The Mace
- a potent symbol of authority
The mace is a potent symbol used in ancient times to establish
authority in a decidedly physical way. The rough and tumble
of University politics has never seen the Hull mace used for
this purpose but it is used on all ceremonial occasions, carried
in procession for the past 20 years upon the broad shoulder
of the University Beadle, Ron Naylor.
The mace is also the most visible link between Town and Gown,
having been commissioned and presented by the Hull City Council
in 1956 to acknowledge Hull's new status as a University.
The City asked the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths to organise
an open competition for the design of the University mace
and called for one with 'a genuinely modern feeling which
would incorporate the University Coat of Arms and refer to
the City Arms .' It was also specified that the successful
design should not cost more than £600 to make.
Prizes totalling £100 were offered to the competition
winners and runners-up, which resulted in 103 entries from
73 British designers. The successful design was submitted
by Mr Peter Inchbald, a director of the Sheffield silversmiths
Walker and Hall Lt d, and the grandson of a Master Cutler.
Mr Inchbald, 37 years old, had been with the company for
only two years. The company was commissioned to build the
three-and-a-half foot long mace in silver and gilt.
The mace design incorporates two globes enclosed in a 'cage'
of reeded wires at top and bottom, made of parcel gilt sterling
silver. At the head of the mace is a ducal coronet, part of
the Arms of the City, and it is decorated with sprays of Yorkshire
roses. The tail is finished with a fleur-de-lis also taken
from the City and University Coats of Arms. The whole comprises
135 ounces of silver.
Inchbald also designed the stand, which is made of Honduras
mahogany and veneered with figured ebony.
The mace was presented to the University in December, 1956
by the Lord Mayor of Hull, Alderman H Kneeshaw. It was accepted
by Lord Hotham, the senior Pro-Chancellor at the third Annual
Meeting of the University Court. The Chancellor, Lord Middleton,
wa s absent because of the illness of Lady Middleton.
The Mayor described the mace as a 'spontaneous gesture' by
the City Fathers and a symbol of the close relationship between
the city and the University.
The heraldic elements incorporated in the mace come from
the University's original Coat of Arms designed by Sir Algernon
Tudor-Craig in 1928, and have since been applied in the new
corporate identity and logo developed by Lloyd Northover in
1992, and n ow applied to all University stationery and publications.
They are:
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The Torch for learning |
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The Rose for Yorkshire |
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The ducal Coronet from the arms of
the City of Hull |
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The Fleur-de-lys for Lincolnshire
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The Dove, symbolising peace, from
the arms of Thomas Ferens |
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