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‘Altogether a capital fellow and a serious fellow too’: a brief account of the life and work of Henry Woodyer, 1816–1896
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 April 2016
Extract
Gordon Barnes should have written about Henry Woodyer’s life and work. He discovered scores of previously unrecognized buildings by this once obscure architect. He photographed practically every one that survives, and he researched them extensively in county, diocesan and parish archives, as well as in the press. They are rather better-known now, even though he never set down a full account of his findings. He did publish a short paper on the architect and glass painter Frederick Preedy, and he also inspired the production of The Faber Guide to Victorian Churches, for which he intended to write the entries on Woodyer; but in 1985, before he could do so, he died.
As it turned out, I wrote them in his place. We had often discussed Woodyer’s career, and I had full access to the archive of Woodyer material that he had amassed and bequeathed to the Council for the Care of Churches. Since that archive forms the basis of this account, my first debt is to Gordon Barnes himself, my second to the Council for the Care of Churches for allowing me access to it and to quote from it, and my third to the National Monuments Record for permission to reproduce his photographs.
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- Copyright © Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain 1995
References
Notes
1 The archive of material relating to Woodyer’s career which Gordon Barnes bequeated to the Council for the Care of Churches is now held at their offices at Fielden House, Little College Street, Westminster, where it may be consulted by appointment (hereafter referred to as Woodyer Archive). It contains: eleven boxes of original and photocopied letters by or to Woodyer or relating to his practice, original or photocopied plans and other drawings, guides, postcards and contemporary illustrations of his buildings, particularly churches before, during and after his restorations, press cuttings from the Builder, Building News, Church Builder, Ecclesiologist, Guardian, Illustrated London News, local newspapers and other journals relating to his work, copies of death certificates, wills and obituaries of Woodyer and his family, title deeds and other documents relating to his life and work, and three drafts of a lecture that Gordon Barnes gave to the Ecclesiological Society in the 1970s; a bound book of photocopied drawings of examples of his ironwork; a catalogue raisonné in card index form of Woodyer’s work; a second card index of Woodyer’s friends, relations and clients with biographical notes; and sixteen boxes of photographs which Barnes took of Woodyer buildings, the negatives and further copies of which are held by the National Monuments Record at Swindon.
2 Frederick Preedy, architect and glass painter, 1820-1898 (Vale of Evesham Historical Society, 1984); the Council for the Care of Churches also holds Barnes’s archive relating to Preedy.
3 Howell, Peter and Sutton, Ian (eds), The Faber Guide to Victorian Churches (London, 1989)Google Scholar.
4 Eastlake, C. L., A History of the Gothic Revival (London, 1872), 332 Google Scholar.
5 Eastlake, Revival, 328.
6 Parry, lecture given to art students in Gloucester and recorded in the Builder for 8 December 1866, a cutting of which is in the Woodyer Archive. Parry did not mention ‘his very intimate friend’ by name, but the content makes it clear that he had no-one but Woodyer in mind. The title of this paper is quoted from Parry’s lecture.
7 Church Times obituary, 4 September 1896; Woodyer Archive.
8 Redfern, Harry, ‘Some recollections of William Butterfield and Henry Woodyer’, Architect and Building News, 177, April 1944, 44-5Google Scholar; Woodyer Archive.
9 Thompson, Paul, William Butterfield (London, 1971), 343-47Google Scholar.
10 The biographical information about Woodyer’s family, friends and clients comes from the index in the Woodyer Archive supplemented by entries in the Dictionary of National Biography.
11 Burman, Peter, ‘Thomas Gambier Parry. An Introduction’, Thomas Gambier Parry (1816-1888) as artist and collector ed. Farr, Dennis, exhibition catalogue, Courtauld Institute Galleries (London, 1993) 9–29 Google Scholar.
12 Parry, lecture (Woodyer Archive).
13 Parry, lecture (Woodyer Archive).
14 Redfern, recollections (Woodyer Archive).
15 Thompson, Butterfield, 16.
16 Letter (Woodyer Archive).
17 Redfern, recollections (Woodyer Archive).
18 Letter (Woodyer Archive).
19 Parry, lecture (Woodyer Archive).
20 Parry, lecture (Woodyer Archive).
21 Church Times, obituary (Woodyer Archive).
22 Letters (Woodyer Archive).
23 Victorian Church Art, Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition catalogue (London, 1971), 24-28.
24 Letter (Woodyer Archive). Joseph Clarke (1819-88) attended the first meeting of the ICBS Committee of Consulting Architects (which included Raphael Brandon, R. C. Carpenter, Ferrey.J. H. Hakewill.J. P. Harrison, Salvin, T. H. Wyatt, and Gilbert Scott who was absent). This was in 1848, when he was appointed its secretary, a post he held until his death.
