[King Pin], by Agnes Charles, of St Crispin Glass Studio
King Pin pub in Archer Road
By Pauline Maryan
![[King Pin] | Pauline Maryan](https://www.ourstevenage.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/cms/King_Pin_sculpture3.jpg "King_Pin_sculpture3")
[King Pin]
Pauline Maryan
Christmas Day, 2019
Tim Gwinnett
Sculpture
Martin Woodrow
This reinforced concrete and mosaic sculpture was placed outside the King Pin pub in Archer Road in 1965.
The sculpture was Agnes Elizabeth Charles (1906–1988). She studied at Royal Academy Schools, 1930, and Central London Polytechnic, 1952. Her business St Crispin’s Glass was based at her home in Codicote, Hertfordshire. Her work can be seen in churches in Codicote, Knebworth
This page was added on 22/12/2010.
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Was this sculpture saved after the recent radical redevelopment of this area?
Agnes Charles was a sculptor, a stained glass designer and a very skilled artist in oils. She also created stained glass windows for St.Lawrence Church, Towcester. I had the pleasure of visiting her many times at her studio in Codicote and still treasure a superb oil painting she did of me when I was 16 ( I am now in my 60s!)
Agnes Charles also created the stained glass windows in the porch of St Giles Church, Codicote as well as the plaster mosaics placed over the chancel.
Thank you for confirming that the artist was both a sculptress and stained glass designer!
Thanks to Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies, the mystery has been solved! They traced an article by G.M.Lowe, published in Town and Country Planning, vol. 35 no. 11 Dec. 1967 p. 575. A most unusual inn sign at Stevenage. This concrete plantain leaf, with its veins of stained glass, is the work of Miss Agnes Charles, a Hertfordshire sculptress and stained-glass artist, and was commissioned by Messrs Greene King, owners of the public house. In a barn at her studios she built wooden templates for the leaf and used the method of “aggregate transfer” to create the veins. The stained-glass pattern was laid out in a mould lined with a mixture of “Polycell” and sand to hold it in place when the concrete was poured. When the concrete was cured, this mixture was hosed away, leaving the stained-glass pattern firmly in place. The sign is 14 feet high and weighs 2 tons.