J Backler
Joseph Backler (1788-1848) was an early C19 painter on glass of 18 Newman Street, London, who trained under the even less known Charles Muss (1779-1824). Backler was briefly in partnership with William Silk, about whom nothing is known beyond the dissolution of the partnership in 1812. He advertised inviting inspection of his work in 1813 and he established a connection with Sussex when he produced a window with heraldic glass around 1816 for Arundel castle. Like much of his work it was based on a painting. However, between 1819 and 1823 he was involved in bankruptcy proceedings and though he produced a window for Hereford cathedral as late as 1823 (no longer in existence), he was finally declared bankrupt that year and his fortunes went into decline; in particular, a design for a window at St James, Piccadilly was never realised. His son, also Joseph (1813-95) and a pupil, is considerably better known as he was sentenced in 1831 to lifelong transportation for forgery to Australia, where he became known as a painter of portraits and landscapes.
Source: Blog on the Backler family
Painted glass: Stansted
J Bacon
John Bacon junior (1777-1859) was trained by his father of the same name and at the RA Schools. His father was highly successful and after he died in 1799, the son took over the business. He produced mostly busts and memorials, but gradually withdrew from active participation after his pupil Charles Manning (1775-1812) became a partner in 1808, followed before 1818 by S Manning (1788-1842). The precise relationship of the two Mannings is uncertain, but most probably they were brothers. It was a peculiarity of the business that although Bacon gradually withdrew from active participation and after 1823 retired to various places outside London, so that by 1829 he played little further part in it, it was laid down in the partnership agreement that only his name was to be used to sign their works. The propriety of this arrangement was questioned and may explain why he never became a Royal Academician, unlike his father. A further contributory factor may have been that his (or more properly the Mannings’) work was widely criticised for being dull and repetitive – Margaret Whinney comments that much is old fashioned and hearkens back to the baroque. The business was located in Newman Street, London in both 1811 and 1829.
Lit: DNB
Memorials: Chichester, – St Mary, Rumboldswyke (S Manning); Cuckfield; East Lavington (S Manning); Peasmarsh (two); Rye (two – one with S Manning); Trotton (two – S Manning); Wartling (S Manning)
P Bacon P Bacon Brothers
Percy Charles Haydon Bacon (1860-1935) was born in Ipswich the son of a boot closer, a shoemaker who specialised in the stitching of the upper parts of footwear. After his father died the family moved to London, where in 1881 despite his youth and modest origin he described himself as a stained glass artist and was living with most of his family at 65 Charlotte Street. Nothing is known about his training, though it must have been reasonably thorough to leave him in a position to start his own business. By 1892 he had a studio at 11 Newman Street, London and only in 1931 did it move to 4 Endsleigh Gardens, WC1. Shortly afterwards in 1933 it disappears from KD/L though it continued to operate out of Reading until after World War II. It is not known who owned or managed the company after Bacon’s death. By 1901 Bacon called himself in addition artist, painter and sculptor and the business prospered. Its glass is especially well represented in the Bournemouth area. Percy Bacon is known to have had three brothers in all, but it is unlikely that more than one of these was ever involved with the company, despite the title of Percy Bacon Brothers by which it became known. This was Archibald Arthur Bacon (1865-1943), who described himself in 1901 as an artist and sculptor and in 1911 as an ecclesiastical artist. The two other brothers are altogether less likely; Herbert Joseph (1858-1928) is described as a barman as late as 1911 and the eldest, Frederick Samuel (1849-1933) never left his native county where he was successively a farmer (1881) and an innkeeper (1901). The firm’s work was influenced by C15 glass and displays a liking for elaborate surface decoration and often subdued colouring. Outside artists were sometimes used, including G F Prynne (GFP) and his brother E A F Prynne, whilst Bacon himself worked for other makers, notably J Powell and Sons. There is also evidence of a link with another glassmaker A O Hemming, one of whose designers, R Corbould, collaborated with Percy Bacon’s on both glass and painted decoration at the now demolished St George, Vancouver Road, Catford (South London) at an uncertain date.
Glass: Bexhill, – St Peter; Bognor, – St Wilfrid; Crawley, – St Margaret, Cross-in-Hand; Eastbourne, – St Michael, Willingdon Road; – St Peter (formerly); East Preston; Flimwell (attr; designed by GFP); Hadlow Down; Harting; Hastings, – All Souls; – St Clement; Ifield; Milland; Tillington
T Baillie and Co Baillie and Lutwyche Baillie and Mayer E Baillie
The firm that became known as Thomas Baillie and Co, which was primarily a manufacturer of stained glass, was founded by Alexander Benjamin Baillie (1787-1864), a Scot who was involved in the production of stained glass before his move to London, which occurred before 1815 when his son Thomas was born there; his older son Edward had been born in Gateshead, Northumberland in 1812, suggesting a slow progress southwards. However, Alexander does not appear to have established his own business until in 1829 or even 1832. His first address was in Cumberland Market, but by 1850 directories show him in Wardour Street as well and from 1869 this became the sole address. Edward (1812-56) was working as a glass stainer in 1845 in Cumberland Market only (KD) though his father is not listed at this time at all. By 1851 it had acquired a certain reputation since there is glass signed by Edward alone in the Catalogue of the Great Exhibition (p127 item 61), using the Cumberland Market and Wardour Street addresses, That could suggest father and son were in business together, but Alexander was probably too old to be actively involved. By 1854, the date of a jointly signed window at Bracewell, West Riding of Yorkshire, Edward was involved with George Mayer (1823/24-84), who became a partner in that year, though some slightly later windows signed only by Edward (EB) are known. Little is known of Mayer, but there is no reason to think he had any connection with the prolific German firm of Mayer and Co since he was born in St Marylebone. Thomas (1815-83), Alexander’s younger son, who was already a glass painter in 1851, had meanwhile joined Edward in 1853 and seems to have been in charge together with Mayer after the Edward’s relatively early death. There are references to Baillie and Mayer at least down to 1879, the date of a window given to the company under this form of the name in St Mary, Warwick. However, there are earlier instances of its reversion to the shorter name used previously, T Ballie and Co, which might suggest that Mayer had withdrawn, though he still called himself an artist in stained glass in 1881. Under Edward, much of the company’s glass had been brightly coloured and highly pictorial in what must have seemed a very old fashioned idiom, but Thomas appears to have had more advanced tastes, even though the firm was already prosperous – in 1861 he was employing 20 men and five boys. In the late 1860s he was using C E Kempe as a designer before he set up on his own. However, by 1881 Thomas was living in Ealing and the firm was smaller, though still in Wardour Street. It continued after Thomas died and became known as Baillie and Lutwyche after William Lutwyche (1840-1908), recorded in 1881 a decorator in Hackney, became a partner. Recalling the earlier vagueness about its name, the company appears to have been known in parallel as Thomas Baillie and Co at least down to 1897, when the name appears as such for the last time in KD. For the previous few years it had been listed under glass stainers rather than artists in stained glass, suggesting they had reverted to being mainly involved in the manufacture rather than the design of stained glass. Only one window at Oving (1891) is credited with certainty to Baillie and Lutwyche. The company’s window in memory of Thomas’s parents at Lyminster suggests a Sussex connection.
Glass: Bepton; Burpham; Burwash Weald; Buxted, – St Margaret (EB); Hurstpierpoint, – St George; Lyminster; Nuthurst; Oving (also B and Lutwyche); Ovingdean (designed C E Kempe); Rusper; Sayers Common; Scaynes Hill (EB); Staplefield (Kempe); Worthing, – St Andrew, West Tarring
E Baily
Edward Hodges Baily (1788-1867) was born in Bristol, where he worked initially in a counting house, before taking up sculpture under a local wax modeller. He entered the RA Schools in 1809 and may also have been a pupil of J Flaxman; he became an RA in 1821. He produced much sculpture for public buildings and similar projects, including Marble Arch and Buckingham Palace and, above all, the figure of Nelson on the column in Trafalgar Square. He was also an accomplished designer of silver for such makers as Paul Storr (1771-1844), presumably a legacy of his early training in wax modelling. Notwithstanding these successes, his financial affairs were disorganised and he was twice adjudged bankrupt.
Lit: DNB
Memorial: Patching; Petworth
L Bainbridge
Louise Bainbridge has been a partner in Seymour and Bainbridge, conservation architects in Winchester since 1997. Most of their work is to be found in Hampshire, where their clients have included the National Trust and several churches, as well as Winchester college..
Restored: Chichester, – St John
R Baines
Richard Baines studied painting at the Regent Street Polytechnic and Goldsmiths College. He was for many years a lecturer at the London School of Fashion and is a past President of the Royal Society of Oil Painters, who paints in a realistic style, mostly landscapes. He has lived in the Hastings area or been connected with it since at least 1968, when he first held an exhibition there.
Painting: Fairlight
F Baker
Frederick M (Fred) Baker designed glass for Maile Studios during the period after World War II and his work is distributed quite widely over southern England and the Midlands. However, it has not so far been possible to find out more about him.
Glass: Hastings, – Emmanuel
J Baker
John Baker (b1934) has designed glass and had several pupils, as well as writing about mediaeval stained glass and its conservation. He lives in Weston-super-Mare, where the business he founded in 1955, John Baker Stained Glass Ltd, still exists. As well as new work, it undertakes repairs to glass and advises on protective measures. In addition to John Baker’s own designs, the company also makes glass designed by others.
Glass: Climping; East Wittering
R Baldwin
Robert Lane George Baldwin (1900-91) trained and then worked with Clayton and Bell. After returning to them briefly from World War II, he formed a partnership with A Lucas in 1945 in various parts of north west London and Middlesex. This still existed in 1971, latterly at Greenford. Baldwin also made designs for Maile Studios and Shrigley and Hunt.
Glass: Aldwick; Ashington (for Maile Studio)
M Balfour
Maxwell (known as Max) Balfour (1874-1914) was born in Valparaiso, Chile, where his Scottish father was a railway engineer, but was in England by 1881. After being educated at Clifton and New College, Oxford, he studied at the Slade School. His paintings were both topographical and military and he served in the Army during the earlier part of the Boer War. Despite his youth, he had provided illustrations for the first volume of The Survey of London on Trinity Hospital, Mile End Road (1896 – the originals are in the British Museum), which was written by the Arts and Crafts architect Charles Robert Ashbee (1863-1942). In 1901 he was living in a studio in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, designed by Ashbee, but married the following year. He also rented the old Clergy House at Alfriston from the National Trust, though his main residence appears to have continued to be in London. His early death at Wandsworth was due to TB.
(My thanks to Jennifer Cross, who made me aware of Balfour’s work at Alfriston and passed me a note about him by his grandson, Christopher Balfour, from which much of the above information comes)
Glass: Alfriston
P E Ball
Peter Eugene Ball (b1943) trained at Coventry School of Art and since 1968 has been a sculptor with a special interest in religious statues, though he also produces secular work. In both cases he makes extensive use of driftwood. Much of his religious work has a monumental quality which has been likened to the romanesque and it is to be found in many churches and cathedrals, the latter including Winchester, Southwell, Derby and Chelmsford..
Sculpture: Littlehampton, – St James
G F H Banks
George Francis Hampton Banks (1870-1960) was the son of the rector of Worth and the circumstances of his training and early career are unknown, though he was living with his mother in Worth in 1901. By 1911 he was married and living at Ifield, close to his office at 18 High Street, Crawley (KD) where he is to be found until 1930. He died at Horsham, having like his mother attained the age of 90. A statement in SAC 55 attributing all the C19 additions at Crawley church to him is clearly erroneous.
