Faith Craft Faith Craft Studios Faithcraft Faith-Craft
Faith Craft was established on a small scale in 1916 by the Society of the Faith as a studio to provide vestments, fittings etc needed for Anglo-Catholic worship, but it was only after 1921 that it expanded significantly. The Society itself had been founded in 1905 by J A and C E Douglas, brothers who were both Anglican clergymen with catholic sympathies. After 1921 Faith Craft was headed by W Lawson, who remained until his death in 1946. It was initially based in Pimlico, but though the showrooms and offices remained in London, the works moved in 1928 to St Albans. The London premises were then in Buckingham Street, Charing Cross and remained there until 1935. From that year until it was wound up around 1970, it shared the Society’s premises in Tufton Street, Westminster, a handsome building which had been designed by Sir E Lutyens in 1913 as the church institute of the parish of St John, Smith Square. Some design-work was done there, but particularly during the earlier period, this was also carried out in St Albans, where the art director, W Wheeler, was located from 1932-39; others working at St Albans included I Howgate and C E Power. The company employed some of the designers it used directly, but many others like Power, though closely connected, remained freelance designers. After Lawson died in 1946, the firm continued under George Walter Baden Beadle (1900-56), a native of St Albans, who recruited further staff from M Travers’s studio after he in turn died in 1948. From 1950 until closure the chief designer was F Stephens, who after Beadle’s death also assumed the responsibilities of managing director. Though Stephens’s had other interests besides the glass for which he was best known, his presence led to a strengthening of Faith Craft’s activities in this area. Like others in the field. the business was especially active following World War II, when many churches had to be repaired. Faith Craft was chiefly active in the London area and Hertfordshire, perhaps most notably at the rebuilt St Mary-le-Bow in the City. However, increasingly its hand-made products were becoming too expensive, whilst its approach was in any case increasingly at odds with contemporary thought on liturgy, which favoured the simple and even the abstract, so closure was probably inevitable. There is no consistency in the way Faith Craft is written. All the versions in the heading of this entry are found and yet more, but the Society of the Faith, which is taking an increasing interest in its one-time offshoot, prefers the unhyphenated form given first.
For works by identified artists and craftsmen who worked for Faith Craft see also under the various names listed in this entry.
Lit: R Gage (ed): All Manner of Workmanship, 2015
Fittings: Brighton and Hove, – All Saints, Wilbury Road, statue (attr); East Preston, pulpit and rood; Hastings, – Christ Church, London Road, stations of the Cross
Memorial: Slindon (no artist or craftsman recorded)
Farmer and Brindley
William Farmer (1823-79) and William Brindley (1832-1919) both came from Derbyshire. Farmer was initially in business by himself as a stonecarver and their first known joint work dates from 1856. By the late 1860s they had premises in Westminster Bridge Road, London, producing architectural sculpture for many prominent architects. In particular, Sir George G Scott gave them considerable freedom in designing for his churches. After Farmer died Brindley became increasingly interested in work in marble, which he supplied to G F Bodley and he also produced that in Westminster cathedral. He sold the business in 1905 for £50,000 and spent his last years at Christchurch, then in Hampshire and now in Dorset, where he took up painting. The firm lasted until 1929. An obituary for Farmer appeared as late as 1885 in BA 24 p164, but his death in 1879 is well attested in the records.
Lit: Obit of William Brindley, BN 116 p128; E Hardy: Farmer and Brindley: Craftsman Sculptors 1850-1930, unpublished dissertation in the NAL
Fittings: Arundel, reredos; Boxgrove, reredos; Little Horsted, font, reredos, pulpit and lectern
Architectural carving: Brighton and Hove, – St Anne, Burlington Street, (dem); Eastbourne, All Souls
F R Farrow
Frederic Richard Farrow (1856-1918) was originally articled as a quantity surveyor but then trained as an architect under Clement Dowling (1840-1906) of London. After a period as an assistant to several architects in succession, including J T Hanson, he started his own practice in London in 1882, three years before becoming an ARIBA. At this time he was associated with Edward Swinfen Harris (1841-1924) and together they designed Emmanuel, Upper Holloway (1884) of which little remains. It is unclear whether they were ever formally partners since Harris was normally based in north Buckinghamshire and in that same year Farrow became a partner of N C H Nisbett. Though Farrow is listed at a private address in 1899 in Brighton (KD/S), this can at most have been a second address for in both 1901 and 1911 the censuses record him as living in Hornsey and he died in the area. With Nisbett he purchased in 1889 the practice in Winchester of the newly deceased Charles Richard Pink (1853-89) and in 1897 they were joined by J B Colson. Farrow continued alone after this practice was dissolved in 1905, though this was not announced until 1907 (London Gazette 4 June 1907). He was also active on the more theoretical and administrative side of architecture, having been secretary of the Architectural Association from 1887 to 1891 and then vice-president, before becoming editor of The Architect in 1910. He also wrote on architecture, mainly its technical aspects. During his later life he continued to practise from an office in New Bridge Street, EC (KD/L).
Obits: The Builder 114 (1918) p375, RIBAJ 25 pp204-05
Designed: Worthing, Emmanuel (old – later hall) (1911)
Restored: Bosham (1903)
C Faulkner
Charles Joseph Faulkner (1833-92) was a school contemporary of Sir E Burne-Jones in Birmingham, where he was born, and became a close friend of W Morris at Oxford. A mathematician and fellow of University College, he was interested in art and visited Italy with Burne-Jones. He also helped Morris on a number of projects, including the murals at the Oxford Union and the decoration of the Red House at Bexleyheath. In 1860, bored with university life, he started to train as an engineer in London and a year later was persuaded to become a founder-shareholder and bookkeeper of what was initially called Morris, Marshall and Faulkner, later reconstituted as Morris and Co. In 1864, despairing of achieving proper financial management for the company, he resumed his fellowship until resigning it in 1888 because of serious illness. In 1881 and 1891 he was living in Queen Square, London. He remained friendly with Morris – they visited Iceland twice and both supported radical socialist politics – Faulkner’s involvement in the latter was something of a joke in Oxford. Though primarily concerned with the financial side when working in Morris and Co, he was a competent draughtsman and worked on decorative schemes. His sisters, Kate and Lucy, also designed tiles, furniture and textiles, both for Morris and Co and others.
Lit: DNB
Decoration: Brighton and Hove, – St Michael, painted roof
J F Fawkner
James Follett Fawkner (1829-98) was born in Plymouth and joined the practice of W G and M E Habershon in 1857, with a view to running a branch at Newport, Mon, though in 1861 he was actually living in Cardiff. When the Habershon brothers parted company in 1863, Fawkner went with W G Habershon and his new partner, Alfred Robert Pite (1832-1911), initially as managing clerk, but he became a full partner in 1870. By the following year, after moving to the practice’s London office, he was living with his sister in Bromley. After the almost simultaneous retirement of W G Habershon and Pite in 1877-78, he took sole charge, though he largely worked in South Wales, which is where most of his buildings are to be found. The practice at this time was general in character, including both secular and religious projects.
Designed: Partridge Green (1890 – as Habershon and F)
H Feibusch
Hans Feibusch (1898-1998) was born a Jew in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and studied in Berlin under Karl Hofer (an Expressionist (1878-1955)) and Paris where his teachers were André Lhote (a Cubist (1885-1962)) and Othon Friesz (a Fauve (1879-1949)). As well as this remarkably broad training, he visited Italy and became interested in Renaissance painting. On return to Germany he evolved his own essentially Expressionist style and enjoyed some success before the Nazis came to power in 1933, when his style was declared degenerate and some were burnt. His situation was doubly precarious as a Jew and in that year he emigrated to Britain. He converted to Christianity and was taken up by Bishop George Bell of Chichester, who was instrumental in procuring Feibusch’s early commissions in the county. After a period when he was obliged to undertake much commercial work, his later work was largely religious and he produced murals in twelve post-war churches, mostly in the Diocese of Southwark, in close collaboration with the architect T F Ford (see this section below). In the 1970s he turned away from painting and took up sculpture, mostly still religious in nature (there are no examples in Sussex), though towards the end of his long life he reverted to Judaism.
Lit: A Powers (ed): Feibusch Murals – Chichester and Beyond (Otter Memorial papers No 8), Chichester, 1997; R Drake: A Unique Alliance, C20 Journal, 2014, issue 2 pp22-27; S Martin and R Smith: A Painter’s Progress, Observer Magazine 29 May 2017 p111 et seq
Brighton and Hove, – St Wilfrid, murals; Eastbourne, – St Elisabeth, murals; Goring; Iden; Playden
C A Fellows
Catherine A Fellows produced a monument at Petworth which is dated 1875. No other work by her has come to light, though she exhibited at the RA almost every year between 1867 and 1872 (Graves). She must be Catherine Allison Fellows (1829-1912), described in 1871 as a sculptor, who was the daughter of a Superintendent Registrar in Wolverhampton, where she was born and appears in every census after 1851. There were a number of semi-amateur and usually well-born woman sculptors by 1875, but it is unusual to find one from a middle class background. On the Petworth monument she signs herself as from London, but this cannot have been her address for long as she was back in Wolverhampton by 1881 without stating an occupation. In 1911 she was still there described as living off her own means.
Monument: Petworth
A R G Fenning
Arthur Richard George Fenning (1855-1937) was educated at Brighton and became a pupil and later assistant of W G Habershon, Pite and Fawkner in London. Fenning and W G Habershon are credited with at least one church together (St Matthew, Blackburn, Lancashire of 1886, no longer extant (Murray’s Architectural Guide to Lancashire p133)). By 1889 Fenning was sharing an office with W H Seth-Smith at 46 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, and though there is no certainty that they had a formal partnership they are known to have worked together. Seth-Smith had at the latest by 1905 acquired a full partner, W E Monro and Fenning was dividing his time between London and Eastbourne, still using the 46 Lincoln’s Inn Fields address in London. Fenning had a wide practice and may have become partner of P D Stonham, with whom he worked on occasion, notably on Eastbourne, St Elisabeth, though it was only finished after his death (demolished 2020 because of longstanding structural problems). At this time his practice ranged more widely geographically, e g the restoration of the tower of Blunham, Bedfordshire (commenced in 1910) and of Tysoe church, Warwickshire in 1912.
