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The Local Sculptor
Created 10 July, 2008
Mr Charles Giddings, lived in Hoddesdon for 36 years and was the man who modelled the busts of King George V and VI, which were for many years on the Hoddesdon Clock Tower. When the ground floor buildings were demolished in the late 1960s, they were both transferred to Lowewood Museum.
He specialized in the modelling of children, and his panels in relief were often based on episodes taken from the Greek mythology.
His local work included the decorated fresco over the entrance to Cheshunt Library in 1907, and was also responsible for the design of a number of war memorials in the district, including one in his own church at Hoddesdon.
In 1937, he restored the Samaritian Woman for the new Hoddesdon Council Offices. This is now in the garden of Lowewood Museum.
Mr Giddings, who was 76, when he died on the 5th November 1946, was the fourth son of Mr. Charles Giddings, of Tilshead, Whiltshire, and at the age of 20 left his home village and went to London, determined to make good in art.
He studied at Westminster School of Art. Employed by James Pulham as an artist, he came to live at 34 Amwell Street, Hoddesdon.
His works of sculpture and modelling have been many and varied, but some of his better known efforts include the statue of Joan of Arc in Winchester Cathedral; the figures for the Reredos of Boston Cathedral, U.S.A; the coat of arms on the exterior of the National Art Gallery, Ottawa; the Royal coat of arms over the priocenium of Dury Lane Theatre; the carved pediment on the exterior of Mereworth Castle, Kent; and the bust of W. G. Grace, the cricketer.
Mr. Giddings, was a member of the Hoddesdon Parish Church choir until his death, and was until a few years earlier a member of the Parochial Church Council. His service with the choir lasted 30 years, and as a special tribute to an unfailing worker for his old church the former Vicar of Hoddesdon, the Rev. A.G. Williamson, came from the Isle of Wight to conduct the funeral service.