Restored: Crawley, – St John Baptist (1911)
R R Banks
Robert Richardson Banks (1813-72) was a Scot by birth who became a pupil of William Atkinson (1774/75-1839), an architect who specialised in country house projects. Banks became assistant to Sir Charles Barry (see this section below) in 1838 and in this capacity he designed much of the detail for the Palace of Westminster. At Sir Charles’s suggestion he became partner of Charles Barry junior (see this section below) between 1847-72. Most of their buildings were country houses or public buildings, including the remodelling of Burlington House in Piccadilly.
Lit: BAL Biog file
Designed: Sayers Common (1850 with C Barry Junior – unexecuted)
A Bannerman
Lady Arabella Diana Bannerman (1835-69) was the youngest daughter of the 5th Earl de la Warr and her maiden name was Sackville-West. She married in 1860 Sir Alexander Bannerman (1823-77), 9th Baronet of Elsick, Kincardineshire, Scotland at Withyham, where her brother R Sackville-West was rector of the family living and where he was instrumental in restoring the church. In the course of this, he produced some wall paintings for the church and, not long before her early death, so did his sister. However, scarcely anything remains of her work, so it is impossible to know whether her skills as an artist exceeded those then expected of a woman of her position.
Painting: Withyham, – St Michael
L Barnard
Lambert Barnard (d1567/68) did much work for Bishop Sherburn (1508-38), notably in Chichester cathedral. Little is known of his life, but stylistically, if not by birth, he had Netherlandish links.
Lit: E Croft-Murray: Lambert Barnard: an English Early Renaissance Painter, AJ 113 (1957) pp 108-25
Painting: Boxgrove, vault decoration
Sir C Barry
Sir Charles Barry (1795-1860) was the ninth son of a prosperous stationer and was articled to a firm of surveyors in London in 1810. From the age of 17 he was an exhibitor at the RA and within six years he had risen to become manager of the firm, but a timely inheritance allowed him to travel for three years to Italy, France, Greece, the Middle East and Turkey. He was largely self-taught as an architect, especially during this period. After his return in 1820 he briefly contemplated emigration to the USA, but soon achieved success. His buildings included London clubhouses and country houses, but his later career was dominated by the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster. This was gothic and owed much to his collaborator, A W N Pugin, whom he met in 1835, though he had built quite a few gothic churches in his earlier career, which show growing confidence. However, he had little sympathy for new liturgical developments and his work at Westminster ruled out most further church building.
Lit: DNB; A Barry: The Life and Works of Sir Charles Barry, 1867
Designed: Brighton and Hove, – St Peter (1824-28); – Holy Trinity, Ship Street (1826 – attributed); – St Andrew, Waterloo St, Hove (1827-28); Hurstpierpoint (1843-45)
Restored: Petworth (1827)
C Barry junior
Charles Barry junior (1823-1900) was the eldest son of Sir C Barry (see immediately above), whose office he joined in 1840 and where he concentrated on the Palace of Westminster, especially the detailing, though he preferred the Italianate style in which his father was also proficient. He is said to have designed the hands of the clock at Hurstpierpoint church, designed by his father, who encouraged him to go into partnership with his assistant, R R Banks (see this section above), which lasted from 1847 to 1872. His best known work was on the Dulwich College estate and he became President of the RIBA, where he strove to enhance the Institute’s role in training. He died at Worthing and is buried at Broadwater.
Lit: J Piggott: Charles Barry Junior and the Dulwich Estate, 1986
Designed: Sayers Common (Unexecuted designs with Banks (1850) and by himself in 1879-80)
Altered: Brighton and Hove, St Andrew, Waterloo Street, Hove (1882); Hurstpierpoint, – Holy Trinity, refitted chancel (1885)
Barton, Kinder and Alderson K Barton C Kinder A E Alderson
Kenneth M Barton (KB – fl 1942-84) went into partnership with Claude Kinder (CK – 1897-1949), who is known from at least one window in his own name, and Albert E Alderson in Hove around the end of World War II. All three previously worked for Cox and Barnard and the firm and later its surviving partners produced a fair quantity of glass, mainly in the south east, but also as far afield as the USA. After Kinder’s early death, Barton continued in Brighton as Kenneth Barton Studios, which in 1973 had an address in Rottingdean when it produced some glass for Isham church, Northamptonshire and the company at least still existed in 1984, when it produced the last glass of a series at St Mary, Kettering, Northamptonshire. Possibly this business was connected to Roger Barton Studios (see immediately below). Alderson remained in business in Hassocks until about 1977 and glass was produced under the names of all three together until at least 1967. All the partners designed glass and their apprentices included R Coomber. They also employed F Skeat (FS), C Knight (CK) and J Blackford (see this section below) (JB) as designers.
Glass: Ashington; Brighton and Hove, – Good Shepherd (CK); – St Mary (KB); – St Matthias, Preston; – St Peter, Preston; Chichester, – St Paul (JB); – St Peter-the-Great; Crawley, – St Peter (FS); Eastbourne, – Holy Trinity; Hastings, – St John, Hollington (CK); Horsted Keynes (CK); Keymer (CK); Midhurst (CK); Rusper; Seaford (CK); Slindon; Upper Beeding; Worthing, – St Botolph, Heene; – St John, West Worthing; – St Symphorian, Durrington
R Barton Studios
References to Roger Barton Studios exist between 1980 and 2013 when he was involved in the repair of a window at Offham. The firm may be connected with the earlier Kenneth Barton Studios of Brighton and thus, in turn, with Barton, Kinder and Alderson (see immediately above).
Glass: Jevington
G Basevi
George Basevi’s (1794-1845) parents lived in Hove and his mother was related to Disraeli. A pupil of Sir John Soane (1753-1837), who additionally attended the RA Schools, his good connections brought him numerous commissions to design churches, country houses and other public buildings, including work at Oxford and Cambridge – his finest building is the Fitzwilliam Museum at the latter. He undertook the completion of Belgrave Square in 1825 and the success of this led to other major developments in London. Like most of his work, such projects were classical in style, though in later life he turned increasingly to the gothic. His death followed a fall from scaffolding at Ely cathedral, when advising the dean, a friend, about restoration work, and he is buried there.
Lit: BAL Biog file; DNB
Reconstructed: Brighton and Hove, – St Andrew, Hove – old (1833-36)
W Bassett-Smith
William Bassett-Smith (1830/31-1901) was born plain Smith and added the Bassett (or, less commonly, Basset) to his surname around 1881. He was a pupil of R C Carpenter and later briefly became the partner of his fellow-pupil W Slater. Bassett-Smith became a prolific church architect and restorer, particularly in the Midlands and East Anglia. His son Walter (1859-1933) was working at Chichester Cathedral in 1881 and moved to Buenos Aires in 1889. Between 1883 and 1885 William was in partnership with E J Munt (KD/L) and by 1893 his partner was another son, Charles Aubrey Bassett-Smith (1858-1927). The latter took over the practice, which continued to use the father’s name after his death, operating in the same general area. By 1911 the son was living at Pevensey Bay (KD), though the partnership continued to be found at 10 John Street, Adelphi down to 1920 (ibid).
Lit: BAL Biog file
Rebuilt: Lewes, All Saints (1883 – as Bassett-Smith and Munt – and 1898)
B Batt
Barbara Mary Batt (1909-2007) was the daughter of a London vet, who studied under Karl Parsons (1884-1934) and later assisted him briefly at the Glass House (see under Lowndes and Drury). She also assisted W Geddes there for a short time during her work on her design for the cathedral at Ypres, Belgium, though she found the work dull and Geddes difficult to work with (Gordon Bowe p294). After her marriage in 1939 she went to live in Oxfordshire (her married name was Waller, though she continued to use her maiden name for professional purposes) and the following year she is to be found in Buckinghamshire. She remained in the same area and died in Oxfordshire. In her later years she was assisted by her daughter Lynda (later Claydon), whom she had trained.
Glass: Lewes, – St Michael, South Malling
J Battcock
John Battcock (b1713) was a bricklayer of Storrington, whose work is known only from his rebuilding of the church in 1754. The name is common there – in 1793 William Battcock leased some land to the parish as a graveyard (WSRO Par 188/4/1) and seven of the name subscribed to the restoration of Storrington church in 1842.
Rebuilt: Storrington (1754)
J Bedford and Sons
The London firm of John Bedford and Sons, which had an address in Oxford Street, is to be found in directories between 1809 and 1898. According to PD 1839, the firm was then known by the name of a later member of the family, Thomas Bedford (1796/97-1875). He had prospered sufficiently to live in Park Lane where he was still to be found in 1851, whilst his works remained in Oxford Street, where he was employing 10 men. The company produced work in both the classical and gothic styles. Thomas Bedford subsequently moved to Sutton, Surrey, where he appears in 1861, no longer a statuary etc but a proprietor of houses. It is not known how far he retained any connection with the business after this date, though at his death his executors, his sons Thomas (b1825/26) and John Gray Bedford (b 1829/30), were both described as sculptors of 256 Oxford Street, so the firm was still in family hands
Memorials: Battle; Bramber; Worthing, – St Mary, Broadwater (two)
W Behnes
William Behnes (1795-1863) was born in St Marylebone, though as his name suggests, he was of German ancestry. He spent part of his youth in Dublin, where he first studied drawing. On return to London he attended the RA Schools and then turned to sculpture, becoming principally known for his portrait-busts and public statues. The latter included that of General Havelock in Trafalgar Square, though he also executed memorials. He exhibited a ‘colossal statue’ of one Sir William Follett at the Great Exhibition of 1851 (Catalogue p9 item 57) but in later life he experienced serious financial and other problems, which affected also his health. The combination led to insolvency in 1861.
Memorials: Northiam
A Bell
For Alfred Bell see under Clayton and Bell.
D Bell
Daniel Bell (1840-1904) was the younger brother of Alfred Bell of Clayton and Bell, whom he was both living with and assisting in 1861. Fairly shortly afterwards he went into business for himself, making glass and church fittings. From 1868 his first partner was James Redfern (probably the stonecarver and later sculptor of that name (b1842 in Cheshire) who was living in Chelsea in 1871 and 1881 and who probably died there in 1886). Redfern was followed by Richard Almond (1841-87), who in 1881 called himself an architect. In 1871, when Bell was already described as a glass and mural painter, the company employed 16 men and 11 boys, but the partnership with Almond lasted only until 1875 and in 1878 he was working by himself in Margaret Street (KD/L), moving two years later to Bolsover Street, not far away. In 1881 he was living in Hammersmith and apparently still working on his own as a painter; this was still so in 1891, though he had moved to Paddington. He had nine children, none of whom followed his profession. In 1901, now calling himself an ecclesiastical artist, he was still working from home and at Milton-on-Stour, Dorset some glass by him dates from the year of his death. Daniel Bell also acted as architect on at least one occasion, the restoration of Downe church, Kent in 1879.
Fittings: Brighton and Hove, – St Paul, wall paintings; Midhurst, reredos; Newtimber, reredos
Glass: Midhurst; Wivelsfield
G Bell
George Bell was a stained glass maker who is known to have worked from premises in Great Russell Street, London around 1880. Very little seems to be known about him (he does not appear in any of the principal modern studies of C19 glass), but his address in Great Russell Street may suggest a link with the firm of Bell and Beckham (see under Bell and Davidson in this section below), which also had an address in that street but which is little less shadowy. All that can be said if there was a link is that the firm was well established in duration at least, since it is recorded in directories down to 1910, despite the lack of known glass. It is possible that one reason for their obscurity is that they used other artists as designers. Bell’s work may also have been ascribed wrongly to Clayton and Bell. No dates for him have survived.
