|
W H Nash
Walter Hilton Nash (1850-1927) was articled to H Currey and afterwards joined the office of Edward I’Anson. He won the Soane Medallion of the RIBA in 1875 (Proc RIBA). He became partner of his father, Edwin, in 1877 and, apart from one church in Crawley, designed mainly commercial buildings. Edwin had designed several churches, mostly in the London area.
Obit: The Builder 133 p1004
Designed: Crawley, - St Peter (1892-93)
P Neave
Penelope Neave is a glassmaker and designer, who was active during the 1980s, when she designed a number of windows for churches. Among these was a memorial to her cousin Airey Neave MP, who was assassinated by terrorists in 1979.
Glass: Loxwood
R Nevill
Ralph Nevill (1845-1917) was a pupil and assistant of Sir George G Scott. He practised in Godalming and subsequently also in London, where he shared offices in Chancery Lane with his fellow former pupils J Medland and C E Powell, though none of their obituaries mentions a partnership. Nevill remained living in Surrey and died at Guildford. Both Medland and Powell worked with him at Rotherfield. In addition to restoring churches he designed houses, mostly in Surrey.
Lit: BAL Biog file; Obit: RIBAJ 25 p252
Restored: Patcham (1883); Rotherfield (1873-74)
K New
Keith New (1926-2012) studied intitially studied graphic design, typography and illustration at the Royal College of Art (RCA) before switching to stained glass, which he studied under L Lee, like his associate A Hollaway. Before even completing his studies he was invited along with Lee to design the glass for Basil Spence's new cathedral at Coventry. He also commenced teaching at the stained glass departnment of the RCA and subsequently became a lecturer at Kingston Poly. During this time he designed glass extensively, producing at least one design for Shrigley and Hunt, and worked at the Glass House (see under Lowndes and Drury) in the 1960s. There are windows by him in Bristol and Norwich cathedrals as well as Coventry. In 1991 he decided to devote himself to landscape painting, though he remained a member of the Society of Master Glass Painters.
Obit: The Times 24 March 2012
Glass: Eastbourne, - St John, Meads
R J Newbery
Robert J Newbery (1861-1940) seems to have worked independently from an early age, for in 1881 he already had a glass studio in Fitzroy Square, London. He appears at this address down to at least 1931, though in 1887 only he is given in KD/L with an address at 20 Mortimer Street. He lived in Hammersmith, but the circumstances of his training are unknown. His work was particularly popular in Wales.
Glass: Worth
A S Newman
Arthur Shean Newman (1828-73) was the son of an architect and antiquary of London and lived in Lewisham. His partner was A Billing and they had an office in Tooley Street (Proc RIBA) from 1858. He became Surveyor of Guy’s Hospital.
Lit: BAL Biog file
Restored/extended: Sedlescombe (1866-67)
W S Newman
William Stobart Newman (1906-80) was an architect of Lewes, who was for many years Diocesan Surveyor (concerned mainly with clergy housing) and also designed and repaired a number of churches. His obituary is silent about his training.
Obit: RIBAJ 87 (June 1980) p17
Designed: Haywards Heath, - Ascension (1965-66 – altered); - Good Shepherd (1964-65)
Repaired: Newick (1979)
J Newton
John Newton was a pupil of Sir George G Scott in 1861 and later worked in his office. He went into independent practice about 1864 and shared an office briefly with a fellow-pupil, T G Jackson in Salisbury Street, Strand (KD/L); in 1877 he was at 27 Great George Street. In the 1880 and 1881 RIBA members lists he omits an address, suggesting he was no longer in active practice, and then disappears from the records.
Lit: BAL Biog file
Designed: Hastings, - St Paul (1868 – dem 1964)
T Nicholls
Thomas Nicholls (b1825/26) was born in Westminster and his early circumstances have not come to light. He was best known for his architectural carving. In particular, he was closely linked to W Burges, for whom he also produced fittings, though he also worked for others. Burges provided an outline of what he needed, allowing Nicholls considerable freedom in interpretation. His professional address in 1861 was at Hercules Buildings, Lambeth (KD/L), where he remained for the rest of his known active life. However, the earliest reference would be ten years earlier if the attribution of the work in St Peter-the-Great were accepted. He is not found for certain after 1891, though there is an isolated reference in KD/L 1900 to a sculptor of the name in Kennington, the right area. Though not much is known about him or his background, he did produce sculpture and a sculptor of the name who exhibited at the RA in 1864 (Graves) is probably the same.