Lit: BAL Biog file
Designed: Eastbourne, – St Elisabeth (1935-38 with Stonham)
Restored: Barcombe (nd)
Extended/altered: Eastbourne, – All Saints (nd and 1927-29); – Holy Trinity (1909-10); – St John, Meads (1904 and 1911)
B Ferrey
Benjamin Ferrey (1810-80) was of Huguenot origin and the son of the mayor of Christchurch, Hampshire, where he later worked for many years on the restoration of the priory. He became a pupil of Augustus Charles Pugin (1762-1832), on whom and on his more famous son he wrote a book. He travelled with the latter in England and France, before joining the office of William Wilkins (1778-1839), whom he assisted with the drawings for the National Gallery. After going into practice for himself in 1834 he was in his early years involved with laying out the new resort of Bournemouth. He subsequently designed many country houses, mainly in the classical style, though the nearly 60 churches he designed are gothic. He restored many more churches, later in partnership with his son (see immediately below). He was diocesan architect of Bath and Wells from 1841 so much of his church work is in Somerset, but it is also widely found in Dorset. He was a Consulting Architect to the ICBS. His well built churches are mostly devoid of originality, but occasionally, as with the reconstruction of Funtington church, he reveals an unexpected ability to go beyond the conventional.
Lit: BAL Biog file; Obit: The Builder 39 pp281-83
Designed: Barcombe (1859 – unexecuted); Brighton and Hove, – St Anne, Burlington Street (1862 – dem); Eastbourne, – Christ Church (1859); Pett (1864); Slinfold (1861); Staplefield (1847); Treyford (new) (1849 – dem)
Restored/extended: Eastbourne, – Holy Trinity (1855); Funtington (1858-59); Harting (1854); Lewes, Southover (1847 – with J L Parsons); Mid Lavant (nd – doubtful); Westbourne (1864)
B E Ferrey
Benjamin Edmund Ferrey (1845-1900) was the only son of B Ferrey (see immediately above). His name is also found as Edmund Benjamin and he was usually known as Edmund, no doubt to distinguish him from his father. He was designing buildings in his own name by the mid-1860s, though some of these may in fact be in conjunction with his father and the 1871 census of that year shows him still living with him in Inverness Terrace, Paddington. The two were fully in partnership by the mid-1870s, when there are several references to them under the name of Ferrey and Son. After his father died the son, who was noted for his ritualist sympathies, continued to practise alone. He restored quite a few churches, including continuing his father’s work on Christchurch priory and worked otherwise mainly in the West Country. He built few new churches but undertook numerous restorations and alterations.
Lit: BAL Biog file; Obit: The Builder 78 p426
Altered: Framfield (1892-95)
Field, Poole and Sons
See Poole and Son.
W Figg
William Figg (1799-1866) was a founder-member of the Sussex Archaeological Society, who was born in Lewes, where from 1841-61 he is recorded as a land surveyor or agent. The William Figg listed in LBPB from 1818 must be the man of the name known to have surveyed roads in the Lewes area between 1807 and 1827 and he may be presumed to be his father – between 1830 and 1833 Figg and Son did similar work. The son became an FSA and wrote about Bishopstone church in SAC 2. This immediately followed a restoration by an unknown architect and Figg’s close knowledge of it suggests strongly he was involved.
Restored: Bishopstone (1849 – attr)
J Flaxman
John Flaxman (1755-1826), the son of a sculptor in Yorkshire of the same name, moved to London, where he first exhibited at the RA aged 16. He was skilled in the Grecian style and made many reliefs, some for Josiah Wedgwood’s (1730-95) pottery. Flaxman spent from 1787 to 1794 in Rome, where he became famed as a draughtsman. He was held in high regard and in 1810 became the RA’s first professor of sculpture. The mechanical appearance of his work, for which he was criticised, resulted from his use of assistants to carve the finished product from his model.
Lit: D Irwin: John Flaxman, Sculptor, Illustrator, Designer, 1979
Memorials: Ashurst; Brightling (attr); Burwash; Cuckfield; Eartham; Petworth; Rye; West Grinstead; Withyham, – St Michael
P Fleming
Peter Fleming (b1926) commenced work for the Chichester practice of H Sherwood and Partners in 1948 and moved with H Sherwood himself to East Ashling, outside Chichester when he left the practice around 1958. At this time he became an Associate (and later Fellow) of the RIBA. His work followed a similar pattern to Sherwood’s, becoming like him surveyor to Chichester cathedral, as well as working on churches in West Sussex (there are almost certainly others besides those listed below) and at Lancing college. Fleming established his own practice at West Ashling nearby until his retirement in 1988.
My thanks to Kim Fleming for most of the above information
Repaired: Burpham (1977); Chichester, – St Andrew Oxmarket (extended 1989); Felpham (1976); West Itchenor (1962)
F Floris
Frans Floris was the name of Flemish painters from Antwerp (now in Belgium), the father (1517-70) and his son (1558-1617, though his year of birth has also been given as c1545). The father’s life is much better documented; he came of a long line of painters and masons and travelled widely in Italy between 1541/42 and 1545. There he saw the works of Michelangelo and other Mannerist painters and his work after his return reveals their strong and continuing influence. He was equally adept at religious and mythological subjects, as well as portraits and was the most successful painter of his time in his native city. The son seems to have spent his career in the city.
Painting: (Probably a late C16 product of Floris senior’s school) Lewes, – St John- sub-Castro
—- Flynton
Only the surname of the sculptor of the monument to Richard Covert (d1579) at Slaugham has survived, together with the fact that he was paid £30 for his work. He is otherwise unknown, but the sophistication of the work suggests he may have been a London mason.
Monument: Slaugham
A S Ford
Alan Scott Ford was a partner in T F Ford and Partners (see below) and is mentioned in the records between 1959 and 1986. He was the son of T F Ford and much of his work was done in close conjunction with his father. During his time the practice continued to be strong in south east London and Kent.
For work given to him, see under T F Ford and Partners below.
E S Ford
Emily Susan Ford (1850-1930) was born in Leeds, the daughter of a prosperous Quaker lawyer, and was not baptised into the Church of England until she was 39. In the 1870s she trained at the Slade School in London and subsequently established herself with studios at 23 Glebe Place, Chelsea and at her parental home at Adel, outside Leeds. Particularly after her baptism she specialised in religious art, both glass and painting. Her glass was mostly made by Lowndes and Drury and she shared with M Lowndes a strong commitment to the women’s suffrage movement. She was particularly involved with the Artists Suffrage League, for which she produced posters and banners (The Victorian no 46 (July 2014) p34), and with the movement more generally in the Leeds area. At an exhibition of her work in 1902 she showed, as well as glass and paintings, book illustrations and sculpture. Most of her work was destined for schools or churches, though among her paintings there are also landscapes and portraits. There is no known link with William Ford (b1858), recorded as an artist in stained glass (1881) and as a glass cutter (1901) in St Pancras.
Lit: Emily Ford: Catalogue of Exhibition of Devotional Art, London, Continental Gallery, 1902
Glass: Boxgrove
H H Ford
Hugh Hubbard Ford (1906-1980) trained under Sir Albert Richardson (1880-1964) and then became an assistant in Sir A Webb’s practice, though Webb himself had largely withdrawn on health grounds. Thereafter Ford set up in practice in Eastbourne, which became substantial before being made formally a partnership in 1965. He was responsible for much post-war planning and housing in the town, though in 1974 the partnership also had offices in Brighton and London and they designed a hotel as far afield as Burnley, Lancashire in 1959. Among the partners were Herbert Frank Wilson (HFW) and William Morling (1921-97) (WM) who worked on churches; but in neither case is it possible to find out more about them. There is also a record of the birth of a Hugh Hubbard Ford in 1898/99, but there is little doubt that the above dates are correct, as they are also given in his obituary in RIBAJ, following his death in Brighton.
Lit: BAL Biog file
Designed: Eastbourne, – St Richard, Langney (1956-58)
Completed: Bexhill, – St Augustine (1960-63)
Repaired: East Blatchington (1970-71 – as H H Ford and Partners, responsible partner WM)); Jevington (1963-64 as H H Ford and Associates, responsible partner HFW)
J Ford
Julie Ford was supervised by A Wright of the Hastings College of Art and Technology when with J Blyth 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
T F Ford T F Ford and Partners Ford and Harkess
Thomas Francis Ford (1891-1971) established this leading practice of church architects, now T F Ford and Partners and situated in Sydenham. Ford trained at the Architectural Association and RA Schools and was in the office of W A Forsyth (see this section below) and briefly a partner, before starting his own practice in 1926. Most of his early work was commercial, though he was already deeply religious. He had been a conscientious objector during World War I and in 1948 he and his brother were responsible for a new translation of the New Testament, whilst he also formed a large collection of Bibles. By 1929 the practice was called Ford and Harkess with an address at 12 City Road, the other partner being William Harkess (1891-1977). Harkess had Sussex connections for he married at Thakeham in 1920 and in 1923 was living at Pulborough. Little is known about the subsequent history of the practice before 1939 beyond directory entries at the same address in 1934 and 1938. Given his place of residence, it is possible that Harkess was primarily responsible for the work of the practice in Sussex, at least in the 1930s. He had emigrated to Australia by 1958, having had previous links with the country. Ford worked extensively in south east London (he lived at Eltham) from about 1930, specialising increasingly in churches, and he became Diocesan Architect for Southwark, He was not known for his love of advanced modern architecture and his churches derive from a number of styles, though many show primarily the influence of Sir John Soane (1753-1837) and other architects of the Regency. After World War II he was active in rebuilding damaged churches and designing new ones, again mainly in south east London. Most are modest, reflecting the constraints of the period, though he used H Feibusch (see this section above) extensively as a painter of murals. Later partners in the practice have included both T F Ford’s sons, one of them A S Ford (ASF – see this section above), and his son-in-law. The practice still works on churches, though it has also been responsible for secular projects, consisting mostly of alterations and improvements to older buildings.