25 Parry, lecture (Woodyer Archive).
26 Barnes, lecture (Woodyer Archive).
27 Stanton, Phoebe, Pugin (London, 1971), 201-02Google Scholar.
28 Eastlake, Revival, 332.
29 Builder, 14 (1856), 348.
30 The London street directories show Woodyer’s name at 4 Adam Street in the years from 1846 to 1857 along with a handful of other names including Butterfield’s and that of an obscure architect called Alfred Jenoure; in 1857 Anthony Salvin’s name first appears, and in 1858 Woodyer’s has gone.
31 Thompson, Butterfield, 16.
32 Thompson, Butterfield, 343.
33 Eastlake, Revival, 328.
34 Ecclesiologist 10 (1850), 70.
35 The title deeds to Grafham include 170 acres (Woodyer Archive).
36 Eastlake, Revival, 249.
37 Quiney, Anthony, ‘The Church of St Augustine and its Builders; Anniversary Address 1991’, Transactions of the Ancient Monuments Society, 36, 1992, 1–12 Google Scholar.
38 ‘Mother Lisa’, Fifiy Years Memories of St Peter’s Community (privately printed, 1944).
39 London street directories for 1857.
40 Redfern, recollections (Woodyer Archive).
41 Census return, transcript (Woodyer Archive).
42 Copies of Woodyer’s death certificate and will are in the Woodyer Archive. Lake remained in the army, serving in India and Mesopotamia in the Great War, dying as Lieutenant-General Sir Percy Lake in 1940; Hester Lake survived until 1945; they were childless.
43 Guardian 1896.
44 Nairn, Ian and Pevsner, Nikolaus, The Buildings of England: Surrey (Harmondsworth, 1962), 259-60Google Scholar.
45 Eastlake Revival, 289.
46 Rickman, Thomas, An Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of Architecture in England from the Conquest to the Reformation (Oxford, 1819), 223-24Google Scholar; Parker, J. H., A Glossary of Terms Used in Grecian, Roman, Italian, and Gothic Architecture (Oxford, 1836), vol. 2, Pl. 117 Google Scholar.
47 Quiney, Anthony, John Loughborough Pearson (London and New Haven, 1979), 21–23 Google Scholar.
48 Eastlake Revival, 329, referring to St Raphael’s College, Bristol.
49 Verey, David, ‘The Building of Highnam Church’, Country Life, 1971, 1160-62Google Scholar.
50 Quoted in Burman Parry, 12-13.
51 Quoted in Burman Parry, 27.
52 Eastlake Revival, 328.
53 Eastlake Revival, 328.
54 Thompson Butterfield, 189-96.
55 For instance see Eastlake Revival, 329.
56 Ecclesiologist 11 (1850), 258-59.
57 Thompson Butterfield, no, 321.
58 Ecclesiologist 11 (1850), 258-59.
59 Eastlake Revival, 330.
60 Quiney Pearson, 46-7.
61 Thompson Butterfield, 95.
62 Eastlake Revival, 331-32.
63 Eastlake Revival, 330.
64 Eastlake Revival, 330.
65 Eastlake Revival, 329.
66 Ruskin (1849), The Lamp of Beauty, et passim.
67 Eastlake Revival, 329.
68 Pevsner, Nikolaus, Buildings of England: Berkshire (Harmondsworth, 1966), 308 Google Scholar.
69 Thompson Butterfield, 344.
70 Thompson Butterfield, 145.
71 Quoted in Pevsner, Nikolaus and Lloyd, David, Buildings of England: Hampshire (Harmondsworth, 1967), 330 Google Scholar.
72 Ruskin, John, The Seven Lamps of Architecture (London, 1849), 77–78 Google Scholar.
73 Eastlake, Revival, 330-31.
74 Thompson Butterfield, 344.