— van Daele
A designer of stained glass named — van Daele appears in the records of J Powell and Sons in the early C20. Neither his first name nor, if not British, his nationality is known but he is likely to have been an employee of the company.
Glass: Nutley; Westham
C Dalby
Charles Dalby (1816-97) was listed as an architect in Steyning in 1866 and also had an address in Hurstpierpoint (KD/S). He appears in D 1868 and still gave his occupation as architect in 1881 and in 1891, when he was living at Wyckham Close, Steyning. He was born in Nottingham and must be connected with John Dalby, in 1871 a builder of Steyning (1822/23-1903), who worked on Singleton rectory in 1867 and was also born in Nottinghamshire. There are several Dalbys who were builders or related occupations and were all born in that county, but settled in the south.
Restored: West Chiltington (1880-82)
W Dancy
William Dancy (1832/33-72) was in 1851 clerk to his father, Stephen Dancy (1799-1885), builder of 28 Portland Street, Brighton. In 1858 (Melville’s Directory) and 1861 (KD) William appears to have been an independent builder and surveyor at 42 and then 53 Montpelier Street. In 1867 (KD) he was back in partnership with his father as builders and decorators. The alternation between building and surveying was then common, especially in businesses involving father and son. Stephen remained at 28 Portland Street until his death and either he or his father could have been the ‘Mr Dancy’, the contractor for E Christian‘s restoration of Balcombe in 1873 (B 31 p552).
Designed: Brighton and Hove, – Annunciation (1864)
J Davey
Joseph Davey (1805/06-76) was a builder, who was born in Lewes and was working there by 1851 – in 1861 he was employing 36 men so he had clearly prospered. However, in 1841 he was living at Stanmer, already a builder, and the previous year he drew a plan of Falmer church. He may have been involved in its remodelling the following year, since a draft contract exists with his name.
Remodelled: Falmer (1841 – attr); Hellingly (1835-36 – attr)
N T Davey
Norman T Davey can be traced between 1978 and 1997, during which he was involved with several churches in various other parts of the country.
Fitting: Brighton, – St Paul, altar (1978)
J R F Daviel
For John René Francis Daviel (1913-83), see Clayton and Black.
E C Davies
Edward Cecil Davies (1892-1965) studied at the Architectural Association and assisted Sir Edwin Cooper until he went into independent practice in London in 1920. He designed mainly houses and some churches, especially in Surrey where he lived. In 1929 he went into partnership with L Martin of Waterloo Place and later 25 Haymarket, London.
Lit: BAL Biog file
Extended: Fairwarp (with L Martin) 1931-35
J Davies
See Done and Davies below.
C E Davis
Charles Edward Davis (1827-1902) was an ‘enthusiastic antiquarian’ and as city architect of Bath he discovered and excavated the Roman bath, about which he wrote a book before restoring it to use. He held this position for nearly 40 years and designed many other public buildings, but then fell out with the city authorities. He was a Volunteer and was thus often known as Major Davis. His extensive private practice included restoring and designing churches, many of them in Somerset, and he is probably the person of the same name who had an office in 1868-74 (KD/L) at 3 Westminster Chambers, who in turn may be presumed to be the C E Davis who designed a house in London in 1869 (BN 16 p517). Among Davis’s other work were at least two projects in the Portsmouth area.
Lit: BAL Biog file; Obit: The Builder 83 p504
Restored: Westfield (1860-61)
H Davis
Herbert Davis (1865-after 1940?) worked as a glass-maker in North Finchley, where he had been born, and examples of his work are quite widely distributed. An English glass-maker of the same name is said to have moved to north Texas in 1918, where he worked for the Dallas Art Glass Company. There he made a window for Christ Episcopal Church around 1940 (Church website). In view of his disappearance from the records for the London area after about 1910 and the lack of later dated glass, it seems likely that he was the same.
Glass: Chailey, – St Peter
L Davis
Louis B Davis (1860-1941) trained first as an artist and illustrator, before taking up stained glass. He was an associate of C Whall in Dorking, Surrey and shared his Arts and Crafts sympathies, becoming a member of the Art Workers Guild. His earlier glass appears to have been made by Lowndes and Drury, but later he designed glass for J Powell and Sons from his studio in Pinner and later at Hatch End, both in Middlesex. He was also active in other media besides stained glass and was associated with Henry Wilson, but following severe injuries in a fire in 1915 his rate of new work declined. However, it did not cease entirely, particularly of glass for churches already containing his work. Much of his finest glass is in Scotland, notably at Dunblane cathedral. Martin Harrison comments that his work does not avoid the danger of sentimentality, especially the many prints he did for companies such as the Medici Society.
Glass: Southwick
J Daw
Joseph Daw (c1710-52) married Ann Earl in Framfield in 1735 and in the following year settled in the parish of St John-sub-Castro, Lewes, having moved from the parish of St Michael there. Possibly he came from the town, but his precise place of origin is not known. The next certain reference to him is in 1744 when he is described as a bricklayer and this information was repeated in 1748, when he was additionally a mapmaker. After his death there is a record in 1756 of his widow selling a piece of land he had owned in the parish of St John, so he had clearly prospered.