Fittings etc: Brighton and Hove, - St Mary, font; - St Michael, architectural and wood carving; Chichester, - St Peter the Great, architectural carving (attr); Crawley, - Lowfield Heath, carving (attr)
A K Nicholson
Archibald Keightley Nicholson (1872-1937) was the brother of Sir C Nicholson (see immediately below) and was initially articled to H Wilson, then still active as an architect, but increasingly interested in other crafts. He was thus initially skilled in crafts, including metalwork, and was largely self-taught as a glassmaker and his company is said to have produced over 700 windows. His earliest known glass dates from 1894, so he was clearly precocious. However, he does not appear to have opened his own premises at New Court, Carey Street until around 1907 (KD/L). He remained there until he moved to Tufton Street, Westminster in 1916 and in 1921 to 105 Gower Street (KD/L), where he was to remain until 1935. The business then moved to 35 Circus Road, NW8, but it disappears from KD/L after 1941; after his death it had continued in his name under G E R Smith (GERS) and H L Pawle until at least the late 1950s.
Glass: East Blatchington; Rudgwick; Rusper (GERS); Tangmere; West Wittering; Wivelsfield
Sir C Nicholson
Sir Charles Archibald Nicholson, Bart (1867-1949) derived his title from his father (the first baronet), who was Speaker of the New South Wales Assembly, but Nicholson was born in London and went to Rugby and Oxford, before becoming a pupil of J D Sedding. He then worked with H Wilson, Sedding’s successor, until he set up in independent practice in 1893. From 1895 to 1916 his partner was H C Corlette and from 1927 it was T J Rushton, who took over the practice after Nicholson died. He was a successful and prolific architect of churches, using a simplified gothic that appealed to the Art Workers Guild to which he belonged. He became perhaps the most influential church architect of his generation and worked on several cathedrals. In particular, he adapted the older parish churches at Portsmouth and Chelmsford when they were elevated to that status. However, despite the extent of his practice as a church-architect, he also designed houses.
Lit: BAL Biog file; DNB
Fittings: Burwash, reredos; Tillington, sanctuary; Worthing, - St Andrew, unidentified altar
U Nimptsch
Julius Nimptsch (1897-1977), who was always known as Uli, was born in Berlin, where he studied as a sculptor, mainly in bronze, before moving to Rome and then Paris in the 1930s, as his wife was Jewish. He came to London in 1939 and became a full Royal Academician in 1967. He concentrated on the human figure, creating mainly female nudes, usually on a small scale, which show the influence of early C20 French artists such as Renoir and Mailliol, as well as looking back further to the Renaissance. He also produced portrait busts.
Lit: Royal Academy of Arts: Uli Nimptsch RA, 1973; DNB
Sculpture: Bognor Regis, - St Wilfrid, statue
N C H Nisbett
Norman Clayton Hadlow Nisbett (1860-1918) was articled to G A Wallis of Eastbourne, ‘with whom was associated A W M Mowbray’ (WWA 1914). He was elected ARIBA in 1885, with an address in Euston Square (Proc RIBA). In 1884 he had become a partner of F R Farrow in London and from 1889 also in Winchester. From 1897 J B Colson joined them in Winchester only, where he took the lead – including at Bosham. In 1907 Farrow left the practice and after Colson died the next year, Nisbett replaced him as Surveyor to Winchester cathedral.
Restored: Bosham (1903)
S Nixon
Samuel Nixon (1803-54) was born in London, though his training is obscure. According to the DNB his brother, identified only as ‘Mr Nixon’, was a glass painter. The closeness in dates of birth suggests this was J H Nixon (see under Ward and Nixon). Samuel exhibited regularly at the RA from 1823 and in addition to architectural carving, busts and monuments, aspired to producing allegorical and heroic scultures. His best known work was the gigantic granite statue of King William IV, erected in the City in 1844 and now at Greenwich. The technical problems he encountered with this caused Nixon some financial difficulties. As a designer of monuments, he was perhaps too reluctant to dissuade his patrons from their less happy ideas.
Lit: DNB
Memorial: Pett
M Noble
Michael Noble designed at least one window with J Hayward in 1995.
