The statue 'Man of Steel' was sculpted by Colin Melbourne (head of Sir Henry Doulton Sculpture School) and the stainless steel casting was carried out by R. Goodwin and Sons.
The statue portrays a steelworker dressed in traditional protective clothing. His helmet has a raised visor that reveals the man's face, and he is holding an oxygen lance in his hands. This would have been used to remove the clay plug and startthe flow of liquid iron from the blast furnace before its conversion into steel. The statue was completed for free, in just two weeks, by the local Goodwin Foundry.
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"The struggle of the Shelton Bar steelworkers to retain their livelihood became an industrial folk-legend. The Victoria Theatre staged a successful musical documentary to publicise their cause. Ted Smith, leader of Stoke Council headed up the fight. The statue of a steel worker was produced by Goodwin Foundry and was used as a "mascot" during marches around the streets of the city.
The fight was lost and after more than 100 years of continuous operation the blast furnaces were shut down on June 23rd 1978 and 2000 workers were made redundant. Rolling continued at the works but the whole works were closed in April 2000 by Corus."
The plaque on the plinth reads as follows;
'I BELIEVE IN THE DIGNITY OF LABOUR
WHETHER WITH HEAD OR HAND: THAT THE WORLD
OWES NO MAN A LIVING BUT THAT IT OWES EVERY MAN
AN OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE A LIVING.
THIS SCULPTURE WAS CREATED TO COMMEMORATE THE STRUGGLE
OF THE SHELTON STEEL WORKERS TO PRESERVE THE FUTURE
OF THEIR WORKS FOR THE COMMUNITY
SCULPTOR COLIN MELBOURNE
STAINLESS STEEL CASTING R.GOODWIN & SONS (ENGINEERS) LIMITED
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'Colin Melbourne was born in 1928. He was the sculptor of many public art works within the city that successfully captured the spirit of the potteries and its people.
After finishing education at Burslem Art School, Melbourne gained employment at Wedgwood as an assistant modeller before being offered a scholarship to the Royal College of Art in London where he studied ceramics.
Following graduation Melbourne worked with the likes of Wade and Beswick before becoming a teacher at Stoke-on-Trent College of Art in 1960. The College eventually became part of the North Staffordshire Polytechnic (now Staffordshire University) where Melbourne was appointed head of art and design in 1970.
In 1974 Colin Melbourne supported the campaign to save the Shelton bar; the last steel works in North Staffordshire. The campaign was found unsuccessful and after more than 100 years of continuous operation the furnaces were shut down on June 23rd 1978, over two thousand workers were made redundant. Melbourne created the ‘The Fighting Man’ a sculptor symbolising the struggle of the Shelton Bar steelworkers to retain their livelihood.
Melbourne was known as a man with a forceful personality and strong convictions and was ever popular amongst his students. He retired from Staffordshire Polytechnic in 1980 due to health problems, however returned a few years later to teach at the Sir Henry Doulton School of Sculpture which he helped found.
Melbourne dedicated his final years to painting; his work was exhibited throughout North Staffordshire. He died at home on 5 August 2009, aged 80.' Source: (
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The sculpture was unveiled by the The Right Honourable
Lord Beswick in 1976. A small plaque on the plinth reads as follows;
'UNVEILED BY
RT.HON LORD BESWICK
MINISTER OF STATE
DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRY
SEPTEMBER 1976'
"The Right Honourable Lord Beswick.
Frank Beswick, Baron Beswick,(1911 - 1987) was a British Labour Co-operative politician.
Born in 1911 in Nottingham, Beswick's father was a coal miner. He was educated in Nottingham and then at the Working Men's College in London. He became a journalist and was elected to the London County Council. He was in Spain during the Spanish Civil War. Already a qualified pilot, he joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve during the Second World War and served with Transport Command. A Sergeant Pilot, he was commissioned Pilot Officer in April 1942, and promoted Flying Officer in October 1942 and Flight Lieutenant in March 1944. He remained in the RAFVR after the war, resigning his commission in 1952.
Beswick was elected to Parliament for Uxbridge in 1945 and served until 1959. He was one of the British observers at the 1946 Bikini atomic tests. Following Labour's loss at the 1951 election, he became civil aviation correspondent for the Reynolds News, having been Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Civil Aviation. When he lost his seat in 1959, he was appointed political secretary of the London Co-operative Society. He was created Baron Beswick, of Hucknall in the County of Nottinghamshire, on 18 December 1964. He served as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Commonwealth Office from 1965 then became Government Chief Whip in the House of Lords in 1967. Continuing in the whip role into Opposition in 1970, in 1974 he was appointed Minister of State for Industry and Deputy Leader of the House of Lords, serving until 1975, and later became the first Chairman of British Aerospace. In 1975 he was UK signatory of the convention establishing the European Space Agency.
In 1985 he opened the first ever televised debate in the Lords." Source: (
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