Repaired/altered: Brightling (1749 – attr); Lewes, – St Michael (1748); – St Thomas (1752 – attr)
A Dawes
Alfred Dawes (1790-1874) is first mentioned in 1835 as a surveyor in connection with his work at Hellingly. By 1837 someone of the same name was at Boreham Street in the parish of Wartling (PB 1837), who in 1851 was a farmer and builder there. In 1855 (KD) he has become a general builder and in later directories he is listed as a plumber, painter and glazier, still at Boreham Street, where he also held the Post Office. In view of the various related occupations, it is likely that all these references are to the same person.
Restored/extended: Hellingly (1835); Wartling (1855)
W Dawes
Not even the first name of this man, said to have been a local builder when he assembled a reredos for Hooe church around 1890, is known for certain. It would be tempting to identify him with William Thomas Dawes (1861-1922, born in Herstmonceux, the son of a glazier), who was a builder there by 1901 and probably well before; otherwise, no builder of the name is listed in Sussex in KD 1891.
Fitting: Hooe, reredos
C Dawson
Clare Dawson (1891-1988) was a pupil and later assistant of M E A Rope at the Glass House in Fulham. She belonged to the group of glass-makers who worked in Putney. Much of her work is to be found in London, where she is said to have designed many windows after World War II, notably in the East End, though no such window is known today.
Glass: East Preston
P Dean
Ptolemy Dean (born 1968) is a leading church conservation architect who is currently Surveyor of the Fabric of Westminster Abbey. He has also worked on the conservation of several country houses and frequently appears on radio and television, as well as writing about architecture.
Extended: Linch (2012)
D W Dearle
Duncan William Dearle (1893-1954) was the son of J H Dearle (see under Morris and Co for whom he was for many years the chief designer). The son followed in his father’s footsteps and after Morris and Co went into liquidation in 1940, he acquired the rights to their designs. He lived in the later part of his life in Burwash and there is a memorial window to him at Burwash Weald.
Glass: Billingshurst; Dallington
E Dempster
Elizabeth Dempster was responsible for two statues in St Swithun, East Grinstead. She is likely to be the Scottish sculptor Elizabeth Strachan Dempster (1909-87), whose recorded work dates largely from the 1930s and 1940s. Most of it is in Scotland, where she had several studios in succession in Edinburgh. She became an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy.
Statues: East Grinstead, – St Swithun
—- Denman
This firm of masons was responsible for a monument at Ovingdean to someone who died in 1883. Its address was 82 Regent Street, London. Of the various Denmans recorded below, none is a convincing identification, but a possibility is that the firm was owned by a son or relative of Thomas Denman since businesses of this kind tended to run in families.
Memorial: Brighton and Hove, – St Wulfran, Ovingdean
J L Denman J L Denman and Son J B Denman
John Leopold Denman (1882-1975) was the son and successor of S Denman (see immediately below). The original work of his large practice was mostly in a vernacular style and covered almost every type of building. These included Eridge Castle and many new and refitted pubs for the then Kemp Town Brewery. He was also the leading church architect of his time in Sussex; as such, Bishop Bell consulted him on occasion. His restorations of mediaeval churches are remarkably sensitive, eg Southwick after war damage, but not his work on Victorian ones. He repaired many churches (certainly more than the recorded ones listed below) and wrote about Sussex churches as well as writing his unpublished memoirs. He worked frequently with J Cribb who was in charge of the Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic at Ditchling, though never a member. Beyond Sussex, he worked on the reconstruction of parts of the precincts of Canterbury cathedral bombed in World War II. His son, John Bluet Denman (JBD) (1914-2002) became his partner and it is likely that he was involved in most of the later work of the practice, even where this is not stated. Another member of the firm in the 1970s was John K Wearing (JKW).
