The recently updated A History Of Crescent School second edition makes mention of the brick relief on the wall of the school. Often reputed to be a depiction of youth and possibly even Pan with his pipes, it has long been a mystery for those who now work at the school, particularly as the school was originally constructed for a Christian institution namely St Mark’s School.

The new history booklet asked for anyone with any knowledge to get in touch and we were delighted to receive information on the sculpture just last week. Many thanks to John Reeve, who amongst other roles was once a teacher with responsibility for Art, Craft and Design Education at St Mark’s School.

John told us that the relief sculpture was by Walter Ritchie and that he had, in a very short period of time and thanks to many contributors, also discovered that Walter Ritchie created pieces for two other Rugby schools, namely Abbots Farm Infants and Rokeby Infants.

Walter Ritchie was born in Coventry in 1919. He was a competent sculptor by the age of 18 having been trained by local stone masons and he was then lucky enough to become an apprentice of Eric Gill, a famous English sculptor who was associated with the Arts and Crafts movement.

Ritchie worked in wood, marble, steel, stone, in fact anything except fibre-glass but his particularly love was the 1,500 varieties of brick made in Britain at that time that allowed him to explore the world of texture and colour.

The work on the wall at Crescent School is referenced as a relief sculpture in brick, constructed in 1952 and titled Boy With Horses.