Lit: BAL Biog file; Profile of the practice, CBg 42 (Nov/Dec 1996) pp31-33; R Drake: A Unique Alliance, C20 Journal, 2014, issue 2 pp22-27:
Designed: Crawley, – St Alban (1961-62)
Restored/repaired: Storrington (1933 as F and Harkess); Worth (1974 – ASF)
D Forsdyke
See under D Burgess
J Forsyth
James Forsyth (1827-1910) was born in Kelso, Scotland, but moved to London early in his life and became one of the leading sculptors and stonecarvers of the age. He produced many memorials and worked on various fittings for churches, but was best known in his earlier career for his work for architects, who included S S Teulon, W Slater, A Salvin and R N Shaw. Of his sons, James Nesfield (1864-1942) followed him as an architectural carver and was also a sculptor, William Adam (see below) was an architect and John Dudley (1874-1926) specialised in stained glass.
Obit: Building News 98 (1910) p199
Fittings and architectural carving: Angmering, carving, including capitals and pulpit; Chichester, – All Saints, Portfield, carving on reredos made for Chichester cathedral and subsequently in Brighton and Hove, – St Saviour; Etchingham, pulpit; Framfield, pulpit; Hastings, – St Leonard, Hollington, carving in chancel; Singleton, carving on reredos
(My thanks to Bernice Forsyth, who provided the above information about the Forsyth family).
M Forsyth
Moira Forsyth (1906-91) was the daughter of Gordon Mitchell Forsyth (1879-1952), a pottery designer, who worked in Manchester and also designed stained glass that reveals the influence of C Whall. The family in 1911 was living in Salford, and despite suggestions to the contrary, was not related to J Forsyth and his family (see immediately above). In 1920 they moved to Stoke on Trent, where initially she followed her father’s example and trained and worked in ceramics, with sufficient success to exhibit her work. However, in 1926 she went to the Royal College of Art, where she studied under M Travers. There she became familiar with the design and making of stained glass and it was to this that she was to devote her life. After the RCA she appears for the first time in 1933 as a stained glass artist with an address at 1 St Oswald Studio in Fulham (KD/L), where some years previously F G Christmas had also worked, though there is no known connection. At this time she also worked at Lowndes and Drury, particularly with W Geddes. Though a Catholic, she had close links to Sir E Maufe, for whom she worked at Guildford cathedral and elsewhere, and her glass for the rose window at Guildford was particularly admired. She spent her last years at Farnham, Surrey.
Obit: The Times 15 April 1991
Glass: Eastbourne, – St Mary, Hampden Park; Friston
W A Forsyth
William Adam Forsyth (1872-1951) was a son of James Forsyth (see this section above) and became a pupil of Sir R W Edis. He practised in London and was close to the Arts and Crafts movement. In his early career he designed houses in ‘heavy handed stripped variants of the Cotswold style’ (P Davey p109) and was known for his designs of gardens, but he became primarily involved with churches and schools – the latter included work at Eton. He advised Sir J N Comper on technical questions and was architect to Salisbury and Blackburn cathedrals; he produced the first and unfinished scheme for the enlargement of the latter after the parish church had been raised to the status of a cathedral. In 1896 he went into partnership with Hugh Patrick Guarin Maule (1873-1940), a fellow pupil of Edis and the practice also worked on secular buildings, on which Maule probably took the lead. They remained together until 1929, though there are many later buildings by both individually. Forsyth also designed memorials and other fittings.
Obit: The Times 13 Nov 1951
Repaired: Eastbourne, – St Elisabeth (1949-50)
Fitting: Boxgrove, memorial
J Fort
John Fort was a mason of Salisbury who produced monuments there and elsewhere in the 1620s.
Monument: Racton (attr)
E Fortescue-Bruckdale
See under E F Brickdale
M Holgate Foster
Margaret Holgate Foster has been credited with the design of the east window of 1878-79 at Ticehurst (see BE(E) p634). However, this has also been given to Lavers, Barraud and Westlake, though they could have been the makers rather than designer, but the only certainty about Holgate Foster is that she is the person commemorated. There is a record of a Margaret Holgate Foster (born 1857), the daughter of a fund-holder who was living in Regent’s Park in 1861. Ten years later she was living with her widowed mother in what appear straitened circumstances in St Leonards after which she cannot be traced further, possibly after marriage. The Sussex connection looks promising but there is no apparent link with Ticehurst and if she is the right person, her age makes it less than likely that she designed the window.
Glass: Ticehurst (attr)
Fouracre and Son Fouracre and Watson
The firm was established in Plymouth as painters, plumbers, glaziers, gas fitters and paper hangers by 1866 and branched into stained glass after the son of the founder, John Thomas Fouracre (1844-1915) joined his father in the early 1870s. He was chiefly a designer and the technical side was handled by Henry Watson (1842-1920), an experienced glass=painter. Watson became a partner in 1875 and the company was called Fouracre and Watson until his retirement in 1890. This covered the company’s most successful years, when they were far and away the largest producer of stained glass in Devon and Cornwall, though they made little elsewhere. After 1890 the company continued under J T Fouracre until he retired in 1910 and then William David Snell (1863-1925) and Edwin Phillips took over in succession. Snell designed glass but the company also used outside designers like J W Brown, an established London figure. In 1941 Phillips merged the company with another Plymouth firm of glass makers, Osborne and Son, becoming Osborne and Phillips. Demand for its glass was slight and though the company continued until the 1960s, it appears to have produced little. As William Waters points out (Damozels and Deities p240), the firm in its heyday was particularly noted for its rich colouring, though by the 1880s the degree of pictorialism in their glass must have seemed old fashioned and even sentimental.
Glass: Rusper
P Fourmaintraux
François Pierre Fourmaintraux (always known by his second name) (1896-1974) was born in Northern France, where his father owned a ceramics factory, in which he initially worked. He married an English wife and settled in England, ultimately in Harrow, where he died. While still in France he produced some conventional leaded stained glass, but he changed after World War II to a method known as dalle de verre, consisting of abstract designs, composed of thick, small, dark pieces of glass set in concrete. This emerged first in France and was taken up in Britain by J Powell and Sons for whom Fourmaintraux produced designs. The style was especially popular in Roman Catholic churches.
See under J Powell and Sons for his work
J Fowler
James Fowler (1825-92), though born at Lichfield and trained there and in Manchester, lived and worked after 1849 in Louth, Lincolnshire, where from 1851-59 he was partner of Joseph Maughan (1825-92), who afterwards became borough surveyor – the co-incidence of birth and death dates is well attested. Fowler became known widely as ‘Fowler of Louth’, and was five times mayor. His extensive practice was concentrated in Lincolnshire, but extended to other parts of eastern England and further afield, designing several new churches in London. He had a deep interest in theology and Christian history, so it is unsurprising that for the most part he was a church architect and restorer, but he also designed schools and other buildings. He was also from 1871-86 Diocesan Surveyor for Lincolnshire.
Lit: BAL Biog file
Restored: Brede (1890); Pulborough (1880)
E R Frampton junior
Edward Reginald Frampton junior (1872-1923), son of the stained glass artist, E R Frampton senior (see immediately below), trained as a painter in Italy and France, though in 1891 he was assisting his father and called himself a stained glass artist – a few windows by him are known, none of them in Sussex, though there may be some confusion with his father who outlived him; an instance is the glass dating from 1920 at New Mill, Yorkshire which could be by either. During his training he was influenced by Symbolism and came to specialise in paintings with a religious subject. He was a member of the Art Workers Guild.
Decoration: Hastings, – All Saints, chancel walls
E R Frampton senior
Edward Reginald Frampton senior (1845-1928) was born in Woolwich and trained as a glassmaker with Clayton and Bell. In the mid-1870s he worked with W F Dixon and Charles George Hean (1848-1926) and formed a partnership with the latter until its dissolution was announced in the London Gazette of 2 October 1877. He set up business in his own premises in Buckingham Palace Road around 1881. In 1891 he was living in Sutton, Surrey, still described as an artist in stained glass. In the same year his son of the same name (see immediately above) was assisting him, though he was otherwise better known as a painter.
Glass: Alfriston
Friars Glass Studios
This studio is known only by one window at Keymer of 1978 to the design of I McFarlane. It is possible but unlikely that it is connected with White Friars Stained Glass Ltd of Regina, Canada. An alternative ascription to J Powell and Sons, otherwise known as Whitefriars Glass, which might otherwise have been a candidate, can be ruled out since they had ceased producing stained glass by 1978.
Glass: Keymer
V Fricker
Val Fricker studied at the West of England College of Art in the 1960s and painted watercolours initially in a conservative idiom. However, a sojourn in the USA in the early 1990s led to a change of direction towards abstraction and the use of other media including driftwood. Since returning to Britain in 1994 the artist has lived at Rye Harbour and is active in the local Society of Artists.
Altarpiece: Rye Harbour
— Fripps
The bare surname is all that is known of one of the late C19 glass-designers for J Powell and Sons.
Glass: Hunston
R Frogbrook
Roger Frogbrook was a carpenter, who with the mason T Pokyll contracted with the churchwardens of Bolney to build a new tower in 1536; it was complete by 1540. Unlike Pokyll there is no other certain record of him, but someone said to have been his son died in 1565 in Bolney and there are further references to members of the Frogbrook family in the Bolney parish records in the later C16, so he was clearly local and only can only have worked with Pokyll there on an ad hoc basis.
Carpentry: Bolney
J Fulleylove
Joan (also found as Jean) Elizabeth Fulleylove (1886-1947) was the daughter of John Fulleylove (1845-1908), a landscape artist, and trained first as a painter at the Slade School, before attending the Central School of Art, where she studied stained glass and book production under under Karl Parsons (1884-1934) and A J Drury (see under Lowndres and Drury). The link with the last named extended also to the other partner, M Lowndes, with whom she had close links and whose suffragist sympathies she shared. It is therefore unsurprising that her glass was made by Lowndes and Drury. She assisted M Esplin and completed her glass for Khartoum cathedral, adding some of her own. Subsequently, she had her own studio in Hampstead until the 1930s, when she moved to Henfield, where she appears to have spent the rest of her life. It is not known what connection she had with Barnham church, where she designed a window, dated 1949, which was also a memorial to her.