Lit: Unpublished memoirs, BAL DeJ/9/11-34; BAL Biog file
Designed: Brighton and Hove, – St Cuthman, Whitehawk (1952); Hastings, – St Anne, Hollington (1950-65); Seaford, – St Luke Chyngton (1958-59)
Restored, altered or extended: Bosham (1946-51); Bramber (1959-60); Brighton and Hove, – St Agnes (1963-65 – as Denman and Son); – St Bartholomew (1965 – with JBD); – St George (1967 with JBD); – St John, Preston (1965 – as Denman and Son); – St Leonard, Aldrington (1954 and 1970 (JKW); – St Mary Magdalen, Coldean (1955); – St Nicholas (1909); – St Paul (nd); – St Peter (1966); Burgess Hill, – St Andrew (1924); Eastdean (E) (1948-61); East Grinstead, – St Mary (1959-61 and 1964-66); East Hoathly (1963-64 and 1976 – with JBD); Eastbourne, – St Philip (1965-59); Edburton (1958-59 and 1961-63); Eridge Green (1948-55); Frant (c1954 – possibly JBD); Glynde (1956-58 as Denman and Son); Hadlow Down (1965-67 as Denman and Son); Hurstpierpoint, – Holy Trinity, porch ceiling (1958); Henfield (1959 – with JBD); Horsted Keynes (1959-60 as Denman and Son); New Shoreham (1967 as Denman and Son); North Stoke (1962-64); Ovingdean (1953 as Denman and Son); Plumpton (1929 and 1932); Poling (1968 – with JBD); Rottingdean (1974 and 1977 as Denman and Son); Southwick (1949-51); Storrington (1960-70); Twineham (1959-62 as Denman and Son); Warminghurst (1959-60); West Blatchington (1960-61); Withyham, – St Michael (1960-61 as Denman and Son); Worthing, – St John, West Worthing (1971)
Fittings and Memorial: Buxted, – St Margaret, font-cover; Ditchling, screens etc; Eridge Green, various; Nuthurst, memorial; Slaugham, tower screen
S Denman
Samuel Denman (1855-1945) was an architect of Queen’s Park, Brighton. He was a pupil of his father, John Hubbard Denman (1814-87), a plasterer and foreman for Cheesman and Son, later Cheesman and Freeman. Subsequently Samuel worked for Thomas James Flockton (1825-99) and Edward Mitchel Gibbs (1847-1935), a long established architectural practice in Sheffield. Back in Sussex, from 1902-20 Samuel Matthew, mainly a surveyor, was a partner and they were joined from 1909 by his son, J L Denman (see immediately above), who took over entirely in 1930. By 1877 Samuel had designed unspecified business premises in Chichester (B 35 p648) and was Diocesan Surveyor for the Archdeaconry of Lewes. He is said to have designed many churches, but only one in Sussex can be identified. His best known work is Lewes town hall. He and his wife are buried at St Margaret, Buxted, with a memorial designed by their son.
Lit: BAL Biog file
Designed: Plumpton Green (1893)
T Denman
Thomas Denman (b1790 – though his birth is also been said to have occurred in 1787) was the brother-in-law of J Flaxman and completed some of his works after Flaxman died and Denman’s later work in particular shows his influence. He was prolific and his work is to be found all over England and in Ireland, as well as various parts of the empire. Denman was declared bankrupt in 1847 and in 1851 was living in Battersea in reduced circumstances, though still calling himself a sculptor; he was dead by 1861.
Memorials: Hartfield; Wartling; Woodmancote
L Dennis
Langton Dennis (1865-1943) was born in Streatham the son of a successful journalist and author and became a pupil of Sir Ernest George (1839-1922) and Harold Peto (1854-1933), as well as studying at the RA Schools. He was then briefly an assistant to Thomas Edward Collcutt (1840-1924). This was in London where he initially practised independently before moving to Crowborough Cross by 1899 (KD/S), when Captain Richard C Ball (who is not more fully identified save that he is said to have died at Crowborough in c1969 (BAL Biog file)) became his partner. Dennis was most active in the design of houses, including at least one in his own name only in Crowborough around 1905, but in 1922 and again in 1930 the practice was called Dennis and Ball (KD/S) and in 1938 was in Ball’s name only – Dennis died at Barnstaple, Devon, possibly because of wartime evacuation. His retired father was living with him in Crowborough in 1901.
Lit: BAL Biog file for Ball
Altered: Withyham, – St John (1930)
T Denny
Thomas Denny (b1956) was born in London and studied glassmaking at the Edinburgh College of Art. He lives in Dorset and is also a painter. His work often appears abstract, but much of it derives from the landscape and several of his designs incorporate old fragments as part of a new composition, as at Nuthurst. Other windows by him are to be found in Hereford and Gloucester cathedrals and at Tewkesbury Abbey.
Lit: NAL Information file
Glass: Nuthurst
T Derrick
Thomas Derrick (1885-1954) was an artist who assisted H S Goodhart-Rendel with the redecoration of Nuthurst church. He was born in Bristol and studied at the Royal College of Art. He illustrated books, some for St Dominic’s Press at Ditchling, and lived in Canada for a while. He also designed posters and stained glass.
Redecorated: Nuthurst
Glass: Nuthurst
Sir W R Dick
Sir William Reid Dick (1879-1961) was born in modest circumstances in Glasgow and apprenticed to a stonemason. He studied sculpture in his spare time at the School of Art and by 1908 was in London, where he was soon successful. Throughout his life he was interested in the relationship between architecture and sculpture and several major buildings in London incorporate his work. However, he mostly produced portrait busts and, increasingly, public statues and war memorials. Several royal commissions confirmed his reputation as the leading public sculptor of the day, leading to his becoming a full RA. He became sculptor to King George VI for Scotland and designed his tomb at Windsor. His early work showed the influence of symbolic artists like G F Watts. Later he was often criticised for blandness, but he was a skilled carver, whose work shows an awareness of artistic developments around him.
