The Thames Ditton Foundry was a foundry in Thames Ditton, Surrey, which operated from 1874 to 1939 and which under various owners produced numerous major statues and monuments as one of the United Kingdom's leading firms of bronze founders.[1]
Owners
Located in Summer Road in Thames Ditton, just outside the Greater London area, the Thames Ditton Foundry is believed to have been built on the site of an historic "melting house" beside the River Thames. Its owners were: Cox & Sons (1874–80), Drew & Co. (1880–82), Moore & Co. (1882–97), Hollinshead & Burton (1897–1902) and A. B. Burton (1902–39).[1]
The foundry was established in Summer Road, Thames Ditton, in 1874 by Cox & Sons, a large firm of ecclesiastical furnishing suppliers, to cast ornaments and statues in bronze. A hand-operated gantry crane, which moved the entire foundry floor to facilitate all major lifting work, was an integral part of the building constructed for this work. When the factory was demolished in 1976 this crane was preserved by the Surrey Archaeological Society.
The funerary figure cast by Thames Ditton Foundry on the grave of A. B. Burton and his family in Bonner Hill Cemetery
From 1902 to 1933 the Thames Ditton Foundry came under the sole ownership of Arthur Bryan Burton (1860 – 25 July 1933), the son of Eliza and Frederick Burton, a carpenter and joiner. Born in Surbiton, Burton was apprenticed at the age of 16 to the bronze foundry of Cox & Sons in Thames Ditton.[2] Burton later opened his own foundry in Southsea Road, Kingston, before buying into the Thames Ditton Foundry in 1897, becoming the co-owner with Arthur John Hollinshead. In 1887 he married Florence Louisa Moore (1859–1932), the daughter of the foundry’s then owner, James John Moore. Button's daughter, also named Florence, married Louis Richard Tricker (1884–1963) in 1913. A younger daughter, Dorothy "Dolly" Frances Victoria Burton (1893–1908) died aged 14.[3][4]
Following the death of his partner Arthur John Hollinshead in 1902, Burton became the sole owner of the Thames Ditton Foundry. He served as a councillor on Surbiton Council and was a deacon of Surbiton Park Congregational Church, a Sunday school teacher and a benefactor of the Scout Movement. He was a Special Constable during World War I.[3][4][5][6] On his death in 1933 Burton was buried with his daughter Dolly and his wife Florence in Bonner Hill Cemetery. Above their grave, atop a granite plinth, is a statue in bronze of a winged angel with arms outstretched reaching up. This had been cast in Burton's own foundry.[7]
After Burton's death the business was continued under his name by his son-in-law, Louis Tricker. In 1939 at the start of World War II Tricker closed the foundry and sold the premises rather than see it used for manufacturing munitions. It was after used by London Metal Warehouses for making industrial castings and then by Metal Centres Ltd as a metal warehouse until 1971/2 when it was sold to the District Council. The foundry was demolished in 1976 and the crane removed for preservation by the Surrey Archaeological Society. Today Burton Court stands on the site.[3][4][8]
^'Arthur Bryan Burton', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851–1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 accessed 21 Nov 2016
^Duncan S. James, The Statue Foundry at Thames Ditton, Foundry Trade Journal, vol. 133, no. 2909, 7 September 1972
^A.B. Burton', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851–1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 accessed 21 Nov 2016
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