Glass: Barnham
T and E Gaffin Gaffin and Co R Gaffin According to Roscoe, Thomas (1780-1855) and Edward (1819-1869) Gaffin (EG) were father and son, who owned a long-running business of statuaries and masons, known at various addresses in London and which lasted as Gaffin and Co until the early C20; they were sufficiently prosperous to afford premises in Regent Street. However, census records consistently give Edward as having been born in County Mayo, Ireland in 1780/81 and Thomas as born in various years between 1814 and 1819, also in County Mayo – his death in 1869 is well attested. Hence it would seem that the entry in Roscoe has them the wrong way round; there is corroboration for this at Hatley St George church, Cambridgeshire in the form of a monument dated 1806 and signed by Edward, though if correct that date would have obliged him to return to Ireland before the presumed birth of Thomas. In addition, Thomas signs a monument dated as late as 1862 at Ramsey, Huntingdonshire. Thomas had a son, another Edward (1843/44-71), who followed in the family trade and probably took charge of Gaffin and Co after his father’s death for the rest of his short life; the later ownership of the firm is unrecorded. There is a single monument at Hartfield dated 1829 signed by R Gaffin (RG), who is said also to have had an address in Regent Street. Neither Edward senior nor Thomas had a son with this initial and 1829 seems too early for him to have been involved with Gaffin and Co after the death of Edward junior, unless the monument was made much later or there is an error in the initial. If the latter, the most likely author would be Edward senior (assuming his earlier date of birth is correct). The work of all those known to have been associated with the company consists of routine tablets and the like, often in the gothic style.
Memorials: Ardingly; East Grinstead, – St Swithun; Hartfield (also RG?); Salehurst (EG); Trotton; Wartling
R Gane
Richard Gane (1839-77) was the son of a builder of the same name in Trowbridge, Wiltshire who around 1853 was articled locally to C E Giles (see this section below). Gane completed his articles in London, probably because Giles had moved there in 1856 before his articles ended. After that he returned to work with his father in Trowbridge, where he was still to be found in 1871. However, he evidently kept in touch with Giles, for two years previously, when the latter’s health started to give way, he had bought a share of Giles’s practice. In 1873 he took over the rest of it, including its London office at 6 Mecklenburgh Square and subsequently, in 1875-77, moved to Furnival’s Inn. For much of his time in practice in England Gane retained the name of Giles in the practice, but appears to have worked on his own. Gane designed a variety of buildings and his best known one is the former Abbey Cloth Mills, the most conspicuous building in Bradford on Avon (1875). Sadly, he proved unable to cope and took to drink until he moved to Australia by 1877, the year in which he died there.
My thanks to Julian Orbach for most of the above information on both Gane and Giles.
Lit: BAL Biog file
Restored/extended: Storrington (1876)
W J Gant
William John Gant (1824-1906) was a pupil of Thomas Leverton Donaldson (1795-1885) and then an assistant of Sir William Tite (1798-1873) and W Moseley. He was born in Kingsland, Middlesex but moved to Hastings between 1841 and 1851, presumably on completion of his training as he gave his profession in 1851 as architect, and spent the rest of his life there. He was surveyor to several large estates in the town for which he designed houses. Late in life, in 1892, he was elected FRIBA.
Designed: Hastings, – Fishermen’s Church (1853-54)
T Garner
For Thomas Garner (1839-1906), see under G F Bodley.
T Garratt
Thomas Garratt (1851-after 1911) was born in Dogsthorpe, Northamptonshire. His father died at an early age and he and his mother were living in Peterborough in 1861. However, he moved back to Northampton, where in 1871 he described himself as an architectural student; in fact he was articled to E F Law and Son of that town, a prolific local practice. After this he became an early student of the RIBA and by 1873 was at 15 Prince’s Row, Buckingham Palace Road, London. During this time he won several prizes, including in 1875 a medal of merit for drawing (Proc RIBA). After becoming ARIBA in 1879, he moved to Shepherds Bush and in 1882 and 1883 he was at 19 Queen Anne’s Gate, Westminster (KD/L and B 45 p9). However, he was back in Shepherds Bush in 1891 and 1895, living at 110 Percy Road. At an uncertain time within this period he seems to have had a partner Charles Henry Löhr (b1852), but nothing is known about their association. By 1908 Garratt was living and practising in Kingston Hill, Surrey, where in 1911 he gave his occupation as architect and surveyor, HM Office of Works. Unless it was by virtue of this employment, which is likely at this time to have excluded any private work, his resignation from the RIBA in 1911 might have been caused by ill-health, in which case the likelihood is that he died soon afterwards, though no certain record of his death is to be found. His name was sometimes misspelled ‘Garrett’ but he is not to be confused with Thomas Garrett or Garratt of Ship Street, Brighton (see this section below).
Fittings etc: Bexhill, – St Peter (1892-93); Lewes, – St Thomas (1888 – no longer present); Seaford (1908)
J Garrett
John Garrett who altered Southwick church in 1835 is little documented, to the extent of being omitted from Colvin after the first edition. He appears to have worked in an unspecified way with J Butler on this project. However, there are a number of references to others of the name in the area who were in some way involved in building; one provides a link to W Ranger, of whom a little more is known and who, interestingly, had produced an earlier design for Southwick church in 1833. In addition, there is a single record of a John Garrett, a builder recorded at 16 New Road Brighton in 1832 (Pigot’s Directory). It is likely that these references are all to the same person and it is possible that he is the same as the at least in part more prominent John Garrett or Garratt (1799/1800-after 1871), who is known to have been born in Lewes. Despite his year of birth the earlier part of his career is unknown, for there is no record of him before 1851 when well into middle age, after which there is a good deal of information. At that time he was Superintendent Architect at the dockyard at Sheerness, Kent and in 1861 he was in Portsea as a civil engineer (it is a reasonable guess that he was connected with the dockyard there as well). In 1871 he had retired to Northwood, Hampshire, though there is no likely record of his death. He does not appear in any directories for Kent or Hampshire for the relevant periods.
Rebuilt: Southwick (1835)
T Garrett
Thomas Garrett (1864-1942) was born in Brighton, the son of a prosperous builder who left over £32, 000 at his death in 1914, and became a pupil of Henry Branch in London, who had Brighton connections – he became the partner of Thomas Simpson (1825-1908), a prolific designer of schools and nonconformist chapels there. Garrett himself returned in 1889 to Brighton where he lived in Hanover Crescent until his final years which he spent at Small Dole near Henfield. His practice was at 34 Ship Street and was extensive and among the housing projects on which he worked was South Moulsecoomb. By 1931 he was in partnership with his son, Sidney Colston Garrett (1889-1949) and the practice continued as Thomas Garrett and Son until around 1969 (KD/Brighton). In 1907 (KD/Sussex) Garrett also had an office in Haywards Heath, which is near Scaynes Hill where he almost certainly worked on the church, though known here only as ‘Garrett’, an ‘architect of Hove’ (Clarke papers). His name in the 1891 census and in WWA 1914 is given as Garratt, but there is little doubt that ‘Garrett’ is correct and he should also not be confused with Thomas Garratt of Shepherds Bush (see above).
Extended: Scaynes Hill (1913 – probably)
Restored: Pyecombe (1913)
T J Gawthorp
Thomas John Gawthorp (1831/32-1911) was born in Hull but established an art metal works, Gawthorp and Sons Ltd, in London. He enjoyed some success. particularly in the provision of memorials and reredoses, and the company was appointed metal workers to Queen Victoria and much later to George V. In 1884 and 1915 (KD) its premises were in Long Acre, Covent Garden and it continued until 1936, latterly under the founder’s son, Walter Edmund Gawthorp (1859-1936) and it was probably as a consequence of his death that it was taken over by J Wippell and Co. However, even after this there is a reference to the company under its own name only in the London Gazette for 3 January 1938.
Reredos: Selmeston
W Geddes
Wilhelmina Margaret Geddes (1887-1955) was born in what is now Northern Ireland and from an early age lived in Belfast. There she studied glass-making and drawing at the Municipal Technical Institute, where her work was highly praised. She became increasingly unhappy and in 1911 joining An Túr Gloine Co-operative in Dublin, where she was taught by A E Child and others and was also deeply influenced by the work and writings of C Whall. She was able to travel to both England and France where the glass at Chartres left a deep impression on her. From the start of her career as a glass designer her work was intense in colour and heroic in scale, with figures that often took up almost all the available space. Before the end of her first year in Dublin she was producing glass to order, mostly in Ireland, though her earliest work in England at Wallsend dates from c1912. Little more than a year later her health started to cause concern and for several years she divided her time between Dublin and Belfast, involving herself in designing war memorial windows made at An Túr Gloine. However, by the early 1920s her increasing impatience to work on her own and political instability in Ireland found expression first in a return to Belfast and then in 1925 to London. She already knew M E A Rope and after some time in hospital she was introduced to the facilities available at the Glass House (see under Lowndes and Drury), where she took a studio in 1926. Among other artists who had had a studio there were J Howson and C Townsend and Nicola Gordon Bowe suggests Geddes probably shared their current facilities in Putney. Once she had a studio in the Glass House she relied heavily on the technical skills on offer, though she remained a member of An Túr Gloine until 1936 and much of her work in her early years in London was for Irish clients. Geddes remained at the Glass House for the rest of her life, though she advertised herself as a separate business by 1934 (KD/L). Shortly after this her fame spread following the completion of her largest design ever for a window at Ypres, Belgium in memory of King Albert of the Belgians (d1934). However, her poor health, particularly mental, further reduced her already small output, as did World War II, during which she was bombed out of her home. Afterwards she received several commissions to replace destroyed glass, but increasing ill-health was a severe hindrance and only three modest ones were completed, one after her death. The design of some of her windows was criticised as overpowering and even over-complex, but this does not detract from overall high standard of her work, which was well above that of most of her contemporaries in Ireland or Britain. Her contemporaries remarked on the incongruity of such work being produced by a small and often sickly woman. Throughout her career as a glass-maker she was also famed for her graphics including illustrations and needlework and became interested in Freudian analysis as a consequence of her own experiences.