Lit: H G Fell: Sir William Reid Dick, 1945; DNB
Memorials: Fairwarp
A J Dix
Arthur Joseph Dix (1860-1917) was born in High Wycombe and trained under A A Orr, with whom he later collaborated. He began to work on his own account at an early age for there is a window signed by him in All Saints, Wolverhampton, dated 1881, when he was only 21. He gave his address on the Wolverhampton window as Berners Street, London W, but in the census of the same year, when he called himself a decorative artist, he is listed under a residential address in Brentford, Middlesex. By 1890 he was an artist in stained glass with an address in Mortimer Street, W (KD/L) though two years later he had returned to Berners Street, where he remained for some time. In 1901 he was living with his widowed father in Hammersmith. During this period and later he produced glass designed by others, including a window at Bryanston, Dorset by R Anning Bell (1899). In 1906 he moved to 101 Gower Street, where the business remained long after his death without changing the name – the latest reference is in 1942. According to DSGW 1939, it was then in the hands of H G Wright who is not more fully identified. Although not in an Anglican church, it is worth recording that what may well be the last window by Dix himself is in Sussex, at the Free Church of Christ Church at Crowborough, for which payment was made to his executrix, his wife, in 1918. After his death A L Wilkinson and his father, Horace also worked at 101 Gower Street.
[My thanks to Dave Webster who has established the date of Dix’s death and Dale Carr who alerted me to the Wolverhampton window]
Glass: Loxwood; Pyecombe; Seaford; Sedlescombe
Dixon and Vesey W F Dixon
William Francis Dixon (1848-1928), a pupil of Clayton and Bell, first appears in business by himself at 18 University Street, London WC in 1875 (KD/L), before which at least some of his glass had been made by Clayton and Bell (e g Bradfield, West Yorkshire). His partnership with Vesey is recorded from 1879 to 1894 at the same address, though KD/L 1882-94 list Dixon there by himself and he produced glass in his own name only throughout this time. Vesey has not been identified for certain, though Ruth Harman (BE West Riding, South p755) provides the initials E A. Alternatively he could be John Alfred Vesey (1826-95), who was a painter born in Ipswich. He lived in Kennington in 1858-60, when he exhibited at the Royal Institution, in Islington in 1881 and by 1891 had retired to Milton near Gravesend, where he died. Dixon had other partners, including for a short time E Frampton and Charles George Hean (1848-1926, who was also a partner of Frampton until 1877 and lived for a while around 1880 in Billingshurst). Dixon undertook some major commissions on the continent, notably at the new Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Thereafter, he went to Germany in 1894 to work for Mayer and Co of Munich, for whom he had already produced designs in London, and spent the rest of his life there despite World War I and the economic problems that followed.
Glass: Chiddingly (Dixon only); Oving
H W Dodd
This statuary of Eastbourne is known only from a monument (death of subject 1814, but possibly later) in Hailsham church. This does not suggest a very high level of skill.
Monument: Hailsham
Done and Davies
The firm existed in Shrewsbury by 1859. William Done (1833/34-after 1901) and John Davies (1833-after 1881) were pupils of Betton and Evans, whose workshops they took over, though their work was less conservative in idiom. Done’s career is better documented; judging by the birth-places of two of his eight children, he was in London in 1860-61, though no other record has come to light. In 1871 the firm employed four men and three boys. In the 1880s, Davies may have worked on his own and probably died around 1890. The firm closed then and Done, now a widower, moved after 1891 to Birmingham, where he was living in 1901 and still working as a glass stainer and embosser.
Glass: Crawley, – St John the Baptist
W J Donthorne W J Donthorn
William John Donthorne or Donthorn (both spellings are found) (1799-1859) was a pupil of Sir Jeffrey Wyattville (1766-1840), who was architect to King George IV at Windsor Castle. Donthorne was from Norwich, where he was known as an artist, but moved to London. He specialised in country houses, many of which are in East Anglia, though he also worked at Folkington Place and was to die at Hastings.
Designed: Upper Dicker (1843)
M Douglas Thompson
Marguerite Douglas Thompson (1910-94) was born and trained in Birmingham. She lived in various places in Sussex, including Eastbourne, Piddinghoe and, latterly, Lewes, where she was active in the Peace movement.
Glass: Bexhill, – St Augustine, Cooden; Brighton and Hove, – Holy Trinity, Blatchington Road; Eastbourne, – St Richard (attr); Eastdean (E); Friston; Lewes, – St Michael; Piddinghoe; Southease
H P B Downing
Henry Philip Burke Downing (1865-1947) trained at the RA Schools and after being chief assistant to J Clarke, passed the Final Examination of the RIBA in 1889 and was elected ARIBA (Proc RIBA); even before this he may have been in independent practice, for in 1888 he was working with one Phillips (B 55 p74). He was successful enough to become FRIBA before he was 30 and was later a vice-president of the Institute. He was Hon Consulting architect to the ICBS and Chichester Diocesan Architect from 1918. He also designed schools and houses as well as stained glass, which was made by Burlison and Grylls, and he also wrote about church architecture. His use of the gothic style was more conservative than that of contemporaries like Sir C Nicholson and by the end of his active life his work seemed very old-fashioned.
Obit: The Times 29 Mar 1947
Restored: Catsfield (nd); Heathfield (nd); Ninfield (1897); Winchelsea (nd)
Glass: Crawley Down; East Lavington: Haywards Heath, – St Wilfrid
—- Drake
A designer known only as Drake designed at least one window for J Powell and Sons in 1898, in conjunction with E Penwarden, one of the company’s most prolific designers at the time. Most of Powell’s staff are poorly documented at this time and there is no reason to associate this Drake with either of the two other known stained glass artists of the name (see immediately below) since Frederick had his own company in Devon and Wilfrid would only have been 19 and still apprenticed to his father in 1898.
