Rebuilding the Iron Man

By Heather Rivers STAFF REPORTER
Thursday May 10, 2007

WOODSTOCK – The Iron Man, also known to Woodstonians as Ironsides, will soon rise again.
After months of restoration, the 3.6 metre-tall iron icon, shrouded in Woodstock lore and a little mystery, will be restored next month to its original concrete pad on Vansittart Avenue, where it welcomed residents and guests to the Friendly City for 20 years.
The Iron Man was the brainchild of Jim Brickwood, who was a student at CASS in 1968.
The former Woodstock resident said he designed what he christened Ironsides in response to a request from city council for design ideas for a recognizable symbol that would depict Woodstock in a bolder fashion and welcome visitors and tourists.
“It was to make a statement about being an aggressive town, rather than the status quo,” said Brickwood, who has since moved to London.
The statue, which held a sign that read “Welcome to Woodstock,” was constructed in CASS’s welding shops out of iron tube and plate.
In a Sentinel-Review article dated July 25, 1968, Ironsides was heralded as a replacement for a sign that read “Eat, Sleep and Shop.”
“Ironsides was reared and carefully nurtured by CASS teachers Ed Baker and Don Lazenby and by students. Mr. Baker brought the idea of replacing the present signs to the Woodstock Centennial committee. Mr. Lazenby supervised construction. And his students built him,” read the 1968 article written by John Davidson.
In the article, the public was invited to view the new Iron Man, who was being displayed on the grounds at CASS.
Council originally played with the idea of having five of the iron men made in order to cover all the entrances to the city.
As it turned out, Ironsides was the only Iron Man produced, although there have been conflicting reports that another Iron Man was made and placed near the Springbank Snow Princess, but removed in late 1960s.
Ironsides was often the victim of desecration by area high schoolers and other pranksters.

Apparently the statue was shuffled at least once from its home at the north entrance to the city to the football field at Huron Park Secondary School, as a prank allegedly carried out by a rival team at CASS.
“It did a lot of travelling,” Brickwood said.
Every Halloween, Ironsides sported a new appendage, like a balloon between its legs and even a toilet that was place under its backside.
Painted numerous times, the guardrails behind the original pad still sport pink paint, a legacy of the last time the statue was vandalized.
When Ironsides was opened up for repairs, a dead squirrel and bread bag was found in its stomach cavity, a further humiliation for the icon who had already suffered so much at the hands of Woodstonians.
In the late 1980s, Ironsides was deemed in disrepair and structurally unsound, and removed from his home of 20 years.
Ironsides’ resurrection can be directly attributed to Joe Schwarzentruber, owner of JDS Welding, who has donated his labour and materials to resurrect the damaged sculpture.
Schwarzentruber, who grew up in Tavistock, said on his trips to Woodstock he was always impressed with Iron Man.
“He was this big steel man standing at the edge of town,” he explained. “It’s not something you forget right away.”

When Schwarzentruber moved back to Woodstock, after living in Cambridge for many years, he wondered where Ironsides had disappeared to.
The parks department didn’t know, but about two years ago a city worker informed him that they had located the statue at the public works yard on James Street.
Reportedly Iron Man had been stored at the city bus garage, during his forced retirement, before ending up at the yard.
Buoyed by the news, Schwarzentruber offered to make the extensive repairs, which will require the replacement of the entire bottom half of the statue, for free.
The statue will be relocated on to its original pad in a ceremony June 2, Schwarzentruber said.
London photographer and author, Wayne Ray, took a photo of Iron Man as a student at CASS in 1968.
He has posted that photo of Iron Man as part of description of Woodstock on Wikipedia and remembers the statue well.
“It was such a corny statue – with chunks of welded metal – back then we thought it was funny,” he said. “Now its part of Woodstock history.”
Ray believes there were originally two Iron men, but reports one was stolen and never replaced.
County councillor Sandra Talbot, who is also the co-ordinator for Oxford Technical Training Centre at CASS, agrees that putting the Woodstock landmark back in its rightful home is the right thing to do.
“I think it’s great,” Talbot said. “I remember when it was built – it was a fixture like the cow. It’s one of those things you always looked for.”