Lit: DNB; N Gordon Bowe: Wilhelmina Geddes: Life and Work, Dublin 2015
Glass: Northchapel
N di P Gerini
Niccolo di Pietro Gerini (c1340-1414) was a prominent Florentine painter of the late gothic period, whose works are widely found in Tuscany and in galleries outside Italy including the National Gallery, London. His earliest known work dates from 1368.
Paintings: Withyham, – St Michael (formerly)
J G Gibbins
John George Gibbins (1843-1932) was an architect of Brighton and Hove, who was articled to W G Habershon and Alfred Robert Pite (1832-1911), like Sir W Emerson, and worked in W Burges’s office. He became a prolific designer, mainly of hospitals and public buildings and from 1867-69 was partner of the resoundingly named Horatio Nelson Goulty (1830-69), whose name the practice retained at least until 1887 – Goulty was a nonconformist and, among other things, a successful designer of chapels. In 1883 and 1889 Gibbins had a professional address in London (BN 56 p300) as well as Brighton. By 1899 the Brighton practice bore his name only and in 1907 was known as Gibbins and Son (KD), though none of his three recorded sons became an architect. He died in Hurstpierpoint and is buried at Ditchling.
Lit: BAL Biog file; Obit: The Builder 143 p568
Altered/restored: Brighton and Hove, – St Luke Prestonville (1882); Patcham (nd – attr)
A Gibbs
Alexander Gibbs (1832-86) was one of three sons of Isaac Alexander Gibbs (1802-51), who first appears in directories as a maker of stained glass in 1849 at an address in Hampstead Road (KD/L), and who exhibited glass at the Great Exhibition (Catalogue p127 item 75), shortly before his death; none of his work is recorded in Sussex. Confusingly, all three sons were given the name Alexander and the youngest also shared the name of Isaac (see this section below). Alexander (with no other name) inherited his father’s business together with Charles Alexander (see immediately below), but by 1857 he had established his own business with two addresses in Bloomsbury (KD/L), which was known as Alexander Gibbs and Co. Among those working for him was Isaac Alexander junior (see this section below), though as the latter was only born in 1849, this must have been well into the 1860s . Alexander was prepared to conform to W Butterfield’s requirement for clarity and lack of clutter and worked with him for the rest of his life. After his death, the firm continued the association and it is said not to have closed until 1915, though the name disappears from KD/L after 1908.
Glass: Arundel; Battle; Boxgrove; Brede; Brighton and Hove, – St Patrick; Copthorne; Cowfold (posthumous); Guestling; Iford; South Malling
C A Gibbs
Charles Alexander Gibbs (1825-77) was the eldest son of Isaac Alexander Gibbs and thus brother of Alexander Gibbs (see immediately above), with whom he carried on their father’s business after his death – in 1854 it was still known as Isaac Gibbs, but by 1855 it was Charles and Alexander Gibbs (KD/L). Alexander set up his own business in 1857 in Bloomsbury, whilst Charles Alexander remained in what had been his father’s premises in Marylebone Road, London and the firm continued after his death. Like Alexander he appears to have worked for W Butterfield. There are also other stained glass companies with the name Gibbs, including William Gibbs of Brunswick Place, City Road in 1865 and 1866 only (ibid). There is also James Gibbs and Watson of 32 Gloucester Road, Regent’s Park which makes an equally brief appearance in 1875 and 1876, but it is not known whether either is linked in any way to the main family.
Glass: Angmering; Arundel; Brighton and Hove, – St Patrick (designed by Butterfield); Hastings, – All Saints; Iford (?); Pett; Worthing, – St Mary, Broadwater
I A Gibbs W W Howard Gibbs and Howard
Isaac Alexander Gibbs junior (1849-99) was the youngest son of Isaac Alexander Gibbs senior and appears to have assisted his brother, Alexander (see this section above), after Alexander had set up his own business, probably in the earlier 1860s in view of his age. Subsequently he went into partnership with William Wallace Howard (1856-after 1915), the son of a banker. The earliest documentary reference to the business is in 1879, when they were at 64 Charlotte Street (KD/L), though it is stated to have started in 1873 and there is a window by them at Houghton St Giles, Norfolk that is dated 1877. Subsequently they moved to Great Portland Street, where Howard continued alone after Gibbs’s death (KD/L) until about 1915. The firm also made tiles.
Glass: Herstmonceux; Seaford
‘Gibbs and Co’
A company of this name produced some painted decoration at Ovingdean church in 1893, but it is not at all clear whether it is one of the various known companies of this name and if so which one (see immediately above). The responsible artist was named as A Saville, about whom equally little is known for certain, though some conjecture is possible.
Painting: Ovingdean
J Gibson
John Gibson (1790-1866) started as a cabinetmaker. Whilst still an apprentice in Liverpool, he took up marble carving. He went to London and then Rome, where he was taught by Antonio Canova (1757-1822) and then the great Danish master Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844). He spent the rest of his life there, living frugally and carving mostly works inspired by the classics. Many of these he sent back to Britain, which he visited only fleetingly, though unsurprisingly there is a concentration of his works in Lancashire. Nevertheless, his reputation was high and he became a Royal Academician in 1836. He continued to work in a neo-classical idiom after most sculptors had abandoned it and started in 1846 to use colour in his work.
Lit: Eastlake, Lady: Life of John Gibson, 1870; DNB
Memorial: Pulborough
C E Giles
Charles Edmund Giles (1822-1881) was born at Frome, Somerset, but at the age of 14 he was articled to a London architect, Henry Shaw (there is a Henry Shaw of 25 New Bond Street, but he is only recorded as a practising architect between 1868 and 1914). This arrangement proved highly unsatisfactory and though he transferred to another architect, known only by his surname, Alexander, he was no better. Thus in 1842 Giles returned to Frome, where he purchased a ten-year partnership with Richard Carver (c1792-1862) of Taunton, a prolific designer of churches and county surveyor of Somerset. Although Giles became Carver’s son-in-law, this partnership proved to be yet another cause of dissatisfaction and in 1849 Giles gave it up prematurely. After this he worked on his own, mostly in the county, and by 1853 was taking pupils, including his subsequent partner R Gane (see this section above). Giles worked prolifically on churches and other buildings, many of them in or near Frome, even after in 1856 he had moved to London, where he established both his main residence and a branch of the practice. This appears to have been the main address thereafter, and though most of the buildings he designed were in the West Country, he worked on churches and at least one school as far away as Lincolnshire. He also designed some buildings in London itself and also a church at Ventnor, Isle of Wight. That was in 1861-62, at which time, however, he was said still to be ‘of Taunton’, although the earlier 1860s were to prove his most prolific period overall. In 1865 he took his former assistant Walter Robinson (who cannot be more fully identified) as a partner, since his health was starting to give way, and in that year they restored Chewton Mendip church, Somerset. Giles moved his place of residence to Shenfield, Essex in 1866 and resigned from the RIBA in 1868, but he remained professionally active and in the following year Robinson, who was said to be a drinker, was replaced as partner by Gane. In 1873 Giles’s continuing ill-health caused him to retire altogether, handing the practice over to Gane, though it continued to be known as Giles and Gane, e g in 1875 when Gane worked on a church at Midsomer Norton, Somerset. Giles’s only known later work was some alterations to a house in Churchill, Somerset for his brother in 1877. After retirement he travelled extensively on the continent and died at Rome.
My thanks to Julian Orbach for most of the above information about both Giles and Gane.
Lit: BAL Biog file
Restored: Storrington (1872)
E Gill
Arthur Eric Rowton Gill (always known as Eric) (1882-1940) was born in Brighton, the son of a clergyman who became vicar of West Wittering. In later boyhood he lived in Chichester where the atmosphere of the city had a lasting effect on him. He also received his initial training there before he was apprenticed to W D Caröe as an architect, but even before he left Caröe’s office his interests had moved to letter-cutting and design and he never practised. Later he was also famed as a sculptor and draughtsman and his work is in Westminster cathedral and on public buildings in London, including Broadcasting House. He became a Roman Catholic in 1913 and later a Dominican tertiary. and was also a member of the Art Workers Guild. While living from 1907 to 1924 at Ditchling Common, he was with his pupil J Cribb and others in 1920 instrumental in establishing the Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic, an association of independent Roman Catholic craftsmen. During this period he produced a considerable body of work in Sussex, much of it in Anglican churches. However, tensions emerged between Gill and some of his associates and in 1924 he moved away to Wales and the work he produced for Anglican churches dropped markedly. He remained in Wales for only four years and then moved to a house near High Wycombe, where he spent the rest of his life. After Gill’s departure from Ditchling Cribb took over responsibility for the Guild and it continued after his death until it was wound up in 1989. Gill wrote extensively and was the elder brother of M Gill (see immediately below).
