Henry Woodyer

Henry Woodyer (1816–1896) was an English architect, a pupil of William Butterfield and a disciple of A.W.N. Pugin and the Ecclesiologists.^[1]

Life

Woodyer was born in Guildford, Surrey, England, in 1816, the son of a successful, highly respected surgeon, who owned Allen House in the Upper High Street. His mother came from the wealthy Halsey family who owned Henley Park, just outside Guildford.

Woodyer was educated first at Eton College, then at Merton College, Oxford. As a result he could claim to be one of the best educated architects since Sir Christopher Wren. Whilst at Oxford, he became involved in the Anglican high church movement and throughout his career he saw his work as an architect as a means of serving the church.

Career

Woodyer’s architectural training is a mystery, although it is likely that he received help and guidance from William Butterfield, with whom he had an office in the same building in London. In addition to this, Woodyer kept an office in the same building as his father’s medical practice, in Guildford High Street.^[2]

Woodyer was an architect, but first of all a gentleman. He had an estate at Grafham, near Guildford and spent his holidays cruising the Mediterranean on his yacht. He despised "professionalism" and any form of advertising, including publishing his buildings, but his good connections meant he never lacked work. Many of his jobs came from Eton or Oxford contacts, or through recommendations from fellow high churchmen. Though romantic and pleasure-loving, Woodyer took his role as an architect seriously, using his sharp tongue to put clients in their place when necessary. He had an eye for human detail, spending hours ensuring there was space for the boys to play football when designing an extension to the New Schools at Eton.^[3]

Work: an overview

Woodyer has about 300 commissions to his name, most within easy reach of Guildford by train. Religion dominated his practice, with innumerable churches and church restorations to his name, as well as parsonages and village schools. He also designed or extended country houses, made additions to Eton College, built Cranleigh School and was responsible for a series of religious institutions, including the Convent at Clewer in Berkshire for the "fallen women" of Windsor.

His work is predominantly muscular Gothic Revival architecture, in the spirit of Pugin, with whom he may have had early practical experience. Like Pugin, his style stems from his religious bent. At times he could verge on the pedestrian, as at the New Schools at Eton and Cranleigh, and his restorations can seem wilfully insensitive. But at its best, there is an energetic vigour to his religious and secular work.

Woodyer's was a convincing vision of the Middle Ages, rich with colour and decoration. He was closely connected to Hardman & Co., the Birmingham firm of stained glass manufacturers, where Pugin was the first art director.

His churches, such as Holy Innocents, Highnam, Gloucestershire have bold spires and impressive chancels. His domestic buildings, whether small - such as the sexton's cottage at Highnam - or of the ambition of St. Andrew's Convent at Clewer, or St. Michael's College at Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire ripple with gables and towers and sharply pitched roofs.

Woodyer's style of architecture soon fell out of fashion but it neatly encapsulates an era of moral certainties and confident prosperity.

Works: the buildings

Holy Trinity Church, Millbrook, Southampton

Churches (new)

• Holy Innocents' Church, Highnam, Gloucestershire (including sexton's cottage), 1847
• St. Paul's Church, Sketty, Swansea, Glamorgan, 1849–50, for John Henry Vivian
• Holy Jesus' Church, Lydbrook, Gloucestershire, 1850–51
• Christ Church, Christchurch Road, Reading, Berkshire, 1861-2^[4]
• St. Martin's Church, Dorking, 1868–77, described by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner as Woodyer's most important^{[citation needed]}
• All Saints Church, Portfield, Chichester (1869–71)^[5]
• St. John the Baptist Church, Odo Street, Hafod, Swansea, 1878–80, for Henry Hussey Vivian
• Holy Trinity Church, Millbrook, Southampton (1873–1880)^[6]

Churches (restoration or rebuilding)

• St. Blaise Church, Milton, Berkshire (now Oxfordshire), 1849-51^[7]
• St Nicolas' Church, Newbury, Berkshire, 1858^[8]
• St. Andrew's parish church, Clewer, Berkshire: north arcade, 1858^[9]
• St. John the Baptist parish church, Berwick St. John, Wiltshire, 1861^[10]
• St. Bartholomew's parish church, Wanborough, Surrey, 1861
• St George's parish church, Evenley, Northamptonshire 1864-5
• St. Lawrence parish church, Toot Baldon, Oxfordshire, 1865^[11]
• St. Swithin's parish church, Compton Bassett, Wiltshire: chancel, chancel chapels and north porch (1866)^[12]
• St. Laurence parish church, Caversfield, Oxfordshire, 1874^[13]
• St. John the Divine parish church, Patching, West Sussex, 1888–89^[14]

Other institutional buildings

• School (now the Stewart Hall), Sketty, Swansea, 1853, for John Henry Vivian
• St. Edmund's Church School, Salisbury, Wiltshire, 1860^[15]
• Fisherton Anger Church School, Fisherton, Salisbury, Wiltshire, 1867^[16]
• House of Mercy, Clewer, Berkshire, 1853–73^[17]
• Cranleigh School, Surrey
• New Schools, Eton College, 1861–63^[18]
• St. Michael's College, Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire
• The Chapel at St Thomas's Home for the Friendless and Fallen, Darlington Road, Basingstoke dedicated on 21 July 1885, the eve of St Mary Magdalen's feast day
• All Saints Hospital and Chapel, Eastbourne (1867–74)^[19]

Domestic buildings

• Alterations to Parc Wern (now Parc Beck), Sketty, Glamorgan, 1851–3 for H.H. Vivian
• Church Cottage, Tutshill, c. 1852.^[20]
• Brynmill Lodge (gate-lodge) and (attributed) Verandah (a small Gothic house, 1853) at Singleton Abbey, Swansea) for J.H. Vivian
• Alterations to Hall Place, Buckinghamshire, 1868^[21]
• Alterations to Tyntesfield, Wraxall, Somerset for Matilda Blanche Gibbs, circa 1880

References

Sources

• Elleray, D. Robert (2004). Sussex Places of Worship. Worthing: Optimus Books. ISBN 0-9533132-7-1. 
• Elliott, John; John Prichard (2002). Henry Woodyer: Gentleman Architect. University of Reading.  Cite uses deprecated parameters (help)
• Nairn, Ian; Pevsner, Nikolaus (1965). The Buildings of England: Sussex. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-071028-0. 
• Newman, John; Stephen Hughes, Anthony Ward (2004). Glamorgan. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-09629-1.  Cite uses deprecated parameters (help)
• Pevsner, Nikolaus (1966). The Buildings of England: Berkshire. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. 
• Pevsner, Nikolaus (1960). The Buildings of England: Buckinghamshire. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. 
• Pevsner, Nikolaus; Cherry, Bridget (revision) (1975) [1963]. The Buildings of England: Wiltshire. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. ISBN 0 14 0710.26 4 Check |isbn= value (help).  Cite uses deprecated parameters (help)
• Sherwood, Jennifer; Pevsner, Nikolaus (1974). The Buildings of England: Oxfordshire. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-071045-0.  Cite uses deprecated parameters (help)
• Tyack, Bradley and Pevsner, Geoffrey, Simon and Nikolaus (2010). The Buildings of England: Berkshire. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-12662-4.