“Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.”
-Michelangelo
The name Gardner Molloy may not be at once familiar but there is a good chance you will have encountered his sculptures and carvings. Responsible for many public works of art and carvings on public buildings across the Lothians, the Cockenzie stone mason has developed a reputation for helping us remember and celebrate our industrial past.
Standing in the shadow of the 3 metre high Prestonpans Miners’ Memorial statue, Tranent’s
Tom Ferguson, aged 81, reminisces about his mining career that saw him learn the hard graft of mining from Glencairn pit near Longniddry to Monktonhall Colliery in Midlothian.
“I’ve no doubt that if we didn’t have these illustrations of our past, not just here but in many other places, our industry could be forgotten in a relatively short period of time.
And as we say around here ‘to know where ye come fae’ – that’s what’s important and that’s what Gardner is telling us.”
Ferguson believes that for a long time such mining communities did not always have the confidence to celebrate the labour of a bygone age.
“I think we are doing a reasonable job now in remembering. We didn’t do it for a long time but now we are and the young should be the beneficiaries of that. They should be all the better for knowing what their grandparents and great grandparents had to do.”
- Foreword Tom Ferguson, retired miner and former East Lothian Councillor.
Learning about the past has always mattered to Gardner Molloy. Not for him the history of the rich but the sweat and toil of the industrial past of our forebears.
“Working with old buildings; I’ve always had a feel for the past”, he says. It was his primary teacher, Mr Robertson of Cockenzie Primary School, who first inspired him about the past and motivated his interest in the history of ordinary working folk. The teacher’s descriptions of the coal miners, fisher folk and salt panners have stayed with Molloy and this passion for our industrial heritage links sculptor and sculpture today. A stone mason for over 25 years, he speaks animatedly and with passion about a hard trade that he is honored to represent.
“Stone carving is hard work. It’s a much more direct form of work than other forms of art. It’s one of the things I like to portray: the world of work,” he says proudly.
Having completed college in the early 80s, Molloy later attended stone carving evening classes. Developing a reputation for good quality conservation; he began to make the transition from repairing stone to replacing and in turn creating his own designs.
The Prestonpans Memorial Statue, remembering 200 mine workers who died in the town’s pits, was unveiled in June 2017 and took him 3 years to create. Comprising of 2 12- ton sandstone quarry blocks, representing the coal seam itself, it is an imposing structure.
East Lothian’s local trades are depicted by the stone carver; from the magnificent Creel Loaders at Dunbar, Tranent’s gateway sculptures remembering Scotland’s first wagonway as well as farming and mining, to the amusing fishermen bollards, at Musselburgh Harbour.
Confident about the future of his art and trade Molloy compares the current number of stone masons to when he finished college in the 1980s and firmly believes the ancient trade is in a period of growth.
From preserving the past with memorials and sculptures, he is actively helping secure the future of his craft.
Currently training an apprentice, the Cockenzie man believes the traditional trade is developing more along the lines of design and creative carving.
“He is getting a training as a carver and he is doing some great stuff. There are opportunities. It’s a difficult trade. It’s not for everyone. It can be tough.”
We can feel assured that with Gardner Molloy any apprentice has a rich training and a grounding which will encourage an understanding of our local industrial legacy.