Glass: Milland (new)
J Bell and Son
The firm of Joseph Bell and Son was founded in 1840 and was unconnected with other glassmakers called Bell. As their works were in Bristol, most early work is in the West Country, though Joseph Bell (1810-95) was originally a pottery painter from Stoke-on-Trent. His early work was naively pictorial and his colours often garish; from the late 1840s he took more account of mediaeval models, though the results may not seem very convincing today, and glass by them is found more widely. Bell was involved in the restoration of mediaeval glass in Bristol cathedral and elsewhere and travelled widely to study it. Joseph Bell’s son Frederick Henry (1847-99) succeeded him and despite his early death, the firm stayed in family ownership until 1923, when it was acquired by Arnold Robinson (AR) (1888-1955), a former pupil of C Whall. In Whall’s studio he had met E Woore, who worked with the company, especially during World War II. The firm secured much work during the repairs to churches in Bristol after bomb damage in World War II. From 1956 Robinson’s son, Geoffrey (b1935), who had learned the craft from J E Nuttgens, ran the firm until it closed in 1996. He both designed new work and restored old glass.
Lit: J Cheshire: Joseph Bell and the Revival of Glass-Making in the Nineteenth Century, JSG 22 (1998) pp31-50
Glass: Burwash (AR); Worthing, – Christ Church
M C F Bell
Michael Charles Farrer Bell (1911-93) was the son of R O Bell (see below) and studied at the Edinburgh College of Art. Initially, he had his own studio but in 1950 he took over from his father at Clayton and Bell where he remained until it closed in the year of his death. As well as stained glass, he designed widely, including stamps, and was an accomplished engraver and painter.
(See under Clayton and Bell for works)
Q Bell
Quentin Claudian Stephen Bell (1910-96) was the second son of Clive and Vanessa Bell (see this section below for the latter) and studied painting in Paris and Rome. He later took up both the design and making of pottery and was active in left wing politics, primarily in the 1930s. He wrote extensively, including a biography of his aunt, Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), and was professor of fine arts or art history at several institutions, culminating in the University of Sussex. While there, he lived at Beddingham and later West Firle.
Obit: The Times 18 Dec 1996; DNB
Paintings: Berwick
R O Bell
Reginald Otto Bell (1886-1950) was the son of Clement Bell and the third generation of his family to run Clayton and Bell, which he joined in 1907. He was responsible for moving the firm out of London after bomb damage in 1941. He was a fine draughtsman with a particular interest in heraldic glass.
(See under Clayton and Bell for works)
S Bell
Nothing is known of an S Bell beyond two mentions in 1874 in connection with St Bartholomew, Brighton. A link with one of the other Bells active at the time is likely; Nicholas Antram (BE(E) p156) plausibly suggests that the initial as given in The Builder (32 p908) was a misprint for D Bell (see this section above).
Fittings: Brighton and Hove, – St Bartholomew, cross and altar-painting
V Bell
Vanessa Bell (1879-1961) was born Vanessa Stephen, the sister of Virginia Woolf (1882-1941). Vanessa was a painter and one of the key figures in the so-called Bloomsbury Group, which appeared after Vanessa and others of her circle settled there. After study at the RA Schools, where she came under the influence of John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), she married the critic Clive Bell (1881-1964), who was a great admirer of the Impressionists. She was also involved with the critic and founder of the Omega Workshops, Roger Fry (1866-1934), but was closest to D Grant, with whom she mostly lived for the rest of her life, though she remained on good terms with her husband. For most of this time she lived at Charleston manor, Sussex, now open to the public. She is buried at West Firle, where her son Quentin Bell (see this section above) lived.
Lit: R Shone: The Art of Bloomsbury, 1999; DNB
Paintings: Berwick
Bell and Davidson
The firm of Bell and Davidson were described as glassmakers of London when they produced a window at Climping in 1892. At Bourne End, Buckinghamshire there are paintings of c1890 given to David Bell, in turn linked to ‘Davidson and Bell’, and though Davidson cannot be identified, there can be little doubt that the references are to the same business. The possibility of a link with Bell and Beckham, glass makers of 98 Great Russell Street, none of whose work has been found in Sussex, cannot entirely be excluded but they were clearly different.
Glass: Climping
A Bellucci
Antonio Bellucci (1654-1726) was born in mainland Venetia and trained in Dalmatia before finding his way to Venice by 1675. Thereafter he travelled to both Vienna and Düsseldorf, Germany, where in each case he worked for the aristocracy and the emperor. In 1716 he came to England, where his major commissions were from the princely John Bridges, 1st Duke of Chandos. He remained until 1722 or 1724 (accounts differ) when he returned to Italy.
Painting: Lewes, – St Michael, High Street (attr)
S H Benham
Samuel Henry Benham first appears as an architect with an address in the High, Oxford in 1823 (Pigot’s Directory) and there are references to him in Colvin (4th ed p119) down to 1835, when he produced a design for the new Palace of Westminster. According to Colvin, the Benham family were builders and carpenters in the Brighton area at the time, so the Samuel Benham, whose address there in 1832 was 25 St James’s Street (Pigot’s Directory), may well be the same. That would make it plausible for him to have undertaken work at New Shoreham, but an alternative explanation is his known links to Magdalen College Oxford, which held the living there. Nothing is known of his training or later life.
Altered: New Shoreham (1829)
Sir H Bennett
Sir Hubert Bennett (1909-2000) trained at Manchester University and worked as a lecturer until he went into local government. He rose to be from 1956 to 1971 architect to the London County (later Greater London) Council, for which he designed public housing and other large projects. These were not all in London as he was also involved in the development of the town of Thetford, Norfolk to take ‘overspill’ population from London during the 1960s. On retirement, he moved to Liphook, Hampshire, near the Sussex border.
Obit: The Times 15 Dec 2000
Restored: Milland (old) (1993-98)
R Bent
Richard Bent is a blacksmith, designer and sculptor whose studio is now at Modbury, Devon, having previously been at Romsey, Hampshire. He learned his craft largely by studying others and much of his work is to be found in the west of England, though also elsewhere. He has made and restored much decorative ironwork for both houses and institutions such as All Souls College Oxford and has also been responsible for new lighting in churches. Prominent among these are the lights in the Roman Catholic cathedral at Arundel.
Memorial (surround): Slindon
J F Bentley
John Francis Bentley (1839-1902) was Yorkshire-born and the son of a wine merchant. He was inspired by Sir George G Scott ’s rebuilding of Doncaster parish church and, aged 16, went to London to learn the building trade. He then became a pupil of H Clutton and a devout Roman Catholic, before in 1862 starting his own practice at 14 Southampton Street, where he worked mainly on churches, including fittings for them, but also some secular work. Most of his work was for the Catholics, notably Westminster Cathedral, but he received a few commissions to build or restore Anglican churches. He was also a member of the Art Workers Guild, so it is not surprising that, even in his prime, he designed stained glass in some quantity, which was made by outside companies such as Lavers, Barraud and Westlake. The houses on which he worked included Heron’s Ghyll outside Uckfield, which he adapted in 1866 for the poet Coventry Patmore. The Catholic hierarchy in England came to prefer the Renaissance and later the Byzantine style, so Bentley moved away from the gothic. By 1901 he was in poor health and pre-occupied with the Cathedral, so his son and collaborator, Osmond (1883-1950), who was also an architect, may have handled a small commission like that at Bolney. Curiously, although in 1901 J F Bentley’s office was at 13 John Street, the CDG reference to Bolney in the same year gives his address as 14 Southampton Street, where he had been when he started in London.
Lit: W W Scott-Moncrieff: John Francis Bentley, 1924; DNB
Restored: Bolney (1901)
C M Benyon
Caroline Margaret Benyon (b1948) is the daughter of C J Edwards and from 1973 worked with him at the Glass House in Fulham, before in 1993 moving her studio in Hampton, Middlesex, naming it after her father. She both designs and restores glass and works with Tony Benyon, who is also a glass painter and is a researcher into the history of stained glass.
Glass: Bexhill, – St Mark, Little Common; Fletching; Lyminster
F C Benz Benz Williams
Frederick Charles Benz (1880-1962) was born in Eastbourne, the son of a German waiter and an English mother. In 1911 he is described as a manager to an architect and estate agent and called himself an architect in his recruitment papers in 1915. He survived the war and the next certain reference to him was in 1926, when he was in practice at 53 Gildredge Road, Eastbourne as an architect and surveyor. He seems to have designed mainly houses and flats. In c1951 the practice became known as Benz and Williams or Williams Benz, but nothing is known of Williams. After Benz’s death the practice moved to 4 Hyde Gardens around 1967 and it was particularly active around this time. Among its work were several large blocks of flats in the town and a cinema in London. By 1984 a new partner named Orrell Jones had joined and under the name of Benz Williams and Orrell Jones the practice still exists, though it has moved away from Eastbourne to Wivelsfield Green.
Designed: Pevensey Bay (1968-69)
C Berry
Charles James Berry (1823-77) was the son of James Berry junior (see immediately below) and probably started as a builder’s clerk working for his father. Such a position suggests a superior level of education and by 1851 he was working in The Cliffe and Malling in Lewes as a builder and surveyor. Ten years later, after his father had left the area, he was still there with the same occupation. now employing 38 men. KD shows him at the same address in 1866 and though he does not appear in the 1871 census, he spent the rest of his life there, dying in the same year as his father.
Restored: Ringmer (1872)
J Berry
James Berry junior (1796-1877) was born in South Malling, the son of a builder of the same name (1762-1847) (though the expression ‘builder’ was only then coming into general use) The father had himself been born in Ringmer. with which he retained close links all his life. The business took over that of A Wilds when he moved to Brighton in 1820 and by 1823 (PD) was known as James Berry and Son of Malling Street, Lewes, builders, though the son had been involved earlier for he designed the terrace of houses in Albion Street, Lewes in 1822. By 1839 he was working alone though still calling himself James Berry junior, presumably since his father was still alive. He continued to design as well as construct buildings and prospered sufficiently to become county surveyor, but became insolvent in 1857. At this time he described himself as architect and surveyor. His insolvency appears to have been resolved by the sale of property, but even before this he had moved to Eastbourne, where he was resident in 1861 and 1871, and was involved in the development of the Duke of Devonshire’s estates. He subsequently returned to the Lewes area and died at Newhaven. He was in turn followed into the building trade by his son, Charles James Berry (see immediately above).
My grateful thanks to John Kay of the Ringmer History Group who has provided most of the information I have about the Berrys of Ringmer and South Malling
Refitted: South Malling (1836)
P Berry
Peter Berry studied at the Swansea College of Art before he established his own glass studio in Wiltshire in 1990, where he remains active, both in the design and making of new stained glass and the restoration of old windows..
Glass: Nutley
J C N Bewsey
John Charles Norman Bewsey (1881-1940) was the son of a farmer in Somerset and became a pupil of C E Kempe, whose influence is apparent in his work and between 1904 and 1909 he designed some glass for Shrigley and Hunt. His career is said to have been affected by heavy drinking, but this did not prevent him developing a widespread practice which extended all over England, particularly in the North. This practice continued until late in his life – there is glass by him dating from 1937 at Howden, East Riding of Yorkshire. In 1911 he was living in Cricklewood and his professional address was in Abbey Road, London NW8 in 1920 (CCL). His output was mostly in the idiom of C15 English glass and for much of the later part of his career he had a close association with the leading Scottish architect, Sir Robert Lorimer (1864-1929).