Glass: Balcombe
J Nollekens
Joseph Nollekens (1737-1823) was born in London, the son of a painter from Antwerp, and was apprenticed to P Scheemakers from 1750, before going to Rome in 1762. There he was patronised by British clients, so he was able to build on his existing reputation after his return to London in 1770 – he was elected ARA within a year and an RA in 1772. He was much praised for his portrait-busts, of which he made many, though he produced almost every type of sculpture, including monuments. The latter became increasingly formulaic (Roscoe p898) and Edmund Gosse's criticism, that they were ‘broken with trivial eccentricities’, seem strange today for they seem quite conventional for their era. Much information about him derives from Smith’s book, which is at times highly scurrilous, since Smith's father had not received an anticipated legacy in Nollekens’s will. According to Smith, both he and his wife were notorious for their parsimony and he left a fortune of £200,000.
Lit: DNB; J T Smith: Nollekens and his Times (with an essay by Edmund Gosse), 1895 (first published 1828)
Memorials: Catsfield; Westbourne (2); Withyham, - St Michael
S H Norman Norman and Burt
Simeon Henry Norman (1864-1934) was described as an architect of Burgess Hill when he restored East Chiltington church to posthumous designs by R C Carpenter. His father, Simeon Norman (1833-89), a prosperous builder and surveyor, as well as an artist and photographer, was born at Clayton and for much of the time lived there. However, in D 1868 and KD/S 1882 he is listed under Burgess Hill and he appears to have been in Hurstpierpoint in 1867 (KD). After his death, Simeon Henry lived in Clayton and took over the firm; in 1891 he was certainly a builder and held the rather obscure position of ‘Secretary to Burgess Hill’. KD 1899 lists S H Norman as secretary of the local gas and water companies, which is the most likely explanation. In the same year the firm had become Norman and Burt (N and B) and as such it still existed in the 1960s.
Restored: East Chiltington (1889-90)
Fittings: Burgess Hill, - St John (N and B, numerous, some designed by C E Kempe)
J Norton
John Norton (1823-1904) was a pupil of B Ferrey and attended the classes of T L Donaldson. His first work was in the West Country where many of his houses and churches are to be found. However, he had opened a London Office by 1854 (Graves) and at various times his address was 8 St James’s Street (Proc RIBA) and later 24 Old Bond Street. His partner was P E Masey, whose work is not known in Sussex. Norton’s most famous work is the great house at Tyntesfield near Bristol. Like others of his later works this was highly opulent – Norton was not a cheap architect, though in his earlier years he had designed commercial buildings, for he had a liking for stone vaults and marble shafting.
Lit: DNB; BAL Biog file. Obits: RIBAJ 12 (1904) p63; The Builder 87 (1904) p526
Designed: Brighton and Hove, - St Matthew (1881-83 – dem)
J A Nuttgens
Joseph Ambrose Nuttgens (b1941) was the son of J E Nuttgens (see immediately below) and after training at the Royal College of Art and working for P Reyntiens until 1982, took over his father's glass-making business near High Wycombe.
Glass: Alfriston
J E Nuttgens
Joseph Edward Nuttgens (1892-1982) was born in Aachen, Germany. His mother was British and he lived in Britain from the age of four, which did not stop him from being interned during World War I. He was a draughtsman for A A Orr (see below), worked at the Glass House (see under Lowndes and Drury) and became chief assistant of M Travers, who was a powerful influence as, at an earlier stage, was C Whall. Nuttgens also produced designs for J Powell and Sons and spent the later part of his life near High Wycombe, where he became a friend of E Gill. Among those for whom he produced glass was H Hendrie. He had twelve children – one, also Joseph (see immediately above), was an artist, who took over from his father at the same address and is still a glassmaker.
Glass: Dallington; Staplefield; West Itchenor
D Nye
David Evelyn Nye (1906-86) was from his earliest years as an architect involved with SPAB, repairing and conserving ancient buildings. Paradoxically, he also designed some 40 cinemas, the most obviously modern type of building in the 1930s. He started to practice in Essex, but later lived in Surrey where he became architect to Guildford cathedral. His name lives on in the practice of Nye Saunders of Godalming and he is said to have designed 25 new churches, at least six of them during the post-war period in London.
Lit: BAL Biog file
Restored: Ewhurst Green (1950-51); Milland (old) (1969 - not carried out for the most part)
S Nye
A firm of contractors named Stephen Nye and Son signed the plans in first place for a new south aisle at Rusper. Nothing else is known of them or of the other person to sign the plans, Thomas Redford. Both were probably local.