Lit: E R Gill: The Inscriptional Work of Eric Gill, 1964; F McCarthy: Eric Gill, 1989; L Harrison: Ditchling Walks – in Eric Gill’s Footsteps, Alfriston 2017
Fittings etc: Bognor Regis, – St Wilfrid, symbols of the Evangelists (probably); Ditchling, sundial
Inscriptions: Ovingdean; Rye; Westdean (E)
Memorials: Amberley; Bognor Regis, – St Wilfrid; Burgess Hill, – St John: Burpham; Ditchling (3); Eastdean (E); Harting, war memorial; Iden; Mayfield; Newick; Poling; Steyning; Storrington (3); Walberton; Westmeston; West Grinstead; West Wittering, war memorial; Wivelsfield (2)
M Gill
Leslie Macdonald Gill (1884-1947) was born in Brighton and was always known by his second name which was usually shortened to Max. He was Eric Gill’s (see immediately above) younger brother and was first articled to Leonard Pilkington (1860-1909), an architect in Bognor, where his father was curate of St Wilfrid’s church at the time. Thereafter he moved to London, where he worked as an assistant for Sir C Nicholson and H C Corlette from 1903 to 1908 when he started his own practice. He was to retain premises in London for the rest of his life, but after World War I he moved back to Sussex, where he later built his own house at West Wittering since his father was now vicar there. Before that, in 1924, his practice was in Chichester (KD) and he was a member of the Imperial War Graves Commission. In 1927 he undertook the painted decoration of the chancel of Edward Schroeder Prior’s (1852-1932) St Andrew, Roker, County Durham, probably because Prior also lived in Chichester. Like his brother, he was a member of the Art Workers Guild and also like him devoted himself increasingly to lettering and the graphic arts – his inscriptions were mostly carved by J Cribb. In his lifetime he was best known for his maps and prospects of areas and buildings, which were often decorated with figures and other graphics. He did a considerable amount of work for London Transport and also painted murals. He was buried at Streat.
Sources::www.macdonaldgill.com; obit: The Times 16 Jan 1947
Designed: Findon Valley (first church – 1935-36); Crawley, – St Richard, Three Bridges (1934 – first church, since replaced)
Restored: Binsted (1932); Chichester, – St Bartholomew (1921-29); Southbourne (1925)
T Gilliam
Tony Gilliam trained as an illustrator at Reigate and Redhill School of Art and worked in this field for thirty years. He taught himself glass-engraving and has his studio at Alresford, Hampshire. He has designed quite a few types of objects, including windows in various techniques. Since 1990 he has been a Fellow of the Guild of Glass Engravers.
Glass window: Clayton
L J Ginnett
Louis John Ginnett (1875-1946) was born in Leamington, but was raised mainly in Brighton. After study in London and Paris, he became a successful painter, whose portraits were particularly esteemed. For nearly 40 years he lived at Ditchling where he was a leading member of the artistic community that developed there; among those with whom he was closely associated was C Knight, initially a pupil. Ginnett taught for many years at the Brighton School of Art and was responsible for the large series of murals at the former Brighton and Hove Grammar school. In style, many of his paintings show the rather hard light and almost exaggerated realism of contemporaries like Meredith Frampton (1894-1984). He also designed stained glass, some of it made by the Warham Guild and Cox and Barnard.
Glass: Burgess Hill, – St Andrew; Sayers Common; Steyning
Paintings: Hove, – St Patrick (stations of the cross – designed)
W Glasby
William Glasby (1863-1941) was the son of a warehouse-porter and spent his youth in Battersea. He was apprenticed to J Powell and Sons in 1876 and rose to be their chief painter. H Holiday insisted that he be used for his own work for the company and in 1891, when living in Hampstead, he joined Holiday’s new workshop after he left Powell’s. By about 1897 Glasby was producing his own designs in a style heavily influenced by Holiday and began also to work for Morris and Co as a painter, which he did increasingly after Holiday had closed his business in 1906. He was in business on his own account from around 1919, making other fittings besides stained glass; amongst the media in which he worked was a form of mosaic. He worked from addresses in Kensington and later Putney, but in 1939 he moved to Horsham. Before starting his own business he designed glass for W B Simpson (e g at Herstmonceux) though otherwise he generally used Lowndes and Drury to make his glass, which never lost its essentially late Victorian character. After his death, the business was carried on for a while by his two daughters, neither of whom married, Daisy (1886-1961, listed as a glass painter in 1911) and Phyllis (1893-1975), who both moved in 1946 to Henfield, where they died.
Lit: D Green, D Hadley and J Hadley: The Life and Work of William Glasby, JSG 32 (2008) pp91-107
Glass: Brighton and Hove, – St Matthias; Dallington; Herstmonceux; Pulborough; Worthing, – St Matthew
Memorial: Eastbourne, – St Philip, war memorial (attr)
Glass House
See Lowndes and Drury.
I L Gloag
Isabel Lilian Gloag (1865-1917) was born in London, the daughter of parents said to have been of Scottish ancestry, though her mother was born in Australia and her father in India. She studied in London (at the Slade School among others) and Paris. She had her own studio in London by 1893 and her work is largely Pre-Raphaelite in inspiration. Particularly around 1900, she also produced designs for stained glass, mostly for M Lowndes, so her glass was made by Lowndes and Drury who no doubt provided the necessary technical support. She suffered from ill-health for most of her life and in 1911 was living with her widowed mother, but she became a popular book-illustrator, whose works are still available in reproduction today.
Glass: Henfield (attr)
Goddard Partnership
The partnership was established in 2008 by Simon Goddard, an experienced conservation architect who is interested in both secular and ecclesiastical projects. Its offices are at Bishop’s Waltham, Hampshire and most of its work is in that area.
Alterations: Upwaltham– repairs c2020; Wisborough Green, internal vestries 2018
Goddard and Gibbs
The firm was formed in 1938 by the merger of two older companies; one of them was Walter Gibbs of Blackfriars Road, founded in 1868 and formerly at Shoreditch. The other was the firm of Goddard’s Glassworks which also had its premises in Blackfriars and could trace its origins to 1855. The works of the merged company were initially at Stratford, E15 but after coming under the same ownership as the older firm of J Hardman and Co it moved to its own premises in west Birmingham. Hardman’s ceased trading in 2008 and today Goddard and Gibbs are based at Corsham, Wiltshire, where they both restore old glass and design new windows. The interest in restoration followed World War II, after which they were much involved in repairing and replacing war damage. For 24 years A E Buss (AEB) was chief designer, followed from 1970 to 1997 by John Nicholas Lawson (1932-2009), son of W Lawson. Under Lawson, the firm undertook a number of major projects including the west window of Henry VII’s Chapel at Westminster Abbey and several in the Middle East. The company’s glass of this time is to be found in both secular buildings such as offices and in churches. Unsurprisingly in view of its former location, it is well represented in east London. Other designers used by the company have included G B Cooper-Abbs, D Smart and C Swash.
Lit: J Lawson: Faith Craft Works and Goddard & Gibbs Studio Ltd, JSG 23 (1999) pp55-61
Glass: Crawley, – St Alban; Eastbourne, – St Elisabeth; Felpham; Lewes, – St Anne; Lodsworth; New Shoreham; Ninfield; Pevensey Bay (AEB); Wartling; Worthing, – St Matthew
A Godfrey
Angela Godfrey (b1939) was born in London and studied sculpture at Newcastle university and then taught briefly. Subsequently much of her work has been for churches, in Ireland as well as England and she has designed and carved fittings of stone for at least two Roman Catholic churches in east London. She now lives in Roydon, Essex
Sculpture: Horsham, – St John, Broadbridge Heath
W E Godfrey
Walter Emil Godfrey (1913-82) was the son of W H Godfrey (see immediately below) and lived for many years in Lewes. He studied architecture at the Regent Street Polytechnic and after World War II went into partnership with Andrew Carden (1910-96), with a particular view to undertaking the restoration of war-damaged churches and other buildings. Outside this practice, he appears also to have worked with his father on some projects of a similar kind, such as the restoration of the Temple Church. As with his father, the practice specialised in restoring and adapting historic buildings, including Fishbourne Roman Palace and the Bishop’s Palace at Chichester, though it has also done a relatively small amount of new work. Between 1951 and 1982 N McFadyen (N McF) was also present and in the 1970s his name was incorporated in the partnership. Carden and Godfrey still exists in Clerkenwell (see R Andrews and R James) and the works listed below are certainly not all the practice has undertaken in Sussex, particularly as the names of individual members of the practice responsible for more recent projects are mostly not known.
Lit: BAL Biog file; Obit: The Times 16 Aug 1982
Designed: Brighton and Hove, – St Richard, Hangleton (1960-61)
Restored/Repaired/Extended: Beddingham (1957-58); Bishopstone (1952-54 – with father); Brightling (1966); Etchingham (1962-67); Hammerwood (1963); Lewes, – St John-sub-Castro (2016); – St Michael (1982 – N McF responsible); Lyminster (nd, after 2000); Poynings (1963); Rodmell (1950-51); Rustington (2015-16); Southease (1949-50); Tarring Neville (1957); Tidebrook (2009-10); West Chiltington (2000); Woodmancote, – St Peter (2008-09)
W H Godfrey
Walter Hindes Godfrey (1881-1961) is today best known as a historian, a writer about Sussex churches and the town of Lewes and as founder of the National Buildings (now Monuments) Record. He was a pupil of James Williams, the surviving partner of George Devey (1820-86), and he and another pupil, Edmund Livingstone Wratten (1877-1925) took the practice over and renamed it in 1905. Initially, they continued to design large houses. Even after Wratten’s death his name was retained and in 1938 the practice was at Church Lane, Lewes (KD/S), where Godfrey lived at Bull House, about which he wrote. Before founding the NMR Godfrey was active in the London Topographical Society. Increasingly he became known for his restoration and conservation work, as much on secular buildings as churches. In the 1930s the former included Herstmonceux castle but though he worked extensively in Sussex, his work is to be found as far afield as Sudeley castle, Gloucestershire. Following the destruction of historic buildings in World War II, much of his later work comprised the repair of bombed buildings. Some of the latter projects were carried out in conjunction with his son, W E Godfrey (see immediately above) and they also worked together on some church restorations, though they were never formally partners.
Lit: BAL Biog file; Obit: The Times 18 Sept 1961
Restored/altered: Bishopstone (1952-54 – with son); Boxgrove (1931); Friston (1920s); Hamsey (1928 – attr); Keymer (nd); Lewes, – St Anne (1927); Plumpton (1932); Seaford (1938); Up Marden (1924 – attr); Westham (c1937 – attr); Worthing, – St Symphorian, Durrington (1941); Yapton (1939-41)
Fittings: Alfriston (choir stalls – with Wratten); Brighton and Hove, – St Nicholas (top of churchyard cross)
C R B Godman Godman and Kay Godman Kay Partnership
Charles Richard Bayly Godman (1879-1946) was from 1907 partner of F Wheeler and his son in Horsham (KD). By 1921 both Wheelers were in London and the partnership was dissolved. From then until his death Godman’s partner was Claude John Kay (1878-1969), Wheeler’s former assistant. They built many banks and houses and the practice continues under the same name at Cowfold, close to Horsham and it has remained active in the field of churches. In 1949 the partner concerned with such work was E W Owen (EWO) and in the 1960s and 1970s L H Parsons (LHP) and N F Gossage (see this section below) (NFG) were both active. In 1994 S Reid was the responsible partner for work at Findon church.