Glass: Bexhill, – St Augustine, Cooden; Brighton and Hove, – St Bartholomew; Hurst Green (ascribed)
A Billing
Arthur Billing (1824-96) was the son of a Reading surveyor and brother of John (see immediately below). He was a pupil of B Ferrey and worked in Philip Charles Hardwick’s (1822-92) office. He started his own practice in 1849 and went into parnership with A S Newman in 1860. Both on his own and in partnership, he built mainly warehouses and churches in London, though the partnership’s restorations were geographically more widespread. Billing himself wrote a book about mural painting and the decoration of churches.
Lit: BAL Biog file
Restored/extended: Sedlescombe (1866-67)
J Billing
John Billing (1816-63), the brother of Arthur (see immediately above), initially stayed on in Reading, where in 1841 he was working with his father as a builder and in 1851 was Borough Surveyor and Architect. Both Arthur and John Billing belonged to a family of architects found in and around Reading from the end of the C18 until after 1900. In 1856 John Billing became FRIBA and at this time he moved to London, where in 1861 his practice was in Abingdon Street, Westminster. He also lived there and was a churchwarden locally. Much of his work was ecclesiastical, though he also worked on commercial premises and designed houses and schools.
Lit: BAL Biog file
Restored/extended: Hastings, St Leonard, Marina (1862 – destroyed); Heathfield, All Saints (1860-61); Seaford (1860-62)
G B Birch
A London statuary of this name signs one monument at Etchingham, but is otherwise unknown – he is not listed in Roscoe. The date next to his signature is 1859, though the original subject had died in 1823 and the monument must have been made after the death of his son in 1857 as he is also commemorated. If this later date is accepted, the name could be a misreading for Charles Bell Birch ARA (1832-1893), a prolific sculptor of the period whose best known work is the griffin on the new Temple Bar of 1880 in Fleet Street, London. However, no church memorials by him are known.
Memorial: Etchingham
M F Bishop
Maude F Bishop lived in Ovingdean, where she designed figures for the reredos. She can be traced between 1951 and 1956, when she was an associate member of the Society of Master Glass Painters (this category of membership usually signified actual activity as a designer or maker of stained glass), but none of her work has been identified in Sussex.
Fitting: Ovingdean, reredos
E L Blackburne
Edward Lushington Blackburne (1803-88) was a pupil of J H Taylor and a founder-member of the then Institute of British Architects, who was born in Portsea, Hampshire and practised in London, mainly in the east end and in the field of churches, for over 60 years before retiring to St Cross, Winchester. He was diocesan surveyor of Norwich, so his work is well represented in East Anglia, and he also designed several schools. He wrote on mediaeval art and became an FSA.
Obit: The Builder 54 p229
Fitting: Brighton and Hove, – St Peter, reredos (formerly)
J Blackford
James Blackford designed glass for Barton, Kinder and Alderson (see this section above) in the early 1950s, before moving to St Louis, Missouri, USA, where he became a prolific designer there for the Jacoby Art Glass Co, a leading manufacturer and designer of stained glass between 1896 and 1970. He may be related to (or could even be the same as) another Blackford (whose first name is unknown and who was probably born c1900), whom D Hadley has identified as employed by J Powell and Sons from 1915.
Glass: Horsham, – St Mary (by Powell’s)
Also see under Barton, Kinder and Alderson
W H R Blacking
William Henry Randoll Blacking (1889-1958) was a pupil of Sir J N Comper, who started to practise in 1919 after war service, both restoring churches and designing new ones. He shared Comper’s taste for elaborate liturgy and the requisite fittings and designed many of the latter for Wippell and Co, as well as decorating churches. He was consulting architect to the ICBS and Chichester Cathedral. His former pupil R J Potter was his partner from 1946-55.
Lit: BAL Biog file; Obit: The Times 29 Jan 1958
Designed: Bexhill, – St Augustine (1934); Littlehampton, – St Mary (1934)
Restored/altered: Brighton and Hove, – St Andrew, Waterloo St, Hove (1925); Eastbourne, – St Saviour (c1946); Willingdon (1953)
Fittings: Aldwick, reredos; Brighton and Hove, – Good Shepherd, numerous fittings; – St Peter, reredos; – St Thomas, fittings; Wisborough Green, altar; Worthing, – St Botolph, Heene, altar
J Blackman
It is uncertain which if any of the four persons called James Blackman listed in Rye in PD 1823 was the person of the name who worked on the church in 1839. Most likely would be either one who was a bricklayer and builder of the High Street or a carpenter of the name. It was probably one of these who is recorded as having died in the town in 1839 and also probable that it was one of them who worked on the church. The occupations of both would fit, whereas a third person of the name, quite apart from having the less likely trade of shoemaker, was still living in Mint Street in 1841. Whichever one it was, he signed the plan for work at Rye church in connection with the application to the ICBS. Given the firm rules of the ICBS on the use of architects, this seems to suggest he could plausibly represent himself as more than just a builder or carpenter.
Refitted: Rye (1839)
T Blackmore
Thomas Blackmore (1792/93(?) -1858) was the estate carpenter at Uppark House. His address in 1851 was 19 North Street, Harting. His date of birth as given is calculated from the 1851 census, but there is a record of the baptism of a Thomas Blackmore, the son of another Thomas as this man was, at Harting in 1790, so there is the possibility of an error.
Constructed: Harting, stair
— Bladon
A designer named Bladon (also found as Bladen) was employed by J Powell and Sons and was involved in making both glass and fittings by 1883. He appears to have left in 1886 but there are records of cartoons he produced for the company in 1891 and 1896, presumably on a freelance basis. As with many of those associated with Powell’s employees, not even his full name is known.
Glass: Stedham
Fitting: Felpham, reredos
W Blaker W L Blaker
William L Blaker is probably William Lamport Blaker (1819/20-65), who in 1851 was a builder, architect and surveyor lodging at Park House, Broadwater with his younger brother Frederick, an ironmonger. In 1855 he is recorded as an architect living at Ambrose Cottage, Worthing (KD) and in 1858 he is listed as a builder and surveyor at that address (Melville’s Directory). He was a member of the Sussex Archaeological Society from 1851 to 1860. He was the son of another William Blaker, who is a less likely but conceivable candidate for the church at Withyham. The father was born at Sompting in 1786/87 and died in 1861. Apart from the abortive restoration of Sompting church, there is nothing to suggest that he designed buildings, for he is on record as a carpenter in Chapel Street, Worthing in 1828 and 1839 (PD) and by 1851 had become a builder in Paragon Street. Neither can be the Mr Blaker, builder of Worthing, who worked on Ferring church in 1894, but a connection seems likely. The name was quite common in the Worthing area and W L Blaker alone had three sons.
Designed: Withyham, – St John (1839)
Restored: Sompting (1826 – certainly Blaker senior, but not carried out)
R K Blessley
Robert Knott Blessley (1833-1923) was born in Highgate and started his independent career with an office at 8 Furnival’s Inn, London. He had been a pupil of Joseph Messenger of the Adelphi, London, an architect of whom there are definite mentions between 1852 and 1868, but about whom there is no other certain information. Blessley by 1866 had moved to Eastbourne, though he worked outside Sussex including the design of a church and vicarage at Margate, Kent in 1872-73. At Eastbourne, he was by 1878 in partnership with H Spurrell (ibid). He became architect to several estates there and also designed the Grand Hotel, as well as at least two nonconformist chapels. He also worked in Hailsham and had an office in Lewes; his membership of the RIBA lapsed after 1876. In 1901 he had retired to Brighton at 1 Norfolk Terrace. In addition to Spurrell, he had a further partner called —- Field (probably William Chapman Field of Eastbourne (1859-1922) who in 1886 received a certificate of competency as a building surveyor (Proc RIBA) and in 1890 (KD) was located at Westham).
Designed: Polegate (1874-76)
Extended: Eastbourne, – St Anne (1883 – dem)
A C Blomfield Sir A W Blomfield and Sons
Arthur Conran Blomfield (1863-1935) was the second son, pupil and from 1890 partner of Sir A W Blomfield (see immmediately below), after studying at Haileybury and Cambridge and a spell on the continent. His brother C J Blomfield (see below – also a partner) and he continued their father’s practice with the subsequent addition of a further partner, A J Driver, who cannot be more closely identified. A C Blomfield followed his father as architect to the Bank of England and designed banks and houses; in Sussex he worked on Warnham Court.
Lit: BAL Biog file; Obit: The Builder 149 (1935) p959
Designed: Brighton and Hove, – St John, Preston (1900-02); Forest Row, unspecified church (nd (probably Coleman’s Hatch – see under C J Blomfield))
Altered/restored: Bexhill, – St Barnabas (1908); Eastbourne, – St John Meads (1911 – bombed); Warnham (1907)
Sir A W Blomfield
Sir Arthur William Blomfield (1829-99) was the son of Charles James Blomfield (1786-1857) (pronounced Bloomfield), Bishop of London and one of the most eminent early Victorian bishops. He studied at Cambridge and became a pupil of Philip Charles Hardwick (1822-92), who designed houses and public buildings mostly in the classical style, but also used the gothic extensively for churches. Blomfield set up on his own in 1856 and, no doubt thanks to his good connections, soon had a large practice, which was largely ecclesiastical. Following the taste of the times his churches were gothic, though his preferred variant of that style was Perp, which contemporary taste prevented him from using much until his later years. However, his early training meant that when, like Hardwick himself, he became architect to the Bank of England, he worked competently in the classical style expected. Most of his other buildings were schools or were in some other way linked to the Church, like the former Church House in Westminster. According to his nephew Reginald Blomfield (see this section below), he was a generous man, the quality of whose work was affected by taking on too much, sometimes poorly remunerated – he had a reputation for giving good value for money, though his churches seldom excite. On his death, the then President of the RIBA, Sir W Emerson praised his ‘quiet refinement’ and ‘total absence of affectation’. He became a member of the Committee for the Restoration of Chichester Cathedral shortly before his sudden death playing billiards at his club. This indication of conviviality is borne out by a liking for amateur dramatics. He was interested in new methods of construction, such as the use of iron and concrete, and took great care over quality of construction – the carpentry in his buildings is especially fine. After his death, his practice was taken over by his sons A C Blomfield and C J Blomfield (see immediately above and below), who continued it as Sir A W Blomfield and Sons.
Lit: BAL Biog file; obit by A E Street: RIBAJ 7 (1899) pp19, 37-38; The Builder 77 (1899) pp418-19; DNB
Designed: Bexhill, – St Barnabas (1891); Bognor, – St John Baptist (1882 – dem 1972); Brighton and Hove, – Chapel Royal (1876-96); – St George, Kemp Town (1890 – attr); – St Luke, Queen’s Park (1882-85); Eastbourne, Ocklynge (1892 – design requested – probably unexecuted); Hastings, – All Souls (1890-91); – Christ Church, St Leonards (1875-95); – St John, Upper Maze Hill (1880-83, bombed); Hunston (1885); North Bersted (1894 – attr); Roffey (1878); Worthing, – St Andrew (1886-88)
Restored/altered: Brighton and Hove, – St Stephen (1890); Easebourne (1876-77); Felpham (1885); New Shoreham (1895 – report); Ninfield (1885-87); North Mundham (1883); Warnham (1885-86)
Fittings: Felpham, reredos; Horsham, – St Mary, tower screen (from St Mark, Carfax)
C J Blomfield
Charles James Blomfield (1862-1932) was another son of Sir A W Blomfield (see immediately above), whose pupil and, from 1890, partner he was. He also attended the RA Schools. He went to Charterhouse and after his father died, he and his brother A C Blomfield (see this section above) continued the practice as Sir A W Blomfield and Sons with few changes. Charles was a prolific designer of public schools including work at Eton and Wellington College; one late work by him at the latter, dating from 1927, was carried out with an unidentified partner known only as Morgan. C J Blomfield also restored churches and was architect to Chester, Southwark and Salisbury cathedrals.
