneath it gives the date as August 1920. We believe this shows the farmhouse (no longer in existence) in Littlewood, Slane which was the birthplace of John Cassidy and most of his brothers and sisters.

Doug writes: 'I think it was my grandfather's and on back it says "John Cassidy, the sculptor, 1863-1939 - as a young man. Lived in Manchester, England. Born in Slane, County Meath. Brother of Michael Cassidy." I have also learned from family documents that the father and mother of Patrick Cassidy (John's father) were Thomas Cassidy and Jane Keelan. Thomas Cassidy's father was Patrick Cassidy. The father and mother of John's mother Jane McGorisk Cassidy were George McGorisk and Jane McDonald.'

A 70th anniversary tribute

Notes and pictures by Charlie Hulme

Aware that the 70th anniversary of Cassidy's death was approaching, on 15 July I made a visit the man's grave, in Manchester Southern Cemetery, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, three miles south of the City Centre. The picture shows the main entrance on Barlow Moor Road.

Opened in 1879, the burial grounds and associated chapels cover a wide area - 168 acres (68 Hectares) according to one source - divided into sections according to religion: Cassidy lies in the Roman Catholic section (see out Last Days feature for details) where understandably there is a preponderance of Irish surnames, with some Polish ones, especially from more recent years. The upkeep of the place is a credit to Manchester City Council: it is a pleasure to walk through its wooded glades. Cassidy's simple headstone is shown above. Unfortunately, in recently years the authorities have ordered some of the stones to be laid down on the ground in case they fall on someone, but John's stone has happily not suffered in this way.

A walk to one of the flower shops in the nearby streets produced some flowers to brighten up the scene for the anniversary, and also something extra to hold them, as the cast-iron urn on the right is sadly rusted through. When I visited at 3pm, the sun was shining full on the stone.

A crcular area in the centre of the Cemetery has the memorials of some of the more 'notable' occupants: the impressive celtic cross above is for Sir John W. Alcock, pioneer transatlantic flyer and subject of a Cassidy memorial in the Town Hall - see our feature Down in Albert Square.

Fountain conservation completed

Manchester City council are doing a fine job conserving Cassidy's work in the City centre. Following the restoration of King Edward (below) and the re-appearance of 'Adrift' (see special page) work began in April 2009 on the Jubilee Fountain in Albert Square:

... and here it is completed in May 2009. (The aircraft is part of a Royal Air Force recruiting event.) Our special thanks are due to Mr Strittmatter, Programme Manager for Public Arts and War Memorials, for his enthusiastic support for John Cassidy's work.

'Adrift' in the news

We are no the only ones who have been photographing 'Adrift' - here are some fine views on Flickr by Joseph McCarraghy.

An item about the revival of the work appeared in the Manchester Evening News on 2 April, thanks to Tony Frankland, a volunteer at the Museum of Science and Industry, who has been 'quietly campaigning' for 'Adrift' to be re-instated and wrote to the M.E.N's postbag in February. Note, however, that the unveiling of the plaque on the sculpture will not take place in April as suggested by the article: it will be a little later this year.

Neither are we aware of the 'John Cassidy Appreciation Society' mentioned in the item. If anyone knows of such a body, please let us know.

Another, very interesting and accurate, article (by Jonathan Schofield) can be found on the Property Confidential website. Quote:

Is it any good do you think?
Yes, it shows Cassidy was a competent sculptor who could handle emotion. He’s not a Rodin (his contemporary) but he can still sculpt powerfully. The mother and baby are handled very well, the body and features of the mother tight with devotion, misery and worry for her child, despite her own tenuous hold on life. I’m not sure that the new siting is any good at all, the work is surrounded by street furniture and too close to the road and the buses. It could do with more room to breathe but then it is occupying the site of another sculpture. Perhaps it should be facing the Midland as well, rather than the 84 from Chorlton and the trams to Altrincham.

Well, yes, it does rather look as though the father is trying to flag down a passing bus...

Spruce-up for King Edward

This picture, taken by John Lynch on 27 February 2008, shows Cassidy's King Edward VII in Whitworth Park, Manchester shrouded in scaffolding and plastic sheets.

Planned conservation work includes cleaning, repatination, and, we are very pleased to hear, replacement of the King's lost sceptre and the cross from his orb. Expected date of completion is the end of April 2008.

Our King Edward VII page has been updated with new pictures, quotes and background information.

Cassidy and Hallé 150

The exhibition commemorating 150 years of the Hallé Orchestra, in the Local Studies Library of Manchester Central Library, St Peters Square in 2008 included, as well as various Hallé memorabilia and displays on the history of the orchestra, the small bronze by (approx. 70cm high) statue of the founder, Sir Joseph Hallé, which is normally kept in the Principal's Office of the Royal Northern College of Music.

This was, according to the caption, presented to the College of Music by Mrs Walter Beer. (Walter Beer (1874-1915) was an engineer with the firm of Maxwell and Tuke of Manchester.)

There is a bust of Hallé, also by Cassidy, on permanent display in the foyer of the nearby Bridgwater concert hall, the home of the Hallé Orchestra.