Brotherton Memorial, Salford Cemetery
- Sculpture : T R Williams
THE BROTHERTON MEMORIAL COMPETITION - Sixty-nine competitors have submitted designs (several of them more than one) in reply to the committee's advertisement and these are now open to the public (till July 18) in the Peel-park Museum at Salford. The monument is to cost 500 guineas. The committee have printed as a pamphlet the descriptions accompanying the designs which serve as a catalogue and make the exhibition one of greater interest. Up to this time the course pursued by the committee appears to have been praiseworthy in the extreme. The majority of the designs are Gothic in style and many of them very indifferent. [Builder 18 July 1857 Page 406]
THE BROTHERTON MEMORIAL - For this memorial, which it is proposed shall be erected in the Salford Borough Cemetery, there has been a competition of models and designs and we learn that at a special meeting of the Committee held on Friday the 21st ult. the drawing No.1, motto "Hyperion" (author T Holmes, architect, Manchester*) was selected, provided it can be erected complete in a satisfactory manner for the sum specified in the conditions. The prize of 20 guineas was awarded to the model No. 65, motto "Beta" (Author M Noble, sculptor, London). Special commendation was expressed in favour of the following viz:- Model No. 17, motto "His were deeds not words," drawing No. 41, motto "For men to seek their own glory is not glory," drawing No. 51, motto "Nemo" and model no 60, motto "C". (Manchester Guardian). [Builder 5 September 1857 Page 519]
* We are asked to say that this should stand as by Messrs Holmes & Walker. ED
THE BROTHERTON MEMORIAL - For this memorial, which it is proposed shall be erected in the Salford Borough Cemetery, there has been a competition of models and designs and we learn that at a special meeting of the Committee held on Friday the 21st ult. the drawing No.1, motto "Hyperion" (author T Holmes, architect, Manchester*) was selected, provided it can be erected complete in a satisfactory manner for the sum specified in the conditions. The prize of 20 guineas was awarded to the model No. 65, motto "Beta" (Author M Noble, sculptor, London). Special commendation was expressed in favour of the following viz:- Model No. 17, motto "His were deeds not words," drawing No. 41, motto "For men to seek their own glory is not glory," drawing No. 51, motto "Nemo" and model no 60, motto "C". (Manchester Guardian)
THE PROPOSED BROTHERTON MEMORIAL, SALFORD - Our readers have been informed of the various steps which preceded the selection of the design for a memorial to the late Mr. Brotherton. Mr. Brotherton represented Salford in parliament twenty-four years, and during the whole of that time all his election expenses were defrayed by his friends and constituents. Two full-length portraits of Mr. Brotherton were obtained in his life-time —one by Bradley, of Manchester, and the other by Westcott, of Liverpool, and presented to the corporation of Salford, and deposited respectively in the Town-hall and the Salford Royal Free Museum and Library in Peel-park.
The subscriptions received since his death, in January last, for a memorial to his memory, already exceed £2,500. Of this sum 1,000 guineas have been appropriated to a statue in bronze, by Mr. Noble, of London, to be erected in Peel-park, and 500 guineas have been set apart for a monument over his grave in the Salford new cemetery. The remainder £1,000 or upwards, is intended to be invested, and the interest annually appropriated, for the purchase of books, to be presented to the Salford Free Library, and other kindred institutions, “in order,” say the committee, “that his memory may be perpetuated, and his excellent example constantly brought to our remembrance, and that of our children and descendants, by testimony as decided and enduring as the love, esteem, and regard of a grateful constituency, and of devoted and attached friends, can devise.”
Annexed we give a view of the proposed memorial and a plan. Over the arch covering the present tomb which is cut out of the rock, and covered by an equilateral brick arch, it is intended to throw another, in four half-brick rims, abutting on skew backs, cut out of the solid rock, with the spandrils filled up to the ground line with brickwork, the whole of which, with the arch itself, will be set and fully flushed in with cement, to form a level platform, for the monument above. The vault being much longer than the base of the monument, it is proposed to leave an entrance at one end, easily communicated with by the removal of the stone slab with which it is intended to cover it. The whole of the monument was to have been erected in Halifax stone, hut it has been suggested to adopt the magnesian limestone, from the Mansfield Woodhouse quarry, near Mansfield, of a similar kind to that used for the Martyrs’ memorial at Oxford. The matter is now under consideration.
The design consists of an octagonal base, with angle buttresses, on a stepped and weathered foundation. Between each buttress is an arcade, consisting of five niches and figures. On the first stage of the monument is introduced a draperied urn, under an open groined canopy, supported by pillars, and ecclesiastical figures. The base or foundation for the pedestals on which they stand is to be formed out of one stone, as also is the arched and groined roof over the figures, by the adoption of which arrangement the requirement of metal cramps is to be avoided, and the tie or binding of the whole made complete.
The spire above is hollow, with a solid top stone, which will reach about one-third of the distance between the finial of the vane and the top of the binding stone over the figures last named. The vane is of gilded and incised metal, and the spindle or rod is brought down through the spire to the underside of the groining of the roof, and there secured by a nut and screw, which will he so arranged as to be hidden by the foliage of the centre boss, at the intersections of the moulded ribs of the roof. The whole of the stones in the monument are to be dovetail keyed, and dowelled together with slate.
The setting of the whole work (except where before mentioned) is proposed to be in ground blue lias lime and sand, composed of pounded stone, as used for the monument.
The mason’s work is to be tooled: not the usual striped work bearing that name, but what is designated down in that part of the country as boasted work. The illuminated shields around the base of the spire are intended to contain the arms of Manchester^ Salford, and the adjacent important towns, immediately connected with them. The lower shields on the base over the niches are to be illuminated, as to be determined by the committee, and the space under the niches, and between them and the top of the weathered base, to contain the inscriptions, the divisions for which on the four sides will be as under: — 1st. His character, as a master and merchant. 2nd. His character as a relative and friend. 3rd. His character as a veteran, for the principles he advocated in parliament during his long representation of the borough of Salford. 4th. The tribute offered to his memory by those whose munificence has caused the erection of the monument.
The whole of the stones in the base of the monument are intended to be the entire thickness of the walls. The work has been undertaken by Mr. Thomas Richard Williams of Lombard-street, Manchester, at the outlay named in the printed instructions, viz. five hundred guineas. It is expected that the monument will be completed by the month of August, next year. The architects are Messrs. Holmes and Walker, of Manchester, who obtained the first prize, and have been commissioned to carry out the works. [Builder 7 November 1857 page 642 645]
MANCHESTER – “The Brotherton "Memorial," at the New Cemetery, Eccles New-road, is almost completed. The result is the manipulation of its various sculptured details being highly successful; yet, we must confess our belief that the absence of the still-continued accompaniments of mural monuments—the Pagan urn and cloth—although in this case admirably treated in the urn itself, would have been attended with greater success, and, to say the least, would be more becoming to the memory of the man to whom this erection is dedicated. Adjacent to this monument are also to be found three memorials, the only ones of any note at present erected, but still disfigured by the introduction of the above relics of bygone times. The symbolical figures at the angles of the coupled shafts supporting the canopy, have been arran and executed with a good conception, and are free from the defects the original drawing displayed, and upon which we remarked during the time it was exhibited. This most artistic memorial has been ' by the sculptor, Mr. T. R. Williams, from the designs of the architect, Mr. T. Holmes. [The Building News.14 January 1859 page 36]
Reference Builder 18 July 1857 page 406
Reference Builder 5 September 1857 page 519
Reference Builder 7 November 1857 page 642-5
Reference The Building News 14 January 1859 page 36