Lit: BAL Biog file; Obits: The Builder 143 (1932) p968, RIBAJ 40 (1932) p143
Designed: Brighton and Hove, – St John, Preston (1900-02 – with A C Blomfield); Coleman’s Hatch (1913 – with A C Blomfield)
Fitting: Battle, reredos and altar (1929)
Restored/altered: Bexhill, – St Barnabas (1908); Eastbourne, – St John Meads (1911 – bombed)
Sir R Blomfield
Sir Reginald Theodore Blomfield (1856-1942) was a grandson of Bishop Blomfield of London and his father was also a clergyman. After Oxford he was articled to his uncle, Sir A W Blomfield (see this section above) and studied at the RA Schools – he later became an Academician. He started his own practice in 1883 and became closely associated with M Macartney, though they were never partners. He also wrote about architecture and another more senior close associate was R N Shaw. It is thus unsurprising that Blomfield was a founder-member of the Art Workers Guild, very much linked to the circle around Shaw and of which he was secretary. Much of his early work, especially his houses, is in the so-called Queen Anne style, but as he became increasingly involved in large, public projects, he changed to a classical style close to Wren. For a short time he was involved in a company, Kenton and Co, designing and making furniture; other members included Macartney. Most of his churches were early and his better known secular work, in addition to houses, included the replanning of Regent Street and war cemeteries, together with the Menin Gate at Ypres, Belgium. Despite an uneasy relationship with the RIBA, from which he resigned for a time over the issue of architectural training, he became President. His wife came from Rye and he had a house nearby.
Lit: Sir R Blomfield: Memoirs of an Architect, 1932; R A Fellows: Sir Reginald Blomfield, an Edwardian Architect, 1985
Designed: West Grinstead, ‘new church’ (1889 (probably a design fpr Partridge Green – not executed in this form))
Restored/extended: Beckley (1885); Portslade by Sea (1889-91); Warnham (1886 – doubtful)
E Blore
Edward Blore (1787-1879) was one of the most prolific architects of the early gothic revival, designing both houses and churches; foremost among the former was the new front wing for Buckingham Palace and in Sussex his most prominent work was the virtual reconstruction of Wiston House. He also restored many mediaeval buildings, including several Oxford colleges. His dates were too early for him to have restored many cathedrals, since like other architects of his generation who specialised in the gothic and felt unable to compete with a new generation of architects who were more confident in the style, he retired relatively young, in 1849. However, he designed fittings at several, including Durham, Winchester and Norwich, as well as Westminster Abbey. Blore came late to architecture, having trained first as a topographical draughtsman and artist, an occupation that he followed for a time. His designs tended to the ponderous and the Ecclesiological Society had little time for his work on churches. He had a large office, where his pupils included W Burges (see this section below), H Clutton and F Marrable.
Obit: The Builder 37 p1019; Lit: DNB
Restored: Easebourne (1834-36)
R Blore
A father and son, both called Robert, worked together from premises in Piccadilly in the early C19, producing a wide range of memorials and tablets. The father, of whom the first likely record is his marriage in 1795 in Chelsea, retired around 1820 after being declared bankrupt. The son was born in 1797, though not baptised at St George’s Hanover Square until October 1801. He was thus quite young when he took over the business, which he continued until his probable death in 1838.
Memorial: Burwash (by Blore junior)
J Blyth
Judith Blyth was supervised by A Wright of the Hastings College of Art and Technology when with J Ford she designed some glass for St Peter and St Paul, Parkstone Road in 1998. She is likely to have been a pupil.
Glass: Hastings, St Peter and St Paul, Parkstone Road
G F Bodley T Garner Bodley and Garner
George Frederick Bodley (1827-1907) was born in Hull, but his doctor father had previously practised in Brighton, from where his mother came, and retired there. One of Bodley’s sisters married a brother of Sir George G Scott, whose pupil and then assistant he was from 1845-52, precisely the period when Scott’s pre-eminence was becoming established. Others then present in the office as pupils or assistants included G E Street, A Bell of Clayton and Bell and W White, all of whom became close friends of Bodley. After this he set up his own practice, initially in Brighton and then in London. He was one of a number of architects who sought to give new direction to the gothic revival, reacting against the ‘rigid convention’ of Scott, as E P Warren puts it, and working in craggy High Victorian brick in an often simplified form of French Gothic – the original St Michael, Brighton was his earliest church entirely in this idiom. He befriended Sir E Burne-Jones (see this section below), though Bodley had reservations about Burne-Jones’s liking for High Renaissance art, and developed strong views on the role of both stained glass and wall paintings in churches. Reflecting his Tractarian sympathies Bodley became closely involved with Father A D Wagner in Brighton, for whose church of St Paul he designed fittings and altered the fabric. At this stage he used Morris and Co for fittings and glass and made several designs for them, though he never become a partner in the firm His aesthetic preferences and the difficulties of dealing with Morris caused a change to more biddable designers and manufacturers, notably Burlison and Grylls (see this section below), as he deepened his conviction that glass and fittings should be subordinated to the architect’s overall vision of the building. In 1869, after a severe illness at a time when he already had numerous commissions, he took a partner, Thomas Garner (1839-1906), who was to undertake most works of the practice not in the gothic style, of which the most prominent was the new reredos of St Paul’s. Garner was the son of a Warwickshire farmer, who had also at a later date been a pupil of Sir George G Scott before starting a practice in his native county. Bodley and he had had some contact before the partnership started, by which time Garner was already living in London. Their partnership lasted until 1897, though the two often worked independently in later years, and ended after Garner became a Roman Catholic. Even before the partnership started, Bodley had moved towards a more elegant, smooth style based on early C14 English Decorated, a development with which Garner was in sympathy. The change reflected a wider debate in artistic circles, but many later commentators saw it as a regression and this perception is only now being challenged. In Sussex, Haywards Heath was an early example of this new found concern for elegance and restraint, whilst Danehill shows how this approach was developed in Bodley’s mature late work. During the final part of his life, despite severe lameness, Bodley maintained a high rate of work, as he did until his death. His renown grew, though he was not elected a full RA until 1902.
Lit: E P Warren: Life and Work of G F Bodley, RIBAJ 17, pp305-36; M Hall: George Frederick Bodley and the Later Gothic Revival in England and America, 2014; DNB
Designed: Brighton and Hove, – Annunciation (1864 – attr, probably incorrectly); – St Mary Magdalene, Bread Street (1864 – dem 1950); – St Michael (1858-61, later extended); – Danehill (1892); Haywards Heath, – St Wilfrid (1863-65)
Restored/altered: Brighton and Hove, – St Paul (1865-74); Cuckfield (1855-56 and 1880); Hurst Green (1906 – supervised); New Shoreham (c1876 – report); West Blatchington (1855 – not executed)
Fittings: Brighton and Hove, – St Barnabas, reredos; Buxted, – St Mary, reredos (gone); Cuckfield, screen
C B Bone
Charles Belfield Bone (1862-1942) was born in Devon, the son of an attorney who was able to send him to school at Radley. Thereafter he was articled to the leading Exeter practice of John Hayward (1808-91) and Son. After that, he moved to London, where he worked in the office of Sir T G Jackson and then became a partner of F A Coles and H C Rogers. He continued the practice after the others died and spent the last years of his life back in Devon at Budleigh Salterton, Devon.
Lit: BAL Biog file
Altered: Brighton and Hove, – St John, Palmeira Square, Hove (1906-07)
A Booker
Alexander Booker (1842-1914) was born in Liverpool into a Roman Catholic family and two of his brothers were also active as stained glass artists and painters. Clement (1844-1931) was by 1901 living in Youghall, Ireland, where he spent the rest of his life. Eustachius (also known as Eustace (1854-1931)) was initially active in London but the US censuses for 1910 and 1920 show him living in Chicago, Illinois, though he had returned to London before his death. Alexander in 1878 was working on his own at 64 Portland Road, Notting Hill and between 1880 and 1894 in Euston Square (KD/L). In 1881 he was unmarried and living with Eustachius, but shortly afterwards he married and his wife’s maiden name was Buckley. No relationship with M J C Buckley (see this section below) of Cox, Son and Buckley has been demonstrated but one is quite likely since Alexander is known to have worked for the firm. The fact that Buckley returned to Youghall after his business in London got into difficulties is further evidence of a link, since it seems inconceivable that he did not know Clement Booker who was living there by that time. Alexander disappears from KD/L after 1894 and in the late 1890s is known to have been active in Bruges, Belgium, but some glass by him at Salhouse, Norfolk is dated as late as 1899 and by the time of his death he was living in London again.
Glass: Westfield
J Booth
John Booth (1759-1843) was the son of a bricklayer who became a London architect, specialising mostly in domestic architecture. He is likely to be the John Booth, surveyor, who is shown in a directory of 1811 at 33 Devonshire Street, Queen Square. Pigot’s Directory of 1839 lists him as surveyor and architect at 34 Red Lion Square and in 1841 he is described as ‘independent’.
Extended: Ore (old) (1821)
H T Bosdet
The unusual surname of Henry Thomas Bosdet (1856-1934) derives from his Jersey ancestry. He was born there, but lived from an early age in London; his father was a sea captain. He studied painting at the RA Schools, where he was for many years Curator of the Life School, but also taught at Islington College of Art and designed glass. He was living near Staines in 1891 and by 1901 in Chiswick, where he had his glass-making studio. In 1920 he returned to Jersey, but a window of 1924 at St Nicholas, Warwick shows he did not give up all work on the mainland immediately. Subsequently he spent a few years in Provence before returning once more to Jersey where he died. He had always kept up his connection with the Channel Islands and much of his glass is found there. A characteristic of Bosdet’s glass is his use of a full range of colours except on the faces, many of which are monochrome sepia. The presence of his glass in three relatively nearby churches in Sussex suggests a common link that is now lost.
Glass: Easebourne; Midhurst; Terwick
Bournemouth School of Art
No school of this precise name, of which there is a record dating from 1923 has been identified, but it seems likely that it is the same as the Bournemouth Municipal College of Art or a component of it. This merged in turn with a college in Poole in 1964 and is now part of the recently established Arts University Bournemouth. No name has been associated with the only work in Sussex given to the School, nor is there any known explanation for this isolated commission.
Memorial: Lewes, – St Anne
R Bowles
Richard Bowles (who is documented between 1721 and 1765) was a London mason who lived in Shoreditch. Only two works by him are known, one memorial at Broxbourne, Hertfordshire and the font at Glynde, for which he was paid £20. The latter is the last known reference to him.
