Manual Ref* NFnrNOR077 Show 2 images 122
Title*

Posts commemorating Boulton and Paul
County Norfolk   District Council Norwich City Council 
Civil Parish or equivalent Norwich City Council  Town/Village* Norwich 
Road Novi Sad Bridge 
Precise Location Between Novi Sad Bridge and new Riverside development on the east bank of Wensum 
OS Grid Ref TG236079  Postcode NR1 
Previous location(s)  
Setting Wayside  Access Public 
Artist/Maker Role Qualifier
Andi Gibbs  Designer(s)   
DM fabrication  Metal worker(s)   
Dynamic design  Foundry   

Commissioned by

 Gazeleys and the European Water City project 

Design & Constrn period

 2003-04 

Date of installing

  

Exact date of unveiling

  

Category
Abstract Animal Architectural
Commercial Commemorative Composite
Free Functional Funerary
Heraldic Military Natural
Non-Commemorative Performance Portable
Religious Roadside, Wayside Sculptural
Temporary, Mobile Other  

Object Type
Building Clock Tower Architectural
Coat of Arms Cross Fountain
Landscape Marker Medallion
Mural Panel Readymade
Relief Shaft Sculpture
Statue Street Furniture War Memorial
Other Object Sub Type: Commemorative steel posts with text on zinc and copper etched plates

Subject Type
Allegorical Mythological Pictorial
Figurative Non-figurative Portrait
Still-life Symbolic Other

Subject Sub Type
Bust Equestrian Full-length
Group Head Reclining
Seated Standing Torso
Part Material Dimension
Posts  Steel  H. 4 metres 
Plates with inscriptions  Zinc and copper Etched steel   

Work is
Extant Not Sited Lost

Owner/Custodian

 Norwich City Council 

Listing status
Grade I Grade II* Grade II Don't Know Not Listed

Surface Condition
Corrosion, Deterioration Accretions
Bird Guano Abrasions, cracks, splits
Biological growth Spalling, crumbling
Metallic staining Previous treatments
Other  
Detail:

Structural Condition
Armature exposed Broken or missing parts
Replaced parts Loose elements
Cracks, splits, breaks, holes Spalling, crumbling
Water collection Other
Detail:

Vandalism
Graffiti Structural damage Surface Damage
Detail:

Overall condition
Good Fair Poor

Risk
No Known Risk At Risk Immediate
Signatures/Marks  
Inscriptions On plates facing river divided between both posts: In 1839 William Staples Boulton became a partner in a Norwich ironmongery firm and in 1864 John Dawson Paul became his manager at a wage of one hundred pounds per year. Among an assortment of lines they made wire netting on machines recently invented and constructed in Norwich. By 1868 they had established the factory in Rose Lane going on to make a name for reliability versatility and working with wire wood iron By 1905 they began experimenting with steel at Thorpe Yard near the railway station. When war with Germany came along in 1914 they were asked to make aeroplanes By October 1915 the prototype FE2B Boulton and Paul aircraft flew from Mousehold Heath at a top speed of 60 mph. Rose Lane was too constricted so the aircraft works were moved to Riverside. The first Norwich-built planes became famed in the heroic dogfights over the Western front with the unheroic title of ?Sopwith Camel?. Sopwith was the designer. ? Camel? referred to the hump-shaped fairing that covered the machine guns. Boulton and Paul turned them out at an average of 28 a week. They made a total of 2530 military planes of all sorts during the war but the Sopwith Camel was acknowledged to be the most successful of all fighters during that period. In 1934 Boulton Paul Aircraft Limited was sold off and moved to Wolverhampton. Most of the 800 strong workforce moved with it and its aircraft production ceased to play a role in the history of Norwich. In World War II the firms contribution from Riverside included thousands of temporary buildings needed by the armed forces tank transporters which played a part in the allied invasion of Europe and large containers (some of which carried war material to Russia on the Artic convoys). It was enough to make the riverside factory a military target for German air raids: over 100 of their workers became casualties. At the first post-war Air Show in Paris 1919 Boulton and Paul had a great success with their all-steel P10 biplane. The versatile firm received an order for something different again: an airship. Experts were still arguing as to which was better: the heavier-than-air-machine which got its lift from the design of its wings or the lighter-than-air machine pumped full of inflammable gas. Boulton and Paul made the framework for the innovative airship known as the R101. It flew successfully across the Atlantic and in 1930 two very important persons in the British aviation world showed their confidence in the airship by taking passage in it bound for India. They were the air minister Lord Thompson and Air Vice-Marshall Sir Sefton Brancker. Tragically the R101 crashed into a hillside while flying over France with the lost of the two distinguished men and 46 others. Boulton and Paul were cleared of any responsibility but inevitably the British aviation world saw little future for lighter-than-air after this tragedy. In the later part of the twentieth century Boulton and Paul made a huge contribution to the campaign for energy conservation with its double-glazed and weather-stripped high performance windows. The abandoned Boulton and Paul factory on this Riverside site was demolished in the 1990?s to make way for development by Gazeley Properties who dedicate this transcript to Boulton and Paul. 

Description (physical)

 Two steel posts with inscriptions commemorating the site of Boulton and Paul's factory. 

Description (iconographical)

  

Photographs

 Date taken:  28/3/2006
Date logged: 

Photographed by:
Sarah Cocke

On Site Inspection

 Date:  1/4/2006

Inspected by:
Richard Cocke

Sources and References

 Information from Andi Gibbs Art and Architecture Nether Conesford James Derek Eastern Evening News 7 September 2004 

Database

 Date entered:  27/7/2006

Data inputter:
Richard Cocke