Glass: Brighton and Hove, – St Philip, New Church Road
F Drake
Frederick Drake (1838-1920) was born in Devon and worked as a glass-maker in Exeter. He studied at the local School of Art and was apprenticed to the firm founded in the city by his uncle Robert Beer (formerly Conibeer) (c1799-1850), but then operated by his cousin Alfred Beer (1830-66). In 1897 Frederick Drake bought this company, known by then as Beer and Driffield. Most of the work of this firm and most of Drake’s own is to be found locally, particularly in Devon and Somerset. He had two sons who followed his trade and were apprenticed to him, Wilfred (see immediately below) and (Frederick) Morris (found also as Maurice (1875-1923)). Both sons joined their father and Morris ran the firm initially after his father’s death; it continued for some years after he himself died.
Glass: (Probably) Bexhill, – St Mark Little Common.
W Drake
Wilfred James Drake (1879-1948) was apprenticed to his father, Frederick (see immediately above) in Exeter. In addition, he studied locally and worked with his father and subsequently his elder brother Morris (1875-1923, also found as ‘Maurice’, but spelled this way in family records). Wilfred designed glass, but became increasingly interested in restoring old glass and writing about it, so probably after his father’s death he moved to London. Dates are sparse, but in 1929 he was living in Holland Park and only left in 1941 (KD/L). He retained a particular interest in glass at Exeter.
Glass: Angmering; Pagham
G Draper
George Draper (1795/96-1874) was born at Maldon in Essex. He was articled to Charles Beazley (c1760-1829), a London architect (Colvin 4th ed p112), and exhibited during this time at the RA between 1811 and 1815. He next did so in 1827 from a Chichester address (confirmed for the next year by PD), but was already in the Chichester area by 1821, when he worked on Fishbourne church. There is also a reference to a George Draper who did work in 1826 on Rockbourne church in western Hampshire who is most probably the same and shows he was active regionally. From this time on he became increasingly one of the most prominent architects in Chichester who worked extensively in both Hampshire and West Sussex. Indeed, his work is to be found as far away as Iron Acton, Gloucestershire, where in 1831-32 he designed the rectory and though he was never a member, in 1843 the RIBA received a communication from him. He remained in Chichester until at least 1862 with an address in Little London (KD), but then disappears from the records until 1873, when he was living in Tunbridge Wells. At his death there the following year he left effects worth less than £200. Except St Bartholomew, most of his churches were designed in a primitive gothic style which as so often explains the lack of new churches in the later part of his career.
Designed: Chichester, – St Bartholomew (1824-32); Littlehampton, – St Mary (1824-26 dem); Sennicotts (1829 attr)
Restored/extended: Chichester, – St Peter the Less (1861-62 – dem); Fernhurst (1859 – since altered); Fishbourne (1821)
S van Driel
Sian van Driel was brought up in Canada and Italy before graduating in ceramics at West Surrey College of Art and Design in 1982. As well as being a ceramic artist she is a painter, whose studio is near Arundel.
Designed: Boxgrove, Labyrinth 2008-09.
M Drummond-Roberts
Maud F Drummond-Roberts is best remembered as a writer on Sussex fonts. In addition, she was a competent wood-carver, if not also designer, but it is not known how she acquired her skills. She is probably identical with Maud Frances Drummond (1876-1966), daughter of the Chief Constable of West Sussex, who in 1891 and 1911 was living with her parents in Petworth and Horsham respectively. She married in 1923, which is probably how she acquired her hyphenated surname, but was widowed only three years later and nothing is known of her husband. From 1926 she lived at 13 The Drive, Hove.
Fitting: Brighton and Hove, – St Mary, screen
A M Dunn
Archibald Matthias Dunn (1832-1917) was born a Catholic in Newcastle and educated at Stoneyhurst. From 1871-93 he was partner of E J Hansom, son of J A Hansom, whose pupil he had been. Briefly around 1880 they had a London office (RIBA Biog file – note by Stephen Welsh), but much of their work is in the North East. The alterations to St Peter-the-Great are their only Anglican commission; their other churches were Roman Catholic, including Downside abbey and the church of Our Lady and the English Martyrs, Cambridge.
Lit: BAL Biog file
Altered: Chichester, – St Peter-the-Great (1876 and ?1881 – not executed or only in part)
C G Durant
Clifford Glen Durant (b1953) is a glassmaker and engraver, who since 1972 has worked from a studio in Horsham, more recently as Clifford Durant and Son. He is active as a designer, engraver and restorer.
Glass: Brighton and Hove, – Holy Cross, South Woodingdean; Ebernoe; Haywards Heath, – St Wilfrid; Wisborough Green
— Duthie
The bare surname is all that is known about the glass-designer named Duthie who worked for J Powell and Sons in the late C19.
