Mexborough and Swinton Times, April 8th, 1932
Distinguished Sons
Mention of distinguished sons reminds me of an article which appeared the other day in the “Sheffield Independent” on Mr. Charles Jagger, the famous sculptor, in whom Kilnhurst, where he was born, still takes pride and interest. That, alas, is more than Mr. Jagger does for his birthplace, if we are to believe the writer of this article who begins rather cruelly: Mr. Jagger…has not always been proud of his birthplace….Indeed he once described the village of Kilnhurst , as he knew it in childhood, as a place which lay like some hideous scab upon some fair landscape.
His childhood (he said) was so detestable to him in this mining village that although he had lived through some bad times since, he would sooner re-suffer the worst experiences of his manhood than have to endure that childhood ever again.
If his interviewer is to be credited, Mr. Jagger, so far from looking back on Kilnhurst with fond and filial affection, considers the poor old village ought more fitly to have produced an Epstein.
Ugly But Kind
Mr. Jagger’s description of the physical characteristics of his birthplace may be just enough, though Kilnhurst, unhappily is no more squalid and uglier than a of South Yorkshire mining villages.
The ugliness that afflicted the sensitive soul of Jagger was not there for most Kilnhurst boys; at any rate in the dark days of the war they turned to it with love and longing and prayed only to be spared to return to it.
The Jaggers, both Charlie and David, the painter, must have had a happy home life there, for they had a father of whom they had reason to be proud. He at any rate was very loyal to the district in which he won his livelihood and reared his family. He was intensely public spirited, and was out to promote public spirit and improve public amenities. He was the sort of man to look to the rock from which he was hewn. He belonged to a generation less prone than this to be ashamed of its beginnings or scornful of old associations.
Mr. Jagger, great artist as he is, will find no worthier subject for his chisel than the gentle and kindly soul of ugly old Kilnhurst.