Lit: BAL Biog file
Designed: Horsham, St Leonard (G and K) 1939; Littlehampton, – St James (1908-10 – with Wheeler; alterations in 1949 by EWO)
Restored/altered: Burgess Hill, – St John (1989-91); Brighton and Hove, – St Luke, Prestonville (1968-69 by NFG); Coldwaltham (1923-25 – as G and Kay); Itchingfield (1962 – LHP); Lower Beeding (1949 – as G and K, but Godman was dead); Patcham (1970 – LHP); Petworth (1935 – as G and Kay); Slinfold (1974-75 – LHP); Southwater (1909-10 and 1974-75 – as G and Kay – the latter repairs were by LHP)
W Godwin
William Godwin (1813-83) gave his name to a company he established with his brother Henry (1828-1910) in 1852, after the latter left Maw and Co and provided the necessary technical expertise. William was a brick-maker in Lugwardine, Herefordshire where the new company was set up. Despite several existing well established tile-making companies such as Maw and Minton, it soon became particularly favoured by leading church architects of the day, notably Sir George G Scott and G E Street. The brothers remained together until Henry left in 1876 to form his own company. Four years later William was joined by his son, another William (1841-1910), and in 1883 the company was renamed W Godwin and Son. They continued to make encaustic tiles until 1906 when it was sold, though final closure came only in 1988. In the intervening years the name changed more than once, but it did not make any further such tiles.
Tiles: Binsted, St Mary c1868
J Goldsmith
Joseph Goldsmith, is known for certain only from a single reference of 1810, which calls him ‘the younger’. This might suggest he is connected with James Goldsmith of Lewes, joiner, who is listed in the Universal British Directory (1793) and probably also with James Goldsmith senior (LBPB 1826). However, he is most likely to be the Joseph Goldsmith listed in the LBPB for 1796 without any details except his occupation of carpenter. Both Joseph and James, in turn, are probably related to T Goldsmith (see immediately below), also of Lewes.
Renovated: Beddingham (1810)
T Goldsmith
Thomas Goldsmith (1805-75) is in LBPB from 1826 (called ‘junior’) to 1847 at Spring Gardens, Lewes. He was generally described as a carpenter, except in 1841, when he was put down as a yeoman. However, in fact he carried on the business of a wheelwright at various addresses in Southover. Joseph (see immediately above) and James Goldsmith, the latter a joiner, are probably related.
Refitted: Lewes (Southover) (1845)
H Goodall
There is an attribution, now thought to be almost certainly erroneous, of a stained glass window at Alfriston to ‘H Goodall’. The more likely of two possible candidates was considered to be Herbert Goodall (1852-1907), He was a member of an artistic family, specifically the son of Frederick Goodall RA (1822-1904), a successful artist particularly known for his Orientalist works. The son trained as an architect in G E Street‘s office, where he was afterwards an assistant for a time. However, he also studied at the RA Schools and spent most of his life as a painter. He specialised in watercolours, especially landscapes and there is no indication of his having designed stained glass. Nevertheless, he would have been a far more plausible candidate than the alternative, the firm of Herbert A Goodall and Co, who were in Shoe Lane, City by 1902, though with no suggestion of involvement in stained glass. Until the 1920s they called themselves ‘manufacturers and merchants’ and by 1930 they were in Vauxhall Bridge Road, described as brush manufacturers and hardware merchants. They disappear from directories after 1934.
Source: www.goodallartists.ca
Glass: Alfriston (attr wrongly)
H S Goodhart-Rendel
Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel (1887-1959) was an architect of private means, who after studying music at Cambridge and under the French composer Andre Messager (1853-1929) in Paris, was articled briefly to Sir C Nicholson, but was otherwise largely self-taught when he set up his own practice in 1911. His father died young and he added his mother’s name Rendel in recognition of the life interest in a substantial estate that he received from her father. He wrote perceptively about Victorian architecture when it was deeply unfashionable. In the case of Sussex, he produced in particular a series of articles in the Architectural Review in 1918 on C19 Brighton churches. His card index of Victorian churches (now in the BAL), remains a valuable source. He also wrote on church design and belonged to the Art Workers Guild and the Committee of Consulting Architects of the ICBS, the latter until he became a Roman Catholic. Many of his churches combine a generally traditional approach to planning with more contemporary detailing; Elain Harwood has summed it up neatly in her comment that he used every device of the gothic except the pointed arch. His secular work reveals his interest in contemporary Scandinavian and Dutch architects more obviously and despite his declared aversion to the Modern Movement, some of his larger projects in the 1930s, such as the Hays Wharf building on London’s south bank, show its influence. He never entirely lost a reputation for frivolity, as shown in his musical interests, which as a result perhaps of his association with Messager, inclined towards Victorian light music. Pevsner in his preface to Some Architectural Writers of the Nineteenth Century deplored his failure to produce a promised fuller study to follow his much admired English Architecture since the Regency and remarked that he lacked stamina. In Pevsner’s eyes that would have been demonstrated fully by Goodhart-Rendel’s attitude to the Modern Movement. However, he was sufficiently esteemed among his fellow-architects to be elected President of the RIBA in 1937-39.
Lit: T Devonshire Jones: Romanesque Renewal, CBg 118 (July/Aug 2009) pp56-57; A Powers (ed): H S Goodhart-Rendel 1887-1959, 1987; DNB
Designed: Brighton and Hove, – St Wilfrid (1933-34 – secularised and altered); Hastings, – St John Upper Maze Hill (1951-58)
Restored: Nuthurst (1951); Stansted (1925 and 1947)
Fitting: Winchelsea, reredos
A Goodman
Ann (or Annie) Goodman is first recorded as a glass-designer in 1982. She trained at Goldsmiths College, London and in Brighton and is also a painter, as well as producing books. Much of her work is in the area round Steyning.
Glass: Brighton and Hove, – St Mary; Steyning; Sullington; West Itchenor
A Goslett and Co
Alfred Goslett and Co were founded in 1835 as glass merchants and Goslett’s Yard, off Charing Cross Road, still commemorates them. In 1880 they are described as glass merchants in Soho Square, which is very close by, so it is quite possible that they had not moved when in 1903 they were referred to as builders merchants in Charing Cross Road. There they remained until at least 1941. Like other later C19 London glass merchants, they dealt in glass for churches, though this was probably bought in.
Glass: South Bersted
N F Gossage
Neil Frederick Gossage (1908-72) was one of at least two members of the long-established practice of Godman and Kay (see this section above), who were responsible in the 1960s for church work.
Repaired: Brighton and Hove, – St Luke, Prestonville
L M Gotch Gotch and Partners
Laurence Mursell Gotch (1881-1964) was a pupil of his uncle, John Alfred Gotch of Kettering (1852-1942), before spending four years in Canada. On return, he continued to work in Northamptonshire – his latest recorded work there dates from 1936 and he also worked for the Midland Bank and with Lutyens on major projects. After 1945 he founded Gotch and Partners in Brighton and London, which still existed under this name in 1969 (KD/Brighton), though its work after he retired in 1955 is by others. In about 1972 it was renamed Wells-Thorpe and Partners in recognition of the fact that since the late 1950s, the practice had effectively been led by J Wells-Thorpe (J W-T).
Designed: Brighton and Hove, Resurrection, South Woodingdean (1958-59 – J W-T)
Repaired: Patcham, All Saints (1967); Pyecombe (1970-72 – completed as Wells-Thorpe and Partners)
A D Gough
Alexander Dick Gough (1804-71), after travel on the continent, became a pupil of Benjamin Dean Wyatt (1775-1852) and worked with him on several major projects in London, including Apsley House and the Duke of York’s column. He remained as Wyatt’s assistant until 1836, when he went into partnership with his fellow pupil, Robert Lewis Roumieu (1814-77), after whom his third son, Hugh Roumieu Gough (1843-1904), also an architect, was named. Despite their classical grounding, they designed gothic churches, many of which are of wilful originality, along with schools, houses and other public buildings, though in the 1840s Gough was also much involved in the planning and construction of new railways. There are grounds for suspecting that many of the less conventional aspects of the works that he and Roumieu designed jointly were the contribution of the latter. After the partnership ended in 1848, A D Gough continued on his own until he was joined by his two sons, the elder another Alexander Dick (1841-1900(?)) and Hugh Roumieu. In due course they took over the practice, though Alexander junior’s role may have been short-lived, for in 1871 and 1891 the only person of the right name and age was in a mental asylum. The father lived in Islington and then other parts of north and west London, as well as being surveyor to several small railway companies.
Obit: The Builder 29 p749; DNB
Designed: Hastings, – Christ Church, Ore (1858-59)
Restored: Winchelsea (1850 – plans)
Gould and Co
This firm of architectural consultants and chartered surveyors were founded in 1969 and have offices in London and Haywards Heath. Among their former staff is N Rowe who has worked on more than one church in Sussex.
Extended: Scaynes Hill (2011-14)
D Grant
Duncan James Corrowr (sic) Grant (1885-1978) was of Scottish descent and after a conventional schooling studied painting in Paris. Back in London he became closely involved with the Bloomsbury group, notably with V Bell, with whom he lived for the rest of his life and had a daughter, along with many homosexual relationships. As an artist, after a period before World War I close to the avant garde, he reverted to figures and landscapes for the rest of his long life. He and Vanessa lived at Charleston Manor and are buried at West Firle.
