Rook Lane Arts trust is seeking volunteers for its new project, which will celebrate the life and work of John Webb Singer, one of Frome’s most prominent historical figures.
“Casting the World” is a new, Heritage Lottery-funded project which will see a series of activities, incorporating exhibitions, events and a publication throughout 2019, that will explore the life and work of John Webb Singer, who was born in Frome on February 23rd 1819.
Rook Lane Arts Trust is partnering with Frome Museum to launch “Casting The World” on Saturday 23rd February, which marks the bicentenary of Singer’s birth. They would like to invite anyone who wants to know more about volunteering over the course of the project, to the launch on 23rd February, which will be an opportunity to meet the team and find out more about what’s in store.
Project curator Sue Bucklow, who has been researching the Singer archive since 1998, says she is also keen to hear from anyone who has a personal connection to the Singer Foundry.
She says, “Although the fine art metal work production moved from Frome in 1927, Singer’s continued to operate in the town centre until 1999 and still has a site on the trading estate as Johnson Controls. The foundry’s impact on Frome is still remembered by residents and we would love to hear from anyone who has relatives who may have worked there or had a connection to the Singer family, the foundry or its work.”
John Webb Singer, who would go on to become a pioneering example of Victorian industry and enterprise, was born on 23 February 1819 in The Butts area of Frome. His father died when he was three years old, leaving his mother to provide for five children. After a charitable education at the Blue House School, he was apprenticed to a watchmaker on Cheap Street for five years. With no financial backing, but a keen eye for what was happening around him and what people were interested in, he left to open his own jewellery shop at 25 Market Place.
An interest in casting that he had nurtured since childhood led Singer to jump at the chance to try his hand at casting candlesticks for a local church and, when successful, he never looked back. Founded in1848 from the humble beginnings of a small forge on Eagle Lane and a workshop above his shop which employed just eight men and six boys, the J.W. Singer & Sons foundry at Waterloo grew to employ at its height a skilled workforce of 700.
Singer shaped, embellished and enriched Frome through his development of the foundry and also through his lifelong work with St. John’s Church, the founding of an art school on Park Road, his support of the Blue Coat School Charity that provided his own education, and in helping to establish the Scientific and Literary Institute. It is a legacy that lives on today in Frome and beyond, with the many iconic statues, monuments and civic works that adorn public and civic sites across the country and around the world.
“Casting the World: The Story of J.W. Singer & Sons, Frome” celebrates and explores the life of J.W. Singer and the iconic sculptures, statues and civic works cast in Frome, through a year of exhibitions, events and education programme.
The project launches on Saturday 23rd February at Frome Museum, with curator Sue Bucklow leading the newly commissioned Frome Town Council Singer’s Trail – a walk that takes in sites around Frome associated with John Webb Singer – at 2pm. From 3pm, visitors will be able to take a first look at Frome Museum’s new display of artefacts and memorabilia belonging to J.W. Singer and his family, followed by speeches, refreshments and a birthday cake.
To keep up to date with the project, find out what’s on, or if you’d like to be involved visit www.rooklane arts.org.uk or follow Rook Lane Arts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