Glass: Hunston
S Dykes Bower
Stephen Ernest Dykes Bower (1903-94) was perhaps the last champion of the gothic revival in England. The son of a church musician, he was educated at Merton College, Oxford and the Architectural Association before establishing his own practice in 1931. Perhaps because there were by then few competent architects in the Gothic style, and more particularly in his later life, his work is to be found in many cathedrals and major churches. He was Surveyor of the Fabric of Westminster Abbey for over 20 years and oversaw its post-war restoration, which shows his love of colour, though his structural interventions were at times drastic. His best known work in Sussex was the completion of Lancing College chapel and he also extended Bury St Edmunds cathedral. Although associated with the gothic style, he also produced work in the classical and renaissance idioms, including the restoration of the choir of St Paul’s cathedral after war damage (with a baldacchino) as well as work on more than one City church and many chapels at both ancient universities.
Lit: A Symondson: Stephen Dykes Bower, 2011
Redecorated: East Blatchington
K Eager
Kenneth Eager (1929-2013) joined the Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic at Ditchling in 1945. There he learned the crafts of wood- and stone-carving under J Cribb and developed particular skills in heraldry and lettering. Both were invaluable in creating monuments, of which there are many. After Cribb’s death he took over the Guild and ran it until its closure in 1989; in particular he was responsible for the monument to Cribb at Ditchling.
Obit: The Times 19 December 2013
Memorials: Ditchling; Falmer
T Earp Earp, Son and Hobbs
Thomas Earp (1828-93) was born in Nottingham, where he was apprenticed as a mason. He was living in London by 1851 and around the same time set up shop in Lambeth, specialising in church carving. He spent the rest of his life there and among the architects for whom he worked were A W N Pugin, Sir George G Scott, S S Teulon, G F Bodley and G E Street. His work included tombs and architectural carving for both Anglican and Roman Catholic churches, and he was involved in the completion of the Palace of Westminster. Around 1873 he opened a second workshop in Manchester with Edwin Hobbs (1840-1904) as responsible partner, indicating the success of his business and by the 1880s the firm was known as Earp, Son and Hobbs. In the 1930s it was known as Earp, Hobbs and Miller and it lasted until 1974, when it was taken over by J Whitehead and Son of Kennington. Earp carved the Eleanor Cross outside Charing Cross station.
Lit: I Mills: The Craftsmen of St Margaret’s, 2006; (Chapter 8); A Mitchell: Thomas Earp – Master of Stone, Buckingham, 1990
Architectural carving: Hastings, – Christ Church, London Road, St Leonards; – Holy Trinity; Netherfield
Fittings: Brighton and Hove, – St Patrick, Hove, roof-corbels; Battle, pulpit; Eastbourne, – St Saviour, pulpit; Hastings, – Christ Church, London Road, St Leonards, rood (Earp, Son and Hobbs) and pulpit; – Holy Trinity, memorial; Storrington, reset pulpit and font (the latter probably since replaced)
H Easton
Hugh Ray Easton (1906-65) was the son of a successful London doctor and worked at Guildford under W H R Blacking, before setting up a studio in Cambridge and later in London. At first he also made other fittings, but increasingly concentrated on glass. This was often criticised as old fashioned (both Pevsner and John Betjeman disliked it), but his work in cathedrals and great churches includes the Battle of Britain window in Westminster Abbey. Most is Renaissance rather than gothic in style.
Lit: Hugh Ray Easton (1906-1965), JSG 26 (2002) pp45-60
Glass: Bolney; Brighton, – St Peter; Eastbourne, – St Mary (from St George); Willingdon
F C Eden
Frederick Charles Eden (1864-1944) was born in Brighton and was briefly an assistant of Bodley and Garner from 1889-90 – he has also been given as their pupil, though this is not supported by Michael Hall, who suggests that he had been W Butterfield‘s pupil (p438). He then started his own practice, initially as an architect, but concentrated increasingly on the design of church fittings and stained glass. Dissatisfaction over the standards of manufacture of the latter led to his setting up his own studio in Red Lion Square, London in 1910. This followed the principles of the Art Workers Guild, to which he belonged, though by the 1930s most of his glass was designed and probably made by others, notably George Daniels.
Glass: Burgess Hill, – St Andrew; Eartham; Henfield; Ringmer
R W Edis
Sir Robert William Edis (1839-1927) was a pupil of W G and E Habershon and also attended the Architectural Association, of which he was afterwards president. Most of his work was domestic (including alterations to Sandringham House for the Prince of Wales) and public buildings, many of which were in the ‘Queen Anne style’ popular in the late C19. He did much to popularise the style, about which he wrote and lectured, and it brought him prosperity, including a country house at Ormesby St Margaret, Norfolk to which he added a library. Known as Colonel Edis, he was knighted not for his professional work, but after commanding the Artists Volunteer Corps for 20 years. His few churches date mostly from his early career and, as at Billingshurst, sometimes followed domestic commissions nearby.
