‘The Bargemaster’ is a seven foot tall bronze sculpture created by Diana Thomson in 1990 and located in the forecourt of the EMC2 office building, Great West Road, Brentford.
On the plaque it says that the Bargemaster celebrates the long association of Brentford with the river Thames, linking its past history to the future.
A bargemaster would command a barge that would transport a group of people along the river. The King and Queen had their own Royal bargemasters who were dignified with the gentry-style titles of 'esquire'. In the earlier seventeenth century the King's bargemaster received £30 per annum, and the Queen's £20.
This was a replica of an old barge, which rowed past Brentford Dock in 2009, with the man steering dressed up in old ceremonial bargemaster costume.:
Diana Thomson was born in Manchester in 1939 and studied art at Kingston Polytechnic in the 70s and was elected a fellow of the Royal British Society of Sculptors (FRBS) in 1990. Some of Diana Thomson’s other works are shown on her website.