Extended: Rusper (1825 onwards - probably not built)
H Ockenden
Henry Ockenden (1792/93-1868) is variously listed in contemporary directories - as a carpenter (PD 1828), a builder in 1855 and between 1862 and 1867 as Henry Ockenden and Son of West Green, Crawley; in fact the premises were in the adjacent parish of Ifield. In 1844 he was also a surveyor and in 1861 (B 19 p360) an architect. He was born at Wiston and his son, also Henry (b 1826/27), described as a painter, doubtless worked with his father. Another son, John is recorded down to 1891 as a builder in Crawley.
Renovated: Crawley, - St John (1844)
M O'Connor O’Connor and Taylor W G Taylor
Michael O’Connor (1801-67) was born in Dublin and was a heraldic artist before studying glassmaking in London with T Willement. He was back in Dublin by 1833, but in 1842 he went to Bristol and then to 4 Berners Street, London, where he became one of the leading early Victorian producers of glass; his reputation was high enough for his work to be included in the Great Exhibition of 1851. He worked for A W Pugin and W Butterfield, who may have produced some designs for him, and Jim Cheshire (p46) has found evidence that he worked with W Warrington. He was assisted by his son, Arthur (1826-73), who was a partner by 1852 (KD/L). The father's eyesight failed gradually and the style of the firm's work changes as Arthur took the lead. In due course, he took over completely with his brother, William Henry (1838/39-77(?)). Arthur apparently withdrew on grounds of ill health and in 1873 William George Taylor (b1822) joined William Henry as a partner and took over after he died. The firm was successively named O’Connor and Taylor (KD/L 1875), W G Taylor (KD/L 1878) and finally Taylor and Clifton (from 1902), lasting until 1915.
Glass: Boxgrove; Brede; Brighton and Hove, - St Anne, Burlington Street (formerly); - St Peter, Preston; Eastbourne, - St Mary, Church Street; Horsham, - St Mary; Laughton; Lewes, - St Anne; Lower Beeding; Mountfield; New Shoreham; Patcham; Stopham; Worthing, - St Botolph, Heene
E and C O’Neill
Edward (b1851-after 1913) and Charles O’Neill first appear at premises at 165 Gray’s Inn Road, London in 1897 (KD/L), though they may have been connected with an earlier company in the field of stained glass, O'Neill Brothers of 343 Kentish Town Road, which is in KD/L 1891-92 only. In 1914 they moved to 4 Heathcote Street, Mecklenburgh Square, where they were present jointly until 1930. In the following year only Charles is listed in KD/L at the same address and the firm then disappears. The basic facts about Edward are reasonably well established. He was born at Birmingham, but lived in various parts of north London, including in 1901 Tottenham, where he can be identified from electoral registers as living until 1913. However, Charles O'Neill is more problematic. Though Edward had a son called Charles, he was only born in 1886 and can hardly have been in the business by 1897, suggesting that the partner at this time was a brother or other relative, though the son could have been fully trained by 1908, the date of the glass at St Patrick, Hove. W B Reynolds was the designer for this, the firm's only known commission in the South since their few known windows are otherwise in the North.
Glass: Brighton and Hove, - St Patrick
S Oliver
Sanders Oliver was born around 1719 and by 1741 had a workshop in Cannon Street, which he retained until 1786 - it was occupied by someone else the following year. He was also a mason and his known work was mostly in the City.
Memorial: Mayfield
E Ormerod
Evelyn Ormerod designed the font cover of All Saints, Hove in 1928, but her identity is not known for sure. She may be identical with Rose Evelyn Ormerod (1877-1959), who in 1901 was living with her widowed mother and two unmarried sisters in Brunswick Place, Hove. No occupation is given and her mother was living off her own means, but is possible that she was artistic, even if not a professional artist.
Fitting: Brighton and Hove, - All Saints, Hove, font cover
A A Orr
Arthur Anselm Orr (1868-1949) was born at Chiswick, the son of an art metal worker, but trained and worked first in Dublin and then with J Hardman and Co. He was living in Hammersmith in 1891 as a ’stained glass and ecclesiastical designer’, but in 1898 he signed his window at Pyecombe with Harrow on the Hill as address. In 1901 he was living at Wealdstone, but still had a studio in Harrow. On occasion he used outside designers, including his pupil A J Dix and R Anning Bell, and and it is possible that Dix's successors produced glass to his design, whilst he produced designs for other makers, notably J Powell and Sons.
