PAUL ATTERBURY

Michael Sandle’s sculpture Project For Weymouth

For a town of its size and history, Weymouth is significantly short of public sculpture. A splendid George III, in brightly painted Coade Stone and erected in 1809, looks towards his grand-daughter Queen Victoria at the far eastern end of the Esplanade, a fine bronze of 1902. There is little else in the town centre, apart from the scattering of minor war memorials of various dedications along the Esplanade. However, Weymouth, unlike most towns and villages in Britain, does not have a proper memorial to commemorate the town’s dead in the various wars and conflicts of the 20th century.

At last, this may be about to change. Michael Sandle, Britain’s leading memorial sculptor, was born in Weymouth in 1936. a major commission for a memorial for Weymouth will both celebrate his connection with the town and remember Weymouth’s contribution to both World Wars. Sandle has a dramatic and highly individual style that brings together the figurative and the abstract in a particularly powerful way that crosses conventional artistic boundaries. His best known works include the Malta Siege Memorial in Valetta, St George and the Dragon and the Seafarers’ Memorial, both in London and the Lifeboatmen Memorial in Douglas, Isle of Man.

Trained originally as a painter and printmaker, Sandle turned to sculpture in the 1960s and since then his work has been widely exhibited in many countries. The setting for Sandle’s new bronze sculpture will be the famous Masonic Hall, whose strong classicism has been an architectural feature of Weymouth since 1834. This familiar town landmark has always been incomplete, for the original plans included sculptural decoration in the pediment and figures in the niches. Taking the theme of Faith, Hope and Charity, Sandle has designed a large pediment panel and two figures for the niches that document in a dramatic way the town’s Masonic traditions, the long association with the sea and the major events of the two world wars. The sculpture will completing the Hall’s original concept and at the same time bring it into the 21st century and give it a new accessibility and relevance.

There is a long way to go, through the processes of planning and fund raising, but Michael Sandle’s sculpture will add immeasurably to Weymouth’s history, and give the town a work of international artistic importance.

Paul Atterbury.