Carved: Glynde, font
H Braddock
Henry Braddock (1900-75) was a student at the Architectural Association from 1919 and taught there for five years. He then entered the office of Frank Verity (1864-1937), who was known mainly for his theatres and cinemas. Braddock worked on these and met A W Kenyon, who like him was to design a church in Crawley. Together they worked on plans for Greater London. In 1950 he set up in practice with D F Martin-Smith and from 1955 at the latest until 1970 they were located in the east gallery of St John’s church in St John’s Wood, London. In 1964 there was another partner, recorded only as Lipley, who worked with Martin-Smith when designing St Andrew, Sidcup, Kent. Braddock retired to Dumfries, where he took up painting.
Lit: BAL Biog file; Obit: RIBAJ 82 (April 1975) p9
Designed: Crawley, – St Mary (1958)
D Brandon
David Brandon (1813-97), was a London architect, who was articled to George Smith (1782-1869) and also studied at the RA Schools. From 1838-51 his partner was Thomas Henry Wyatt (1807-80), a major restorer of churches in the west of England, especially Wiltshire, though both did most of their work independently. As a Jew, Brandon at this stage of his career would not have expected to work extensively on churches, though some instances are known, most frequently when he was working on a country house and undertook a commission from the same client to do work on a nearby church; at Child Okeford, Dorset he was involved in 1850 with Wyatt in the building of a new south aisle. In the later 1850s and 1860s, when working on his own, he designed or restored more churches, notably in Buckinghamshire, where he also worked on several public buildings in and around Aylesbury. Many of his houses were in the Elizabethan style, including Bayham on the Kent/Sussex border, and he also designed several clubs.
Lit: BAL Biog file; Obit: RIBAJ 4 (1897) p144
Restored: Salehurst (1861)
E F Brickdale E Fortescue-Brickdale
Mary Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale (1872-1945) (both versions as above of her name are found) was the daughter of a barrister, who trained as a painter at the RA Schools and exhibited extensively, chiefly as a watercolourist and illustrator. Despite lingering doubts at the time about the propriety of a woman earning her living in this way, she was prolific and the books she illustrated were highly regarded. From 1902 she had a studio in Holland Park until the end of her career, which was cut short by ill health. Her style could fairly be described as in a languid late Pre-Raphaelite idiom, though she was too young to have had direct contact with the founders of the Brotherhood, and at her death many saw her as the last of the Pre-Raphaelites. As well as illustrating books and painting, she designed tiles and stained glass, the last of which was made by John Vicat Cole (whose career is not well documented) and by Burlison and Grylls (see this section below). It is not known whether she had any contractual relationship with the latter firm; glass by them both is to be found amongst other places in Bristol cathedral. There is also a bronze figure by her on a World War I war memorial in York minster, but the circumstances of its design and manufacture are unknown.
Lit: NAL Information file. Also, Ann Carling has provided much valuable information.
Glass: Little Horsted; Newtimber
D Briggs
Douglas Briggs has given his name to a practice at Bosham, Douglas Briggs Partnership. Previously he worked as an architect for West Sussex County Council, with a special interest in conservation. According to their website, the practice has worked on the restoration and extension of several churches in West Sussex, but no specific examples are given.
Extended: Appledram (2008 – planned)
E P L Brock Habershon and Brock
Edgar Philip Loftus Brock (1833-95) came of an old Guernsey family and from 1851 was a pupil of W G and M E Habershon. When the brothers’ partnership ended, he became managing clerk and partner of M E Habershon, who on retirement in 1879 made over the practice to Brock. It is not always clear which buildings before this date are by Brock alone; those dating from later do not reveal great talent. For works which were definitely or probably done in conjunction with M E Habershon, see under the latter. Brock prided himself on his understanding of the gothic and was elected FSA, but until the end of his life his restorations of churches were in a manner so drastic that his approach fell foul of the SPAB.
Lit: BAL Biog file; Obit: Arch J 2 p221
Designed: Copthorne (1877-80); Hammerwood (1878-80); Iping (1885); Iping Marsh (1878 – demolished); Newhaven, Christ Church (1880 – dem 1965); Ore (new) (1869)
Restored/extended: Broadwater (nd); Dallington (1864); Southwick (reports – 1876 and 1885)
J Brooks
James Brooks (1825-1901) was born near Wantage, Berkshire, which was to become an early centre of Tractarianism. Initially he helped on his father’s farm and developed several new pieces of agricultural equipment, but became increasingly interested in architecture. He moved to London to work in the office of the little known Lewis Stride (1796/97-1864), whom he continued to assist until he started his own practice in 1853, though Baggallay suggests he was also a pupil of Thomas Leverton Donaldson (1795-1885), as well as studying at the RA Schools. His first works were mostly houses, but he was increasingly influenced by W Butterfield (see this section below), G E Street and W White (all of whom he knew) and designed his first church in 1860. Soon after he evolved the type of church, which filled the rest of his career – large town churches, mostly of brick, in a simple Gothic based on C13 French work. They were well suited to the High Church ritual with which he sympathised and were mostly in poorer areas, notably in East and North London. He lived in Stoke Newington in a house he had designed. Brooks was admired for his ability to design churches cheaply, though they were well built. He never changed his C13 sources, perhaps because his emphasis on line rather than decoration already looked ahead to the late Victorian period. He was Diocesan Architect of Canterbury and a consulting architect to the ICBS.
Lit: I Mills: The Craftsmen of St Margaret’s, 2006 (Chapter 5); BAL Biog file; Tribute by F T Baggallay in AR 10 pp218-24; DNB
Designed: Hastings, – St Peter (1883-85)
W Brooks
William Brooks signed an application to the ICBS in connection with work at Westhampnett in 1831, together with someone recorded only as Pelham, who was probably a builder or carpenter. The name William Brooks is too common to allow any of the men of that name in Sussex in the earliest census of 1841 to be identified as the same.
Altered: Westhampnett (1831-32)
R Brough
Robert W Brough (1912-94) was a chartered architect with an address of 13 Ambrose Place, Worthing. He first appears in a directory in 1951 and was working for the local practice of M Rainsford Fletcher and Partners when in 1958 he designed a Baptist church in Findon Valley nearby. He appears then to have been in practice on his own and though the last definite reference was in 1978, there is no doubt that he designed an extension for St Botolph Heene in 1982.
Extended: Worthing, – St Botolph, Heene 1982
A Brown
Alexander Brown is described as a surveyor on application to the ICBS for the extension of Lodsworth church in 1842/43. On that occasion he was working with a local builder, J Grist, and it is likely that he too was living in the area. The most likely person was a land agent of the name who was born in Scotland in 1802/03 and was living in Easebourne as late as 1861. However, no one of the correct name and occupation is listed in directories covering the area for the period.
Reconstructed: Lodsworth (1842)
F M Brown
Ford Madox Brown (1821-93) was born in Calais, but trained in Belgium as well as Paris as a painter; he was also influenced by the German Nazarenes. After returning to England he became close to the Pre-Raphaelites, though he was never a member of the Brotherhood. His acquaintance with D G Rossetti led to him meeting W Morris and he was one of the founders of Morris and Co. He designed glass and furniture for the company on its early years, but his involvement ceased after 1874. In the 1880s he spent several years in Manchester, working on murals for the new town hall, but his subsequent career was uneven.
Glass: Brighton and Hove, – St Michael
J W Brown
John William Brown (1842-1928) was born at Newcastle upon Tyne, where he trained as an artist after an apprenticeship with a firm of decorators whose work included stained glass. In 1869 he moved to London, where he worked initially for Morris and Co before in 1874 he joined J Powell and Sons, where his earliest design dates from the following year, though he did not initially display much originality, basing his work on other designers such as H Holiday. He was a painter as well as a designer of glass, with a style that remained close to that of the Aesthetic movement, and he also designed mosaics. He left Powell’s in 1886 to establish his own studio and worked from 1891-94 in Melbourne, Australia. His association with Powell’s continued on a freelance basis for the rest of his active life and included windows at several cathedrals, notably Liverpool. However, during this later period most of his designs for others were for H Holiday, whom he would have known when both were at Powell’s. He also produced work for the Gateshead Glass Company, thereby retaining links to his native area, and for Fouracre and Watson of Plymouth, for whom he produced numerous designs, even when still employed by Powell’s.
Glass: Aldingbourne; Bishopstone; Burpham; Crawley, – St Margaret, Ifield; East Hoathly; Eastbourne, – St Saviour (glass destroyed); Harting; Hastings, – St Helen, Ore (new); Lewes, – St John, Southover (attr); – St Michael, South Malling; Maresfield; Newick; Pulborough; Rye; Stonegate; Tarring Neville; West Firle; Worthing, – St Botolph, Heene
R Brown
There are references to Robert Brown between 1823 and 1857 at an address at 58 Great Russell Street London; a fuller identification is impossible. He worked in both the classical and gothic styles and though the monument signed ‘R Brown’ at Horsted Keynes is not recorded by Roscoe, the date of 1854 leaves little doubt that Robert Brown is the sculptor. One in the gothic style in Sunderland minster bears the latest date of 1841. This too is not in Roscoe and the considerable geographical spread suggests that Brown’s output was prolific and that other works by him are waiting to be identified. One R Brown of Drury Lane, London, known from a single monument of 1827 in St George, Bloomsbury, London (Roscoe p148). is unlikely to be the same as the address given there co-incides with Robert Brown’s known dates in Great Russell Street.
(My thanks to Ian Stubbs for telling me about the monument in Sunderland Minster)
Monument: Horsted Keynes
Browne and Co
No London mason of this name is known to have been in business in 1807, the date of the memorial signed in this name at Mayfield. However, there is Joseph Browne, who first appears in 1814 and disappears after 1845. He seems the most likely on the assumption that the monument was supplied later than the date of death, as was not uncommon. He was a supplier of marble who was involved in the fitting out of Buckingham Palace in the 1820s and also produced quite a few monuments, which are widely spread over the southern half of England.
Monument: Mayfield
—- Brunton
Nothing is known of this purveyor of ornamental glazing of Kensington, beyond the single reference in 1880.
Glass: Hammerwood
H W Bryans
Herbert William Bryans (1855-1925) was the son of the incumbent of Tarvin, Cheshire and was educated at Haileybury and Cambridge. Thereafter he spent 10 years as a tea-planter in Ceylon and two further years making wine in France. Only then did he become a pupil of Clayton and Bell. He was also close to C E Kempe, to whose work his glass is very similar and for whom his early work was mostly done. This can be distinguished by his greyhound rebus. Although he designed glass at Salle, Norfolk between 1882 and 1896, his earliest known business address dates only from 1898, when he is to be found at 38 Chester Terrace, NW, where he remained until he moved in 1911 to 12 Mornington Crescent (KD/L). From 1902 to 1921 he worked with E Heasman, much of whose work is also signed with the greyhound. Heasman was also involved with G Webb, as was Bryans, though it is uncertain how far the arrangements were formalised, since throughout this time Bryans signed work in his name only and is never listed with either supposed partner in KD/L. The link with Webb appears nevertheless to have lasted some time, since there are windows by Bryans and Webb dated between 1905 at Shipton Moyne, Gloucestershire and Thurlstone, West Yorkshire and 1919 at Hacheston, Suffolk. From 1924 Bryans is listed (KD/L) with his son only, and the company continued in the name of both until at least 1928, three years after the father’s death. It seems unlikely that the son, James Lonsdale Bryans (1893-1981), was in fact very active in the business, since he was a keen traveller and later a Fascist sympathiser. During World War II he aroused the suspicion of both the Foreign Office and MI5 because of his attempts to promote a negotiated end to the war. Bryans senior also designed public sculptures, such as the Stella memorial of 1901 in Southampton, though it is not known whether he carved them himself.
