Upcoming Events

April 2024

Thursday 11/04

19:30 – 21:30
CovSoc AGM

Monday 15/04

19:00 – 21:00
Coventry Society Committee Meeting
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May 2024

Thursday 09/05

19:30 – 21:30
CovSoc Meeting
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Monday 20/05

19:00 – 21:00
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June 2024

Friday 14/06

All Day
CovSoc Visit to Pershore

Saturday 15/06

All Day
Civic Day

Monday 17/06

19:00 – 21:00
Coventry Society Committee Meeting
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July 2024

Monday 15/07

19:00 – 21:00
Coventry Society Committee Meeting
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Thursday 18/07

14:00 – 16:00
CovSoc Visit to Maxstoke Castle tbc

August 2024

Thursday 08/08

14:00 – 16:00
CovSoc Visit to Sherbourne Valley Project

Monday 19/08

19:00 – 21:00
Coventry Society Committee Meeting
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September 2024

Wednesday 18/09

19:30 – 21:30
CovSoc Meeting

Monday 23/09

19:00 – 21:00
Coventry Society Committee Meeting

October 2024

Wednesday 09/10

19:30 – 21:30
CovSoc Meeting
Recurs monthly

Monday 14/10

19:00 – 21:00
Coventry Society Committee Meeting

Saturday 19/10

All Day
Heritage Conference

November 2024

Wednesday 06/11Friday 08/11

Feister gathering

Wednesday 13/11

19:30 – 21:30
CovSoc Meeting
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Monday 18/11

19:00 – 21:00
Coventry Society Committee Meeting
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December 2024

Wednesday 11/12

19:30 – 21:30
CovSoc Meeting
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Monday 16/12

19:00 – 21:00
Coventry Society Committee Meeting
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January 2025

Wednesday 08/01

19:30 – 21:30
CovSoc Meeting
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Monday 20/01

19:00 – 21:00
Coventry Society Committee Meeting
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February 2025

Wednesday 12/02

19:30 – 21:30
CovSoc Meeting
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Monday 17/02

19:00 – 21:00
Coventry Society Committee Meeting
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March 2025

Wednesday 12/03

19:30 – 21:30
CovSoc Meeting
Recurs monthly

Monday 17/03

19:00 – 21:00
Coventry Society Committee Meeting
Recurs monthly

Elisabeth Frink Statue by F. E. McWilliams

When you walk around the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum building you will find on the Earl Street side a statue of a figure. It is a sculpture of Elisabeth Frink, the sculptor who created the eagle lectern in Coventry Cathedral.

Elisabeth Frink - Cathedral Lectern

The original statue of Elisabeth Frink was made for the Harlow Art Trust in 1957 and is still standing in a public area in Harlow New Town. The Coventry statue was an extra casting made from the original molds in 1965 and shown at the Herbert Gallery in a major exhibition called ‘Metamorphosis’. It was placed on permanent display outside the entrance in 1966.

Listed Statue of Elisabeth Frink at West Walk, Harlow New Town

Statue of Elisabeth Frisk 

Statue of Elisabeth Frink outside the Herbert Gallery

It may look a little lost in this location, but this is where the original main entrance to the Herbert Gallery was. The entrance has since been altered; a glass wall blocks off the old entrance and it was moved to Bayley Lane. Nowadays you have to go out of your way to see this interesting statue of one of Britain’s famous artists.

The model and the sculpture

The Model and the Sculpture

The sculpture was created by Frederick Edward McWilliam CBE RA (1909 – 1992). He was a Northern Irish surrealist sculptor, born in Banbridge, County Down. He worked chiefly in plaster, stone, wood and bronze. He studied and later tutored at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. It was at Slade he meet his artist wife Elizabeth Crowther they married in 1932.

He was a interpreter of aerial reconnaissance photographs in the Royal Air Force. After serving in the Royal Air Force in India during World War II, McWilliam taught drawing and sculpture in Bengal (1944–46) and in London at the Chelsea School of Art (1946–47) and at the Slade (1947–66).

FE McWilliam at work

FW McWilliam at work

You can see here Frederick applying very thick plaster on to a framework of wire and chicken wire. This was the chosen medium for Elizabeth Frink’s own work for most of her career, so it is interesting that Frederick did a sculpture of Elizabeth in her favoured medium. The plaster was mixed to a thick cream constituency and applied with a palette knife or stick. Here it appears that Frederick is using a spoon handle. After the plaster is dry you can sand or file the plaster off. The final shape is achieved through repeatedly adding or removing plaster.

FE McWilliam at work   FW McWilliam at work

McWillliam’s work was seldom overtly political, but in 1972–73 he made a series of powerful bronzes, Women of Belfast, in response to the bombing of the Abercorn Restaurant in Belfast. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1959 and was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1966. McWilliam was the subject of a retrospective exhibition at the Tate Gallery in London in 1989.

McWilliam Gallery

In September 2009 Banbridge District Council, in Northern Ireland, opened a Gallery and Studio dedicated to McWilliam’s work and named it after him.

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