Lit: R Shone: The Art of Bloomsbury, 1999; DNB
Paintings: Berwick
W L Grant
William Leonard Grant (1850-1942) was born in Wiltshire, where he was articled to Henry Weaver (1816/17-86), who was county surveyor and surveyor to the diocese of Salisbury. By 1881 Grant had a practice at Sittingbourne in Kent where he was still active in 1914 (WWA) and continued to live in retirement. He designed many buildings in that area and designed or altered a number of churches, including Catholic and nonconformist ones. In addition, he was active in local public life, as surveyor and sanitary inspector, churchwarden and school manager. In later life he went into partnership with Thomas Francis Wiltshire Grant (1885-1965) his son. It is not known what his professional relationship to C S Spooner was, with whom he worked on the completion of Rye Harbour.
Lit: BAL Biog file
Altered: Rye Harbour (1911-12)
G K Gray
George Edward Kruger Gray (1880-1943), who was born Kruger, took his wife’s maiden name on marriage in 1918, possibly because of anti-German prejudice, though his father came from the Channel Islands and he was born in Kensington; his new name is also found with a hyphen. His studies culminated at the Royal College of Art, where he was taught stained glass design by C Whall and more generally trained by William Richard Lethaby (1857-1931). An accomplished watercolourist, Gray’s glass designs, in a technique described as ‘somewhat hard and insensitive’ in his obituary, show his skills to best advantage. He was interested in liturgical development and designed a few fittings (not in Sussex), but he came increasingly to specialise in heraldic designs. In addition to seals and other such devices, he designed coins for Britain and several other countries of the Empire. He was associated with the Warham Guild and was a member of the Art Workers Guild. Though he lived mostly in London, he died at Chichester and there is a memorial window to him in Fittleworth church.
Obit: The Times 4 May 1943; DNB
Glass: Upper Dicker
J Gray
Jane Campbell Gray (born Jane Ross in 1931) trained at Kingston School of Art and then the Royal College of Art under L Lee. She was his assistant for a total of eight years at his studio at New Malden, including the time in which he was working on the glass he was commissioned to make for Coventry cathedral. She then opened her own studio and now lives and works in Shropshire.
See under J Ross for her works.
F E Green
Francis Ernest Green (1902-73) was born in London, the son of the secretary of a railway company who had himself been born at Seaford. This previous link with Sussex may have led to the son becoming an architect in Hove, though there is no certain record of him there before 1961. Professional details beyond the two churches below are few; in particular, the circumstances of his training are not known.
Completed: Lancing, – St Michael (1958-59)
Repaired: Clayton (1963)
H J Green
Herbert John Green (1852-1918) was born near Ipswich and was a pupil of Sir A W Blomfield before joining his office. His first recorded restoration of a church was at Hemingford Abbots, Huntingdonshire in 1872-76. At that time he was said to be ‘of London’ and he is known to have had an address in Lincolns Inn Fields in 1881. However, by that year he was also in practice in Norwich, where as Diocesan Surveyor he did much work on churches in Norfolk and Suffolk, mostly between the mid-1870s and the 1890s, as well as designing at least one hotel (now gone) at Sheringham. In 1894 he was declared bankrupt (BN 64 p335), but references to him as an architect continue thereafter and he was living in the same house in Norwich in 1911 as in 1891. As late as 1908 he was still the Diocesan Surveyor when he restored the church of St Swithun, Norwich and in the same year he designed a new county hall in the Georgian style for the Isle of Ely at March. At his death he left over £6000, yet more evidence of his having retrieved his fortunes.
Extended: Forest Row (1877)
T Green
Thomas Green (c1659-c1730?) was a leading statuary in Camberwell by 1697. He was responsible for some of the largest and most elaborate early C18 church monuments, which are widely scattered through England. However, he also worked in a simpler vein, as his only work in Sussex shows. Mainly in his final years, he was also noted as a heraldic carver, especially of the Royal Arms for public buildings.
Memorial: Ticehurst
T Greenshields
Thomas Greenshields (1801/02(?)-after 1845) initially practised in Reading, but moved to Oxford, where he appears in directories (PD) of 1830 and 1842; in 1841 he was living in St John’s Street. He designed a number of vicarages and rectories in the south of England, but otherwise most of his surviving work is in Oxford and he restored several churches in Oxfordshire. He is not to be found in the city after 1845, but there is no reliable record of his death. Moreover, there is an isolated reference in 1851 to a Thomas Greenshields in Randwick, Gloucestershire (born 1801/02 in Middlesex) who described himself as an architectural civil engineer and who could well be the same man, though in the absence of any other reference the identification cannot be proved.
Rebuilt: Iping (1840)
F Grigs
Francis Grigs is suggested as the sculptor of one monument at Wadhurst, dated 1651. It is advanced in style for the date with various coloured marbles. At Framlingham, Suffolk Grigs signs a similarly impressive monument with the date 1638, which according to Margaret Whinney is his only known work, though there is also a signed brass of 1640, now at Monkhopton, Shropshire. The combination of a brass effigy with sculpture is frequently found at this time and if the work at Wadhurst and others attributed to him are indeed by his hand, he was clearly an established mason with a substantial career, almost certainly based in London. However, he is not listed in Gunnis or Roscoe, so his identity remains unclarified.
Memorial: Wadhurst (attr)
R Grimshaw
Rosalind Grimshaw (b1945) trained with J Bell and Son of Bristol and worked for them until the company closed in 1996, though at the same time she also made glass on her own account. Subsequently she went into partnership with Patrick Costeloe, also an ex-trainee of Joseph Bell and Son, with whom she shares a studio in Clifton and with whom she collaborates on occasion.
Glass: Balcombe; Scaynes Hill
J Grist
James Grist (1809-76) is described in 1841, 1851 and 1855 (KD/S) as a builder and stonemason of Midhurst, where in 1861 he was also High Bailiff. In 1867 he is given as a surveyor, in 1871 a master mason, whilst in that year and 1874 KD/S calls him a builder. Whatever his precise trade, by 1871 he owned a substantial business, employing 40 men and five boys. At Lodsworth he was working with A Brown, who was described as surveyor, and Grist was said to have been the builder, but in view of his later career, his involvement in the design cannot be excluded.
Reconstructed: Lodsworth (1840-42 and later)
M A E Grosholz
H F Price of Weston-super-Mare had a partner identified only as ‘Grosholz’ of whom there are mentions between 1875 and 1877 (KD/Somerset 1875 and BA 4 (27 Nov 1875) p vii) and whose name is also found as ‘Gropholz’. This must be Matthias August Edward Grosholz (1851-78), whose date of birth is provided by a record of his baptism in Baden, Germany. It is not known why he left Germany, but he was in England by 1873 when he married an English wife in Norfolk and the following year he was an executor of his sister’s will. At that time she was living in his house, known as Baden House, Kewstoke, Somerset, a name and a location that further support the identification. Despite his youth on arrival in England, he had acquired an architectural training, for there is an announcement (London Gazette 24 October 1873) of the dissolution of his partnership with Joseph Houghton Spencer (1844-1914) of Taunton and Weston-super-Mare. This partnership must have been of short duration, like that with Price which followed,; one further project by Price and Grosholz together is known, the completion of Christ Church, Weston-super-Mare in 1877. Grosholz had three children, the last born in 1878, but it seems that he went to New Zealand soon after the ending of his partnership with Price, for there is a record of his burial in Wellington the following year. His widow and family continued to live in England.
Restored: Cowfold (1876-77 – with Price)
L Grossé Ltd
Louis Grossé Ltd, a firm of church suppliers, is found in England from 1911 to its closure in 1980, but can be traced back to a business established at Bruges, Belgium in 1783. This expanded its range of activities and lasted until at least the late C19, when the firm of L Grosse (sic)-De Herde of that city supplied stained glass to the church of All Saints, Southend on Sea, Essex. There is also an altar-frontal in Hereford cathedral, designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1873 which is also ascribed to the Bruges company, but without the De Herde. The precise relationship of the English and Belgian companies is not clear, though the London one also prospered and became a leading importer and supplier of fittings, mostly in the Italian, Spanish and French styles which came to be preferred by Anglo-Catholic churches. Their vestments and altar-frontals were especially renowned and it is probable that much of this was supplied from Bruges. On the other hand, glass known to be by the company was possibly bought in. As at Southend above, their name is often found without the accent and in 1911 they had premises in Baker Street, London. They moved twenty years later to Manchester Square, their address in 1939, and thence to Manchester Street.
Fittings: Crawley, – St Peter, West Green, rood; Eastbourne, – St Saviour, statue
J T Groves
The father of John Thomas Groves (c1761-1811) was in the building trade in London and his son initially decided on the same career. However, it would appear that he had artistic interests, for he exhibited views at the Royal Academy and visited Italy. On return, he was appointed Clerk of Works for St James’s, Westminster and Whitehall. Such an appointment brought him into contact with the Surveyor, J Wyatt, whose cavalier conduct of official business was matched by that of Groves. He also had an extensive private practice, mostly domestic in nature.
Lit: DNB
Completed: East Grinstead, – St Swithun (1811)
H Grylls
Harry Grylls (1873-1953) took over the family business of Burlison and Grylls after the death of his father, Thomas John Grylls (1845-1913), one of its founders, and his death was followed by the closure of the firm, after a final upsurge of activity following World War II. Grylls corresponded extensively with leading church architects and artists during this period. In addition to work for the family firm, he appears also to have worked on his own as a designer.
Glass: East Grinstead, – St Swithun
Guercino
Francesco Barbieri (1591-1666), known as Guercino, was born near Bologna, where he was trained. He worked extensively there and in Rome, producing large altarpieces and mythological works. The latter were especially prized in C18 England.
Painting: Netherfield (after)
F Gunby
Francis Gunby was a Yorkshire craftsman in both wood and plaster, who was active during the 1630s, though his dates are not known. He was responsible for a number of works in the former West Riding of Yorkshire. These include the fittings of St John, Briggate, Leeds, some of the finest of their period in the country (made 1632-34), a screen at what is now Wakefield cathedral and a ceiling at Temple Newsam house, now on the outskirts of Leeds.
Fitting: Rotherfield, pulpit (previously at Bishopsthorpe palace near York)