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"In
front, on a little hill in the vast valley, was spread out the
Indian-red architecture of Bursley - tall chimneys and rounded ovens,
schools, the new scarlet market, the grey tower of the old church, the
high spire of the evangelical church, the low spire of the church of
genuflexions, and the crimson chapels, and rows of little red houses
with amber chimney-pots, and the gold angel of the blackened Town Hall
topping the whole. The sedate reddish browns and reds of the
composition, all netted in flowing scarves of smoke, harmonized
exquisitely with the chill blues of the chequered sky. Beauty was
achieved, and none saw it."
Bennett: Clayhanger, Book 1 Chapter 1
"Beneath them, in front, stretched a maze of roofs, dominated by the
gold angel of the Town Hall spire. Bursley, the ancient home of the
potter, has an antiquity of a thousand years.
It lies towards the north end of an extensive valley, which must have
been one of the fairest spots in Alfred's England, but which is now
defaced by the activities of a quarter of a million of people."
Bennett: Anna of the Five Towns, Chapter 1
"....the
houses of thirty thousand people spread out under the sweet influence
of the gold angel that tops the Town Hall spire. The other four towns
are apt to ridicule that gold angel, which for exactly fifty years has
guarded the borough and only been regilded twice. But ask the plumber
who last had the fearsome job of regilding it whether it is a gold
angel to be despised, and - you will see!"
Bennett: Helen with the high hand, Chapter 1
"Big James led him [Edwin] through the market-place, where a few
vegetable, tripe, and gingerbread stalls - relics of the day's
market - were still attracting customers in the twilight.
These
slatternly and picturesque groups, beneath their flickering
yellow flares, were encamped at the gigantic foot of the Town
Hall porch as at the foot of a precipice.
The monstrous
black walls of the Town Hall rose and were merged in gloom; and
the spire of the Town Hall, on whose summit stood a gold angel
holding a gold crown, rose right into the heavens and was there
lost. It was marvellous that this town, by adding stone to
stone, had up-reared this monument which, in expressing the
secret nobility of its ideals, dwarfed the town.
On every side
of it the beerhouses, full of a dulled, savage ecstasy of life,
gleamed brighter than the shops. Big James led Edwin down
through the mysteries of the Cock Yard and up along Bugg's
Gutter, and so back to the Dragon."
Bennett: Clayhanger, Book 1 Chapter 9
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