Colin Melbourne (1928 – 5 August 2009) was an English sculptor,

ceramicist Ceramic art is art made from ceramic materials, including clay. It may take forms including artistic pottery, including tableware, tiles, figurines and other sculpture. As one of the plastic arts, ceramic art is one of the visual arts. Whil ...

, painter and academic. He is known particularly for several statues that stand in various locations in

Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England, with an area of . In 2019, the city had an estimated population of 256,375. It is the largest settlement in Staffordshire and is surroun ...

Life

Melbourne was born in

Newcastle-under-Lyme Newcastle-under-Lyme ( RP: , ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. The 2011 census population of the town was 75,082, whilst the wider borough had a population of ...

in Staffordshire, After training as a modeller at

Burslem School of Art Burslem School of Art was an art school in the centre of the town of Burslem in the Potteries district of England. Students from the school played an important role in the local pottery industry. Pottery was made on the site of the school from th ...

, he was an assistant modeller at

Wedgwood Wedgwood is an English fine china, porcelain and luxury accessories manufacturer that was founded on 1 May 1759 by the potter and entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood and was first incorporated in 1895 as Josiah Wedgwood and Sons Ltd. It was rap ...

. He won a scholarship to the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It of ...

, which he attended from 1949 to 1951, and afterwards created designs for companies in the

Staffordshire Potteries The Staffordshire Potteries is the industrial area encompassing the six towns Burslem, Fenton, Hanley, Longton, Stoke and Tunstall, which is now the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. North Staffordshire became a centre of c ...

, including

Beswick Pottery John Beswick Ltd, formerly J. W. Beswick, was a pottery manufacturer, founded in 1894 by James Wright Beswick and his sons John and Gilbert in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent. In 1969, the business was sold to Doulton & Co. Ltd. The factory closed in 2 ...

and

Wade Ceramics Wade Ceramics Ltd is a manufacturer of porcelain and earthenware, headquartered in Stoke-on-Trent, England. Its products include animal figures for its Collectors Club, whisky flagons, and a variety of industrial ceramics. In the 1950s, the Wa ...

."Who was Colin Melbourne?"
''Potteries Auctions''. Retrieved 30 October 2023."Colin Melbourne"

Art UK Art UK is a cultural, education charity in the United Kingdom, previously known as the Public Catalogue Foundation. Since 2003, it has digitised more than 220,000 paintings by more than 40,000 artists and is now expanding the digital collection t ...

. Retrieved 30 October 2023.Obituary notice of Colin Melbourne
''Funeral notices'', 14 August 2009. Retrieved 30 October 2023. In the 1960s he began to teach at

Stoke-on-Trent College of Art The Stoke-on-Trent Regional College of Art was one of three colleges that were merged in 1971 to form North Staffordshire Polytechnic (later renamed as Staffordshire Polytechnic and now Staffordshire University). The College of Art achieved Regio ...

, which later merged with the

North Staffordshire Polytechnic , mottoeng = Dare to know , type = Public , endowment = £70 million (2015) , administrative_staff = 1,375 , chancellor = Francis Fitzherbert, 15th Baron Stafford , vice_chancellor = Professor Martin Jones , ...

, where he was the head of the Faculty of Art and Design. He was a member of the committee for art and design at the

Council for National Academic Awards The Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA) was the national degree-awarding authority in the United Kingdom from 1965 until its dissolution on 20 April 1993. Background The establishment followed the recommendation of the UK government Com ...

. He retired from the polytechnic in 1980. Melbourne was a founder of the Sir Henry Doulton School of Sculpture in Longton, and taught there after 1980. In later years he was much occupied in painting, and his paintings were exhibited in north Staffordshire. He died at his home in Clayton, Newcastle-under-Lyme in 2009. He was known to believe that art had a role to play in the lives of ordinary people, and that it could make a difference to society.

Statues

"The Steel Man" stands outside the

Potteries Museum & Art Gallery The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery is in Bethesda Street, Hanley, one of the six towns of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire. Admission is free. One of the four local authority museums in the city, the other three being Gladstone Pottery Museum ...

Hanley Hanley is one of the six towns that, along with Burslem, Longton, Fenton, Tunstall and Stoke-upon-Trent, amalgamated to form the City of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. Hanley is the ''de facto'' city centre, having long been th ...

