Learning By The Book!

A Memory of Cannock.

There has been a public library in Cannock for many decades. As a child I remember the library being housed in a set of green painted, wooden buildings which stood on High Green next to the Council Offices. These grandiose huts had brass handles to the swing doors which led to a vast array of shelves all crammed with books of every shape and size. The one thing they all had in common was the smell. A musty old paper scent was pervasive and unforgettable.

There was a children' section where their books could be changed on Thursdays only. It contained a wealth of books, many of which had obviously been well thumbed by numerous young readers. The edges were ragged and stains of doubtful origin adorned some of the pages. It would seem strange to the current generation of children that the books were rather sparsely illustrated. Black line drawings often sufficed as in the 'Just William' books by Richmal Crompton with their uniform dark red cloth covers and bindings. Enid Blyton's 'Noddy Goes to Toyland', the first in a long series had only just arrived in 1949 with coloured illustrations, often based on coloured wooden building bricks. The shape of things to come with illustrations thereafter becoming an increasingly essential part of any child's book.

In 1957 a new library building was opened on the corner of Manor Road and High Green. By comparison with its predecessor this was a magnificent, purpose built edifice. All went well with that library until April 1959 when all hell was let loose in Cannock. A statue had arrived and been placed by the library's front doors. Here's what the official pamphlet published at the time says :

"The Sculpture is designed as a vertical organic foil to the more mechanical horizontal treatment of the building, the general effect being of a spiral movement around a central column. There is point in the subject matter, 'The Sower' having been chosen for its obvious allegorical associations, in particular the dissemination of knowledge through books."

That was fine and dandy except that the male figure sowing or rather broadcasting seeds by hand was nude! The uproar was principally concerning the sower's state of being rather well-endowed. Mothers protested and shielded infant eyes. Older children gawped. Older men seemed to have a certain feeling of inadequacy judging by some overheard comments which bordered on ribaldry.

I don't think is was frost damage but one morning a few months later the Sower had lost some of his manhood over night. The stub was subsequently sculpted into something less obvious.

The statue still stands to this day in what is now a grey-stoned insignificance, exactly where it had been originally erected.