Lit: BAL Biog file; Obits: The Builder 133 (1927) p26, RIBAJ 34 (1927) p639
Restored: Billingshurst (1866)
C J Edwards
Carl Johannes Edwards (1914-85) was born in London, the son of a Finnish servant named Kiviaho who worked for the family of a Finnish minister of religion in Deptford. His father was not named in the record of his birth and he took his mother’s name, which he was only to change in 1939 when he enlisted. He joined J Powell and Son in 1928 and in 1936 became assistant to J H Hogan, whom he followed as chief designer from 1948. However, in 1952 he went into partnership with H Powell and their studio was located above Apothecaries Hall in London EC4 (DSGW 1958). The partnership did not last long but Edwards continued in the same premises until 1972, when he took over the Glass House (see under Lowndes and Drury) in Fulham, where he worked alongside his daughter, C M Benyon. Some of his finest glass is to be found in the later parts of Liverpool cathedral and in the Temple church, London.
Source: www.benyonstainedglass.com
Glass: Beckley; Bexhill, – St Mark, Little Common; Chichester, – St George; East Lavant; Lewes, – St Michael, South Malling (doubtful); Lodsworth; Selsey, – St Wilfrid; Tidebrook; Twineham; Walberton; West Grinstead; Worthing, – St Botolph, Heene
J Eldridge
Father John Eldridge was vicar of St John, West Worthing from 2005 to 2019 (church website). Prior to that he had designed a window at St Richard, Hangleton in Hove.
Glass: Brighton and Hove, – St Richard, Hangleton
J Elliott
John Elliott (1811-91) was born in Lewes, and by 1839, when he designed Emsworth church in the adjacent part of Hampshire, was in business as an architect and builder in North Pallant, Chichester where he remained until he moved to Southampton in 1851 (KD). By 1855 an application to the ICBS in respect of a new aisle for Portswood church, Hampshire gives a partner, called Mason, of whom nothing is known. In 1871 he was living at North Stoneham, nearby; ten years later he and his second wife were lodging in Southsea and in 1891 they were at Uckfield, where he died. His oddly proportioned and detailed churches in Sussex and Hampshire display traits of the early gothic revival and show little awareness of newer ideas, though Archdeacon Henry Manning praised his knowledge of and sympathy with gothic. Changes to his design for Christ Church, Worthing demanded by the Ecclesiological Society appear to have ruined him. A report in The Builder (1 p489) implies he was also the contractor.
Designed: Beckley (1840 – plan for new church with J Plowman – not carried out); Chichester, – St Peter the Less (1852-53 – planned rebuilding not carried out); Middleton (1847-49); Worthing, – Christ Church (1841-45)
Restored: Oving (1840 – attr) Pagham (1837-38); Rogate (1840 – not carried out); Storrington (1842 – probably)
J Elmes
James Elmes (1782-1862) was the son of a London builder who became a pupil of George Gibson (mainly active in south London and though no dates are given by Colvin, he was active from the early 1770s) and studied at the RA Schools, before starting to practice in London. He was also active in the Chichester area by 1811, to the extent that he acquired a house at Oving nearby. In and around the city he designed several large houses and restored the cathedral between 1812 and 1817. Thereafter he returned to London where his buildings included several prisons and he was also surveyor to the port of London. He wrote about architecture, including the first biography of Sir Christopher Wren, as well as editing a periodical called Annals of Fine Arts. He withdrew from professional life in 1848 after his eyesight failed and he died at Greenwich. His son Harvey Lonsdale Elmes (1813-47, designer of St George’s Hall, Liverpool) became more eminent, though he died young.
Lit: DNB
Designed: Chichester, – St John (1812-13)
Sir W Emerson
Sir William Emerson (1843-1924) was a pupil of W G Habershon and Alfred Robert Pite (1832-1911) before becoming one of the few pupils admitted to W Burges’s office. He went to India in 1864, initially to supervise the building of a school of art in Bombay to Burges’s plan, which was never built. He developed good connections of his own in India and though he returned to Britain in 1869, most even of his later work is there, including his largest project, the Victoria Memorial in Calcutta (1906 onwards). The last shows he was at home in the classical style, though he believed that for preference buildings in India should reflect the native architecture, as many of his do. Though he became President of the RIBA, his buildings in England are few. St Mary, Brighton, his only church in England and one of the finest in that city, used a development of the form of French gothic favoured by Burges. His design for Liverpool cathedral won first prize in the first, abortive competition in 1883. His design for Liverpool cathedral won first prize in the first, abortive competition in 1883.
Lit: BAL Biog file; Obits: The Builder 128 p5; RIBAJ 32 (1925) p191; DNB
Designed: Brighton, – St Mary (1876-79)
H G English
Henry Godfrey English (1851-1912) was born at Wisbech, Cambridgeshire and in 1871 when visiting a household in East Molesey, Surrey he described himself as an architect’s pupil. The practice where he was working was presumably in the London area but nothing further is known of his professional training. By 1881 he called himself an architect and engineer, when living in Streatham. Professionally, the only record of him is as W C Street’s partner between 1880-82, when he signs as joint architect the contract for building the tower of Milland church and also assisted with All Saints, Wick. He is not to be found in the 1891 census, but in 1901 he was living in Boscombe, Bournemouth as a retired architect and by 1911 he and his wife were lodging in Fulham where he called himself a retired engineer. His moves were not over, for in the following year he was in Portsmouth at the time of his death.