. It was designed by Melbourne in 1974, and the stainless steel casting was by R. Goodwin and Sons. It was created to support the campaign to save

Shelton Bar Shelton Bar (Shelton Iron, Steel & Coal Company) was a major steelworks in the city of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. In its heyday, Shelton Bar employed 10,000 in the steelworks, had five coal mines, a complete railway system, and a ...

steelworks from closure, which eventually failed. Sir Henry Doulton statue in Burslem

Sir

Stanley Matthews Sir Stanley Matthews, CBE (1 February 1915 – 23 February 2000) was an English footballer who played as an outside right. Often regarded as one of the greatest players of the British game, he is the only player to have been knighted while st ...

. The bronze statue, in Parliament Row in the centre of Hanley, was the result of a chance meeting between Melbourne and the footballer. Stanley Matthews chose the pose for the statue, and specified that it would show the kit he wore for

Stoke City F.C. Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Sto ...

towards the end of his career in the 1960s. He unveiled the statue in 1987. The bronze statue of the canal engineer

James Brindley James Brindley (1716 – 27 September 1772) was an English engineer. He was born in Tunstead, Derbyshire, and lived much of his life in Leek, Staffordshire, becoming one of the most notable engineers of the 18th century. Early life Born ...

is situated in

Etruria Etruria () was a region of Central Italy, located in an area that covered part of what are now most of Tuscany, northern Lazio, and northern and western Umbria. Etruscan Etruria The ancient people of Etruria are identified as Etruscans. T ...

, by the

Etruria Industrial Museum The Etruria Industrial Museum is located in Etruria, Staffordshire, in England. The museum is a typical and well-preserved example of a nineteenth century British steam-powered potter's mill. It is situated between the Trent and Mersey Canal a ...

at the junction of the

Trent and Mersey Canal The Trent and Mersey Canal is a canal in Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Cheshire in north-central England. It is a "narrow canal" for the vast majority of its length, but at the extremities to the east of Burton upon Trent and north of Mid ...

and the

Caldon Canal Caldon Canal is a branch of the Trent and Mersey Canal which opened in 1779. It runs from Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent, to Froghall, Staffordshire. The canal has 17 locks and the Froghall Tunnel. History The first plans by the proprietors of the ...

. The Brindley Committee, established to raise funds for the statue, commissioned the work. It was unveiled in 1990 by

Lord Hesketh Baron Hesketh, of Hesketh in the County Palatine of Lancaster, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1935 for Sir Thomas Fermor-Hesketh, 8th Baronet, who had previously briefly represented Enfield in the House of Com ...

, under-secretary of State for the Environment. Sir

Henry Doulton Sir Henry Doulton (25 July 1820 – 18 November 1897) was an English businessman, inventor and manufacturer of pottery, instrumental in developing the firm of Royal Doulton. Life Born in Vauxhall, Henry was the second of the eight children of Jo ...

. The bronze statue stands in

Burslem Burslem ( ) is one of the six towns that along with Hanley, Tunstall, Fenton, Longton and Stoke-upon-Trent form part of the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. It is often referred to as the "mother town" of Stoke on Trent. ...

market place. It was commissioned by Burslem Urban District Council, and unveiled in 1991 by Stuart Lyons, chairman of

Royal Doulton Royal Doulton is an English ceramic and home accessories manufacturer that was founded in 1815. Operating originally in Vauxhall, London, and later moving to Lambeth, in 1882 it opened a factory in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, in the centre of En ...

. The bronze statue of

Reginald Mitchell Reginald Joseph Mitchell (20 May 189511 June 1937) was a British aircraft designer who worked for the Southampton aviation company Supermarine from 1916 until 1936. He is best remembered for designing racing seaplanes such as the Supermarine ...

, designer of the

Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allies of World War II, Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, from the Mk 1 ...

aircraft, stands in Broad Street, Hanley. It was commissioned by Stoke-on-Trent City Council, and was unveiled in 1995."Reginald Mitchell (1895–1937)"
Art UK. Retrieved 30 October 2023.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Melbourne, Colin 1928 births 2009 deaths People from Newcastle-under-Lyme Alumni of the Royal College of Art Academics of Staffordshire University English potters 20th-century English sculptors