Glass: Horsham, – St Mary; Lewes, – St John the Baptist, Southover; Streat
W Bryder
William Bryder was the surveyor responsible for work at Northchapel in 1833. He was probably local, but no such person appears in contemporary directories. However, Mrs Harriet Bryder of Northchapel, (1786/87 or 1789/90-1882), who was a widow in 1841 and gave her profession as builder, is likely to be connected. By 1851 she had become a farmer and remained so until 1881. Others of the name in the parish, e g William Bryder (b1822/23), a carpenter in 1871, are probably relatives, though his father was called Thomas.
Altered: Northchapel (1832-33 – mostly replaced)
C A Buckler
Charles Alban Buckler (1824-1905) was one of the five sons of J C Buckler (see immediately below). Interested in heraldry and church history, he became a Roman Catholic in 1844 and subsequently designed many Catholic churches and often their related schools. He was probably his father’s partner when in 1850-52 J C Buckler and Son undertook the restoration of two Anglican churches in Somerset and at least nominally the same partnership designed a mansion together in Northumberland as late as c1876. The son alone is also known to have worked on Hildersham church (Anglican) in Cambridgeshire in 1878. His reconstruction of Arundel Castle for the Duke of Norfolk (1874-1905) accounts for his work on the Fitzalan Chapel there. On occasion he worked in the Italianate style, particularly two mansions in Piccadilly.
Lit: BAL Biog file.
Restored: Arundel – Fitzalan Chapel (1885-1902)
J C Buckler
John Chessel Buckler (1793-1894) belonged to a family of architects – both his father, whose practice he took over in 1826, and his son, C A Buckler (see immediately above) belonged to the profession. J C Buckler worked mainly in and around Oxford, including church restorations as early as 1831, and also restored Lincoln and Norwich cathedrals. He won second prize in the competition for the new Palace of Westminster and is said to have practised until his 90th year, though his obituary called him primarily ‘a well known Oxfordshire antiquary’ – he was also an accomplished artist and wrote on mediaeval architecture. He was in partnership with one of his five sons, almost certainly C A Buckler, by the early 1850s and the partnership is recorded as late as 1876. This may well have been in name only, for according to the DNB he produced little architecture after 1860 and concentrated his attention on antiquarian research, as his obituary suggests. Much of his secular work was in the Tudor style. For a short time he advised the Cambridge Camden Society, notably when he worked with John Mason Neale (1818-66) on the restoration of Old Shoreham.
Obit: The Times 12 Jan 1894; DNB on his Father (John Buckler)
Restored: Old Shoreham (1839-40)
M J C Buckley
Michael Joseph Cunningham Buckley (1848/49-1905) was of Irish birth and in part at least trained at Louvain, Belgium. He was in London, calling himself an artist in stained glass, in 1873 with an address in the New Road. KD/L 1879 reveals him in partnership with someone called Thomson at 72 Wigmore Street and 69 Wells Street. Nothing is known about this episode, which was brief for in the following year he appears at the same Wigmore Street address by himself. In 1881 he became a partner of Cox and Son, which was renamed Cox, Sons, Buckley and Co, and in 1891 was living as an unmarried lodger in Buckingham Street, Westminster, describing himself vaguely as ‘in manufacture’ and an employer. The firm experienced financial problems in the 1890s and after it had been bought out, Buckley returned to Ireland and established a stained glass and metal works, using in part Belgian workers. A window of 1903 in Burgh Castle, Suffolk, is signed ‘M J C Buckley, Youghal’, but the venture was cut short by his relatively early death.
Lit: Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720-1940 [on-line version]
Glass: Slaugham
J S Bucknall
John Samuel Bucknall (1917-89) was the great nephew of Sir J N Comper, with whom he worked from 1936, chiefly in connection with commissions for stained glass, in which Comper increasingly specialised. Bucknall assisted particularly with its installation and became a partner after World War II. He took over Comper’s studio and continued to produce glass in a very similar style until 1968.
Glass: Pulborough
K Budd
Kenneth George Budd (1925-95) trained at the Royal College of Art and became a mosaicist, as well as designing stained glass. He lived for a while in Westerham, Kent and in 1963 established a workshop for mosaics in Robertsbridge. In 1980 this was taken over by his son, Oliver, under whom it still exists.
Glass: Portslade, – Good Shepherd, Mile Oak
W Burges
William Burges (1827-81) was the son of a wealthy engineer in London, who was articled to E Blore (see this section above) before joining the office of Matthew Digby Wyatt (1820-77). He had an informal partnership with H Clutton from 1851 and was heavily influenced by A W N Pugin. He also had links with the Pre-Raphaelites and used their glass and fittings in his churches. He produced designs for furniture, plate and jewellery, as well as being responsible for laying out the Mediaeval Court at the International Exhibition of 1862 in London. One of the most imaginative of Victorian architects, he could design on the grandest scale and more simply. His work shows much subtle variation of detail, e g in the design of tracery. He travelled extensively and his designs show much French influence.
Lit: J M Crook: William Burges and the High Victorian Dream, 1981
Designed: Crawley, Lowfield Heath (1867-68)
Extended: Brighton and Hove, – St Michael (designed 1865 and built 1893); Eastbourne, – Holy Trinity (1861)
C Burgess
Clement Burgess was established as a statuary and architect in Petworth by 1828, where he is known to have provided work for the house. He died in 1855, though he does not appear either in PD 1840 or in the censuses of 1841 and 1851.
Memorial: Fittleworth
D Burgess
Debbie Burgess of Southwick (who also uses her maiden name of Forsdyke) is a watercolour painter as well as both a painter on glass and a designer of stained glass. She studied in Brighton as a mature student under Keith Nickells and now teaches at Hove City College.
Glass: Chailey, – St Peter.
N Burgis
Norman Leslie Sewell Burgis (1912-79) was a long established architect in Ringmer. He was celebrated in the hunting community for the pack of basset hounds that he kept and hunted.
Repaired: Brighton and Hove, – St Matthias (1966-67); Coldwaltham (1967-71)
Burke and Co W H Burke and Co
William Henry Burke (1835-1908) was in 1871 a marble manufacturer with works at 17 Newman Street, London, where he also lived. Ten years later he was a marble merchant at Ampthill Square, St Pancras and proclaimed that his firm had a branch in Paris. In fact by then he specialised in mosaic flooring and he wrote a Short History of Marble Mosaic Pavements, published in c1900. In this he stated that his firm had laid over 1 million square feet of pavements throughout Europe and the USA, employing artists including Millais and Leighton as designers. He called himself the ‘parent of modern mosaic in England’, though at his death he left the modest amount of £1565. Varied confirmation of his prominence is provided by work at the new Law Courts in the Strand and in the Criterion restaurant in Piccadilly Circus. The firm or one with the same name also produced decorative schemes in marble e g that of 1883-85 in St Mary. Marylebone, London and at least one marble font, at St Chad and St Mary, Plaistow (East London). In addition, the firm is known to have made fireplaces and memorials; one of the latter is said to be as early as 1820, in which case the company lasted for at least two generations, though Burke’s own father was in a quite different line of business.
Fittings: Brighton and Hove, – St Mary, mosaic floor; Worthing, – St Andrew, West Tarring, mosaics
Memorials: Hastings, All Saints; Northiam; Nuthurst
Burlison and Grylls
John Burlison (1843-91) and Thomas John Grylls (1845-1913) became partners in 1868, with an address at 23 Newman Street (KD/L) at a remarkably young age. Burlison was the son of Sir George G Scott‘s chief assistant, also John (1810-68). Both partners trained at Clayton and Bell, where Grylls who was a particularly gifted draftsman, was already employed on major contracts at the age of 17. Their partnership was encouraged by Bodley and Garner (see this section above), who subsequently patronised them extensively; unsurprisingly, they also made glass for Sir George G Scott the later part of his life and for George G Scott junior. They became one of the leading late C19 studios and, like Kempe, found inspiration in both late mediaeval and early renaissance glass, as well as contemporary art. The firm continued under John Gryll’s son H Grylls at a studio in Great Ormond Street, London until his death in 1953. During this time the firm used outside artists such as E F Brickdale (EFB) (see this section above).
Glass: Arundel; Battle; Bexhill, – St Peter; Bolney; Brighton and Hove, – St Mary; – St Peter, West Blatchington; Crawley Down (attr); East Grinstead, – St Swithun; Eridge Green; Groombridge; Haywards Heath, – St Wilfrid; Hastings, – Christ Church, London Road; Linchmere; Little Horsted (EFB); Midhurst; Mountfield; Warbleton; West Lavington; Willingdon; Woodmancote
T Burman
Thomas Burman (1617/18-1674) was apprenticed to E Marshall and was a successful carver of tombs and metal engraver. Following a difficult period during the Commonwealth, he had a sizeable workshop in Covent Garden, which was taken over by his widow. Only three confirmed monuments by him survive, but others can be ascribed to him with confidence on stylistic grounds. Amongst his pupils was J Bushnell (see this section below), who was similarly responsible for a monument at Ashburnham.
Lit: DNB
Memorial: Ashburnham (attr); Cuckfield (attr); Tillington (attr)
Sir E Burne-Jones
Sir Edward Burne-Jones (1833-98) was born in Birmingham, the son of a carver and gilder, and did not formally hyphenate his name until he became a baronet in 1894. While still at school he came under the influence of the Oxford Movement and with a view to ordination, he studied at Oxford. There he met W Morris and, after encountering the Pre-Raphaelites, found himself increasingly drawn towards becoming an artist. After some training from D G Rossetti and G F Watts he enjoyed the support of John Ruskin and acquainted himself with the Italian renaissance. He quickly became successful, first as a painter and then a designer of stained glass. His earliest glass dates from 1856 and was made for J Powell and Sons. At a slightly later date he also produced work for Lavers and Barraud, but in 1861 he moved to what became Morris and Co, of which he was a partner. He designed almost all their glass, often in surrounds designed by Morris himself, until his death and many of his designs were used repeatedly. This practice was already common during his lifetime and continued afterwards; his designs were still being used posthumously in the early 1930s. In his later years he was criticised by younger stained glass artists imbued with the principles of the Arts and Crafts movement on the grounds that he never painted his own glass, but his status as the pre-eminent stained glass designer of his era remained assured. In addition to glass, he designed tapestries and book illustrations. By the end of a successful career, he was seen as one of the greatest late Victorian artists, an assessment that has endured. He spent his later years at Rottingdean.
Lit: M Harrison and B Waters: Burne-Jones, 1973
Fittings: Brighton and Hove – St Paul, altarpiece (formerly), – St Peter, Preston, altar-painting (attr – very doubtful and now stolen)
Glass: See under Morris and Co for his works
T Burnell
Thomas Burnell can be traced in London between 1733 and 1749 (the respective dates of his two known monuments) and he may be related to later sculptors of the same name who were active in London as late as 1841.
Memorial: Cuckfield
H Burrow
Harry John Burrow (1846-82) was a freelance artist whose designs for J Powell and Sons are known from around 1872 until the mid-1880s when he was already dead. As with others of their designers at this time, very little is known about him. There is no reason to suppose a link to the only other glass-makers of the name, A and F Burrow, who appear never to have worked outside the North West.
Glass: East Grinstead, – St Swithun
R E Burstow
Ralph Ernest Burstow (1922-2002) was a pupil of C F Callow in St Leonards, whose partner he became in 1949. Burstow remained in St Leonards in 1976 and the practice of Callow and Burstow still existed in 1979, when it had moved to Battle.