Glass: Pyecombe; Scaynes Hill
L’Ortolano
Giovanni Battista Benvenuti (1487 (or earlier)-c1525), who was nicknamed L’Ortolano, meaning ‘Market Gardener’, came from Ferrara in Emilia and spent some time in Bologna before returning to his native city, where his works are to be found in both the gallery and several churches. His nickname is said to stem from his father's occupation. Few further details of his life are known.
Painting: Hastings, - St John, Upper Maze Hill
G Ostrehan
George William Ostrehan (1865/66-1903) was born in the Madras Presidency, India but was in England by 1881. He came of a military family that is said to have been related to Cardinal Newman and was both a designer of stained glass and a painter. In 1890 he married a fellow-artist, Eva Mary Jane (1866/67-1933), in Westminster, though they then moved to Newlyn, Cornwall before returning to London in 1893. During this time he repainted the figures on the rood-screen at Woolpit, Suffolk in a style that is instantly recognisable as Victorian but is derived from late mediaeval work (see www.suffolkchurches.co.uk under Woolpit for pictures). This shows his work in churches began quite early in his career and he was probably already designing glass as well, since two windows in Newlyn church are likely to date from this period. Otherwise, not much is known about his presence there, but it is hard to reconcile his presence in this advanced artistic colony with his only recorded independent work as a painter - paintings of angels in a conventional late Pre-Raphaelite style, formerly at St Barnabas, Tunbridge Wells and known today from some less than ideal black and white photographs. However, he is said to have exhibited in London during the 1890s. After his return there, his interest in stained glass developed further - he designed extensively for Clewer church, Berkshire, where one of his brothers was curate. His attested glass is notably two-dimensional, based on early C15 Italian painting. In 1901 the couple were living at 26 Montpelier Street, Knightsbridge, describing themselves as artists but his early death occurred at Sunbury, Middlesex. He had had earlier links to Sunbury as there is some glass by him in the parish church, dating from c1899. The date of his death is well documented, though, on doubtful authority, further glass to his design is stated to have been installed at Beckley as late as 1908. This could in fact be by his widow, who is known to have designed a window at Sunbury around 1905.
Glass: Beckley
My thanks are due to Geoff Copus of Tunbridge Wells who provided much of the above information, some of which comes from Penlee House, Cornwall, the centre of studies on the Newlyn artists, and stimulated me to find out more. I am also grateful to James Bettley for providing information about Ostrehan's activities in Suffolk and Sunbury.
A Outridge
This tombmaker came from Petersfield, Hampshire, as the signature on at least one monument testifies, and can be identified between 1777, the date of that at Tillington, and 1783, the latest date of one of his monuments in Hampshire. His first name is nowhere given, but there are roughly contemporary references to two persons called Alexander Outridge in Petersfield. On a pair of cottages in Dragon Street is an undated inscription recording their rebuilding by Alexander Outridge, mason. The registers of Petersfield parish church record the burial of Alexander Outridge, mason, in 1799 (no age stated) and of a further one, perhaps a son, in 1824 at the age of 56. No occupation is given in the latter case and he would in any case have been too young to have made any of the monuments, so it is likely that the older man was responsible.
Memorial: Tillington
E Outridge
Nothing is known of Elizabeth Outridge beyond a single modest monument at Greatham, dated to around 1823. Given that successive generations of Outridges in Petersfield were stonemasons (see Alexander immediately above), she can probably be identified as the Elizabeth Outridge (1778/79-1854) who was the mother of Owen Outridge, stonemason of 111 College Street in 1841 and 1851. Her occupation is given as bonnet maker and since very few women were then active in this field, it is possible that she was standing in for a deceased husband - it was often then the case that women became active in trades if the men of their generation died prematurely. From her age she could be the widow of Alexander junior (assuming he was a mason), but that is speculation.
Memorial: Greatham
E W Owen
(Henry) Egerton Winter Owen (1903-74) was the responsible member of C R B Godman and Kay in 1949, when they designed alterations to St James, Littlehampton. Directories show that at the latest, he was living in that town by 1952.
Altered: Littlehampton, - St James (1949)
|
