Henry Woodyer

Holy Innocents, Highnam, Gloucestershire

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.

Works[]

Holy Trinity Church, Millbrook, Southampton

Churches (new)[]

St Martin's Church, Dorking

• Holy Innocents' Church, Highnam, Gloucestershire (including sexton's cottage), 1847
• St Michael's Church, Camberley, Surrey, 1849-51^[2]
• 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^[3]
• St Peter's Church, Hascombe 1862, described by Betjeman as "a Tractarian work of art"^[4]
• St Paul's Church, Langleybury, Abbots Langley (1863-5)^[5]
• St Augustine's Church, Haggerston, 1866-7, Woodyer's only London church, closed in 1983^[6] and converted to arts centre in 1997^[7]
• 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)^[8]
• St Andrew's Church, Grafham, Surrey
• St James Church, Farnham, Surrey (1876)
• St John the Baptist Church, Odo Street, Hafod, Swansea, 1878–80, for Henry Hussey Vivian
• St John the Evangelist Church, Woodley, Berkshire, 1873,^[9] for Robert Palmer
• Holy Trinity Church, Millbrook, Southampton (1873–1880)^[10]
• Church of St Luke, Burpham Surrey, 1859^[11]
• Church of St Peter and Holy Cross, Wherwell, Hampshire
• Chapel at Convent of St John the Baptist, Clewer, Berkshire (1881)^[12]

Churches (restoration or rebuilding)[]

• St Blaise Church, Milton, Berkshire (now Oxfordshire), 1849–51^[13]
• St Nicolas' Church, Newbury, Berkshire, 1858^[14]
• St Mary's Church, Caldicot, Monmouthshire, 1859
• St Andrew's parish church, Clewer, Berkshire: north arcade, 1858^[15]
• St John the Baptist parish church, Berwick St John, Wiltshire, 1861^[16]
• 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^[17]
• St Swithin's parish church, Compton Bassett, Wiltshire: chancel, chancel chapels and north porch (1866)^[18]
• St Laurence parish church, Caversfield, Oxfordshire, 1874^[19]
• All Saints parish church, Wokingham, Berkshire.
• St John the Divine parish church, Patching, West Sussex, 1888–89^[20]

Other institutional buildings[]

"Burning Bush", Eton College

• School (now the Stewart Hall), Sketty, Swansea, 1853, for John Henry Vivian
• St Edmund's Church School, Salisbury, Wiltshire, 1860^[21]
• Fisherton Anger Church School, Fisherton, Salisbury, Wiltshire, 1867^[22]
• House of Mercy, Clewer, Berkshire, 1853–73^[23]
• Cranleigh School, Surrey 1863-65 and the Chapel 1869
• New Schools, Eton College, 1861–63^[24]
• The "Burning Bush", Eton (1864)
• 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)^[25]

Domestic buildings[]

• Woodyer House, Bramley, Surrey
• Alterations to Parc Wern (now Parc Beck), Sketty, Glamorgan, 1851–3 for H.H. Vivian
• Church Cottage, Tutshill, Gloucestershire, c. 1852.^[26]
• 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^[27]

• Alterations to Tyntesfield, Wraxall, Somerset for Matilda Blanche Gibbs, circa 1880
• Twyford Moors House Twyford Hants 1861
• Creeting House, Suffolk 1863
• St. Paul’s Mews, Reading - Built as a site office for the construction of Christ Church and gifted to the local parish on completion. Was subsequently used as a church hall for St. Paul’s church, Whitley Wood, a school and the headquarters for Thames Valley Police motorway division before being converted in to six residential dwellings in the early eighties.^{[citation needed]}

References[]

Sources[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Henry Woodyer.

• 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.
• 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.
• 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 0140710264.
• Sherwood, Jennifer; Pevsner, Nikolaus (1974). The Buildings of England: Oxfordshire. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-071045-0.
• 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.