Lit: BAL Biog file for Callow
Repaired: Hastings, – St Leonard, Hollington (1964-72)
D Burton
Decimus Burton (1800-81) was the son of J Burton (see immediately below). He went to school at Tonbridge (he later did a lot of work in the area) and then trained under his father, while studying at the RA Schools. He was in independent practice from 1823 and was closely associated with George IV’s favourite architect, John Nash, with whom his father had business associations, though there is no evidence, as has been claimed, that he worked in his office. With Nash, Decimus worked on villas and terraces in Regent’s Park and became highly successful at an early age, mainly in the Grecian style, even before travelling to Greece and Italy. Major works in London included the Athenaeum Club and the screen and Wellington arch at Hyde Park Corner and, in Dublin, Phoenix Park. He also worked in the Italianate and gothic styles, but was never at home in the last. His practice was widespread geographically, as just about his last church restoration of 1850 at Launceston, Cornwall shows, but very shortly after this he withdrew from architecture except for some work for private patrons and at Kew Gardens. In 1869 he retired finally to a cottage in St Leonards.
Lit: G Williams: Augustus Pugin versus Decimus Burton, a Victorian Architectural Duel, 1990; DNB
Designed: Eastbourne, Holy Trinity (1837-39 – altered); Flimwell (1839 – altered); Goring (1836-38)
J Burton
James Burton (1761-1837), the father of D Burton (see immediately above), was born of Scottish descent and named Haliburton, though he shortened his name to Burton at an early age. He trained as a surveyor and was involved in large housing developments in London (including much of Bloomsbury), becoming the most successful developer of the age in London. He was closely associated with John Nash in his development of Regent’s Park and Regent Street. His own designs were few and not greatly distinguished, though the first church of St Leonard was his work. He acquired a mansion outside Tonbridge, Kent and late in life, to the initial alarm of his son, bought a large estate west of Hastings, on which he laid out St Leonards.
Lit: BAL Biog file; DNB
Designed: Hastings, – St Leonard (1831-34 – bombed and rebuilt to a different design)
T T Bury
Thomas Talbot Bury (1809-77) was a pupil of A C Pugin from 1824 and started independent practice in 1830 and designed several churches in the 1830s in a resolutely non-archaeological style. He appears also to have been assistant to L Vulliamy and in the 1840s he had a partner, Charles Lee, of whom nothing is known. His approach to the gothic style was transformed after he started work with A W N Pugin on the Palace of Westminster, mainly on the detail. This work brought him into contact with Sir Charles Barry who encourage him to go into partnership with his son, Charles Barry junior. In addition to a practice which centred on churches, he was a skilled watercolourist and engraver, who published a number of books with his own illustrations. It was presumably the latter skills that led him to the design of stained glass. He displayed some glass at the Great Exhibition of 1851 (Catalogue p127 item 64) which appears to have been in a manufactured state, but no example of his work in this medium is known. The practice continued after Talbot Bury’s death as Talbot Bury and Henig though the latter has not been further identified. This practice designed a church in Streatham (no longer extant) as late as 1889.
Lit: BAL Biog file; DNB
Designed: Burgess Hill, – St John (1861-63, 1875)
C A Busby
Charles Augustin Busby (1788-1834) was articled to Daniel Asher Alexander (1768-1846) in London, whom he assisted in designing new docks and warehouses. He went into practice on his own and prospered early, for in 1809 he designed the Commercial Rooms in Bristol, a club for merchants which still exists. However, after the failure of a new type of roof he designed, he moved to America in 1817. Returning to London in 1819, he worked for Francis Goodwin (1784-1835), but after further disputes about roofs in 1824 he moved to Brighton. There he worked for Thomas Kemp, the developer of Kemp Town. He was particularly involved with Kemp’s builder, A Wilds and his son A H Wilds, an architect who was briefly a partner. They were responsible for much work in Kemp Town and Brunswick Town, which Busby undertook on his own initiative. The partnership ended acrimoniously and he resumed work on his own but got into severe financial difficulties. He is buried at Hove old parish church.
Lit: N Bingham: C A Busby – The Regency Architect of Brighton and Hove, 1991
Designed: Brighton and Hove, – St George (1824-25 – attr); – St Margaret (1824 – dem)
R Bushby
Robert Bushby (1813-91) was born at West Tarring and appears in directories from 1855 as a builder at Arundel Road, Littlehampton. He was contractor for several major church restorations, including R C Carpenter‘s at St Nicolas, Brighton and for the foundations of Sir George G Scott’s rebuilt tower at Chichester cathedral. He has been named as the designer of one church (St John, Littlehampton), but there are grounds for doubting this and he may only have been the contractor, as might more readily be expected. His most prominent construction work was carried out in the 1870s was the expansion of Littlehampton to provide more accommodation for visitors.
Designed(?): Littlehampton, – St John (1877 – dem 1976)
J Bushnell
John Bushnell (1636-1701) was apprenticed to Thomas Burman (see this section above) but experienced major problems and went abroad precipitately. He seems to have gone first to France and it is known for certain that he went to Venice (where there is at least one piece of work given to him), but he probably also visited Austria and Flanders. He would have seen much baroque sculpture there and after his return to London in 1667 was one of the first English sculptors to work in this style, though he was by no means always prosperous, perhaps because he was visibly deficient in what he had learned. Notoriously difficult as a person, he died insane.
Lit: K Gibson: The Trials of John Bushnell, Sculpture Journal 6 (2001) pp49-60; DNB
Memorials: Ashburnham; Mid Lavant
A E Buss
Arthur Edward Buss (1905-99) was born in Catford, south London, the son of a railway office porter. It is not known how his artistic gifts first became evident, but he studied glassmaking at Camberwell School of Art under W Aikman, with whom he then worked until opening his own studio in 1937. In 1946 he was invited to become designer for the newly established Goddard and Gibbs and after his retirement in 1970 settled at Langney, Eastbourne, where he died. He designed at least one window at Weston-super-Mare using the dalle de verre technique, an abstract design using pieces of glass embedded in concrete.
Obit: JSG 23 (1999) pp98-99
Glass: Eastbourne, – St Elisabeth; – St Mary (from St George); – St Richard, Langney; Lewes, – St Anne; Lodsworth; Pevensey Bay
J Butler
Joseph Butler (1804-84), born at Parndon, Essex, was resident as an architect, surveyor and builder (KD/S 1851) in The Cloisters, Chichester from about 1833 and worked widely in West and Mid-Sussex. The first recorded reference to him in the county was in 1833-35, when he was the contractor for the rebuilding of Old St Andrew, Hove. He soon appears to have left such work behind him and his best known achievement during his time in Sussex was as surveyor,of the cathedral, where he supervised R C Carpenter’s restoration from 1846; his measured drawings of the tower and spire were praised by Sir George G Scott in his Recollections for their value during the rebuilding after the collapse of 1861. This close contact with mediaeval gothic may have been the cause of the marked advance in the understanding of the style that some of his own designs at the time demonstrate. However, when in 1849 he designed Bishop Otter College after a dispute with J Elliott, the latter dismissed Butler as ‘a builder employed by the Chapter’ and an ‘interloper in his profession’ (B 7 p29). There is some truth in this – by 1850 he had reverted to being primarily a surveyor, both at the cathedral and for the building of St Peter the Great to Carpenter’s designs. For unknown reasons he left the town around 1855 and in 1861 the census shows he was working in Sherborne, Dorset, still as a surveyor. However, he does not appear in either KD/Dorset 1859 or Harrod’s Directory for Dorset and Wiltshire for 1865, so his stay in the town appears to have been short. His only known previous connection with Dorset was in 1849-50, when on a rare foray outside Sussex he worked on Whitechurch Canonicorum church. By 1871 he was living in Regent’s Park, London describing himself as secretary to a public company, suggesting some prosperity. However, in 1881 he was a widower and lodger in Truro, Cornwall. His wanderings were not over, for he died at Chester in 1884, where he had probably gone because his son William was a colliery proprietor in Denbighshire nearby.
Designed: Chichester, – St. Paul (1836); – St Peter the Great (1848-52 – worked as surveyor for R C Carpenter); Plaistow (1853-54); Stanmer (1838 – attr); Stedham (1850)
Restored/extended: Appledram (1845); Bosham (1845); Brighton and Hove, – St Andrew, Hove (1833-35 – contractor); Compton (1849-51); Fishbourne (1847); Forest Row (1850); Lower Beeding (1852 – unexecuted); Mid Lavant (1844); Pagham (1838); Pyecombe (1842 – examined); Sidlesham (1840 – unexecuted); Southwick (1835 – extent of involvement uncertain); Stoughton (1844); Upper Beeding (1852)
W Butterfield
William Butterfield (1814-1900) was never a member of the RIBA and came of a nonconformist background. He was born in London and was first apprenticed to a builder in Pimlico until his father’s circumstances improved sufficiently for him to change to architecture as a pupil of E L Blackburne (see this section above). He had developed an early interest in mediaeval architecture and after Blackburne he had brief spells in the offices of H W and W Inwood and an architect in Worcester. Geoff Brandwood (ET 51 p80) has identified the latter as Harvey Eginton (1810-49), a prominent local architect who both designed and restored churches in the vicinity. He is praised by Alan Brooks in the Buildings of England volume for Worcestershire (p70) as the most forward-thinking church architect in the area and his example could well have impressed Butterfield, who shortly afterwards became an Anglican. He was previously thought to have started his own practice in London in 1840, but Brandwood has established that he was there by 1838 and at around the same time he became involved with the Ecclesiological Society, though he did not join immediately and never took a leading part in the Society’s affairs; contact had ceased by 1854. Ironically, what may be his first commission was a nonconformist chapel in Bristol. From the start, his practice centred on churches, of which he is said to have designed about a hundred, and related buildings such as parsonages and schools. Despite continuing doubts about specifically ritualistic practices, before 1850 he had become one of the leading architects of the High Church party under the patronage of men such as Alexander James Beresford Hope (1820-87). Many of his major churches were associated with attempts to bring the faith to the poorer parts of towns and cities and are in brick, generally regarded as a cheap material. In fact, Butterfield chose expensive, carefully finished bricks and by using different, contrasting colours created what became known as polychromy. Even many contemporaries found this strident and much was later whitewashed, though in some cases this recently been reversed. Despite using such widely available materials, he sometimes used local ones, as at West Lavington. As well as designing churches, he restored many, besides designing fittings and glass; among those who produced glass for him under his close supervision were the Horwood Brothers and A Gibbs. In his later years he also developed an interest in mosaic decoration, shown in Sussex at West Tarring. As a person, Butterfield cannot have been easy. His dislike of publicity and inflexibility were renowned and Harry Redfern, one of his two known pupils (the other was H Woodyer, though the extent of this has been questioned) claimed he was never seen to smile, though he had a circle of loyal friends.
Lit: P Thompson: William Butterfield, 1971; P Howell and A Saint: Butterfield Revisited (Victorian Society Studies vol 6), 2017; DNB
Designed: West Lavington (1850)
Restored: Battle (1867-69); Bexhill, – St Peter (1877-79 and 1892); Hastings, – All Saints (1869-70); – St Clement (1872-76); Seaford (1858 – consulted); Wisborough Green (1868 – wrongly attr); Worthing, – St Andrew, West Tarring (1878? and 1882-86)
Fittings: Brighton and Hove, – St Patrick, lectern; Hastings, – All Saints; West Lavington, reredos
Glass: Brighton and Hove, – St Patrick