Designed: Littlehampton, – All Saints, Wick (1881); Milland (new) (1880)
Sir J Epstein
Sir Jacob Epstein (1880-1959) came from New York, where from an early age he produced many drawings, particularly of the Jewish community into which he was born. He became increasingly interested in sculpture and in 1902 went to Paris to study. Three years later he moved to London where he spent the rest of his life and became a British citizen. He was associated with the avant garde of British art, including for a short time E Gill, and was close to the Vorticists, though not formally linked. His sculpture was widely mocked, especially as it increasingly reflected his enthusiasm for African and Oceanic art. On the other hand, his boldly modelled portrait busts found wide acceptance. In later life many of his larger works were of biblical subjects or were attached to public buildings. At Coventry cathedral both were the case.
Lit: R Cork: Jacob Epstein, 1999; DNB
Portrait busts: Brede; Westdean (E)
A F Erridge
Arthur Frederick Erridge (1899-1961) trained with J Powell and Sons and after service in World War I worked for them until 1940. During this period he was verger of John Keble Memorial Church, Mill Hill in north London (M Yelton and J Salmon/1915-45) and this presumably indicates where he was living, though he spent his later years near Colchester, Essex. His work for Powell’s included collaboration on design work with J H Hogan. After World War II he moved to J Wippell and Co who made his later glass.
Glass: Climping; Portslade, – St Nicolas; Streat
M Esplin
Mabel Esplin (1874-1921), described as a painter as well as a designer of glass, was born in Lancashire and was strongly influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement. She had moved to London by 1911, when she was living with a cousin in Lambeth, described as a decorative artist. Her final recorded address was also in London in 1920, at Heath Studio, North End, Hampstead (CCL), though she died in Warrington, Lancashire. She used the Glass House and was like M Lowndes, a suffagette. She was a friend of J Fulleylove, who completed the large scheme of glass she had designed for the former Anglican cathedral in Khartoum.
Glass: Lewes, – St Anne
T Esshyng
Thomas Esshyng, of whom the earliest record is 1363, was a mason from Betchworth, Surrey. His failure to complete a contract to supply five windows for Etchingham church led to a law suit in 1368, after which nothing more is known.
Contracted: Etchingham (1363)
F Etchells
Frederick Etchells (1886-1973), after studying architecture under Arthur Beresford Pite (1861-1934) and William Richard Lethaby (1857-1931), trained as a painter at the Royal College of Art and in Paris, where he met Picasso and other avant garde figures. After his return, he was associated with Roger Fry (1866-1934) and D Grant and then joined the Vorticists who, though short-lived, were the leading radical group of artists in Britain in the years before World War I. Etchells returned to architecture in the 1920s after serving as a war artist and designed some houses in Mayfair, as well as banks and schools. He also restored churches and designed fittings. As all this might suggest, his professional approach had undergone a major change, as he came under the principles of SPAB. Indeed, his entry in Dolman’s Dictionary, written by himself in 1929, speaks ‘derisively’ of his Vorticist period. His new outlook was exemplified by his best known book, on the architectural setting of Anglican worship, which was written with George William Outram Addleshaw (1906-82) who became Dean of Chester. However, keeping with his more adventurous past he also translated Le Corbusier. He designed a house for himself at Fairwarp and was a member of the Bishop of Chichester’s Committee for New Churches.
Obit: The Times 18 Aug 1973
Restored: Berwick (c1941); Donnington (1939-42); West Dean (W) (1934-35)
Glass: Horsham, – St Mary
Charles Evans and Co C R J Evans
A stained glass company of this name was started in London in 1861 by Charles, a son of the long established glass-maker, David Evans of Betton and Evans, Shrewsbury (1793-1861). This followed his father’s death, and according to Birkin Haward (Nineteenth Century Norfolk Stained Glass p138) was owned jointly with his brother William. Charles Evans died in 1864 and it is odd that if the firm continued under William, there is no further reference until 1880, when it appears in KD/L, with the right name and in the same line of business, at 65 Fleet Street, after which the company was quite active. From 1883 to 1907 its address was 20 Warwick Street, Regent Street, after which for two years it was at 35 Devonshire Street before disappearing from KD/L altogether. By 1893 it was also making mosaics and by 1898 also decorative glass (KD/L). The position is further complicated by what appears to be another glass-maker with a very similar name, Charles Richard John Evans (1858-1938), who is known to have designed glass in St John Hollington, Hastings in 1889 (no longer extant). He is described in the 1881 census as a stained glass artist, living in Walworth where he had been born, but his father was a dealer in old building materials so he cannot be a relative of the earlier Charles Evans originally of Shrewsbury. His entirely different circumstances are emphasised by later censuses; in 1901 he described himself as an artist in stained glass and an employer, living in Brixton, and in 1911 he was living alone, though married, in Balham, describing himself as retired; he died in Hove. More research is needed to distinguish between these two Charles Evanses and in particular to establish whether any of the glass below given simply to Charles Evans can be assigned to either with greater certainty.
Glass: Hastings, – St John Hollington (formerly)