Edmund Sharpe

Edmund Sharpe
Born	31 October 1809 Knutsford, Cheshire, England
Died	8 May 1877 Milan, Italy
Nationality	English
Occupation	Architect, architectural historian, railway engineer

Edmund Sharpe (31 October 1809 – 8 May 1877) was an English architect, architectural historian, railway engineer, and sanitary reformer. Between 1832 and 1835, in receipt of a travelling fellowship, he studied architecture in Germany and southern France. He started his career as an architect in Lancashire in 1835, initially on his own, then from 1845 in partnership with Edward Paley. He mainly designed churches but also some secular buildings, including domestic properties and schools. Sharpe pioneered the use of terracotta as a structural material in church construction, designing what were known as "pot" churches. During this time he was also involved in building and designing railways in Northwest England. In 1851 he resigned from his architectural practice, and in 1856 he moved from Lancaster and spent the rest of his career mainly as an railway engineer, first in North Wales, then in Switzerland and southern France. He returned to Lancaster in 1866, where he designed his last church, St Paul, Scotforth.

While working as an architect in Lancaster, Sharpe was also involved in civic affairs. He was an elected town councillor and served as mayor in 1848–49. Concerned about the town's poor water supply and the sanitation of the town, he championed the construction of its first sewers and waterworks. He was a talented musician, and was involved in the artistic, literary, and scientific activities in the town. Also an accomplished sportsman, he took an active interest in archery and cricket.

Sharpe achieved national recognition as an architectural historian. He devised a new scheme for classifying the styles of English Gothic architecture, published books of detailed architectural drawings, and towards the end of his career organised expeditions to study and draw buildings in England and France. In 1875 he was awarded the Royal Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects. He wrote a number of articles on architecture, and was very critical of much of the restoration of medieval churches that had become a major occupation of contemporary architects.

Early life

Burney's Academy, Greenwich, in the 19th century

Edmund Sharpe was born on 31 October 1809 at Brook Cottage, Brook Street in Knutsford, Cheshire, the first child of Francis and Martha Sharpe. His father, a peripatetic music teacher and organist at Knutsford parish church, came from Stamford in Lincolnshire. At the time of his marriage his wife, Martha Whittaker (who came from Manchester), was on the staff of an academy for young ladies, Belvedere House, in Bath, Somerset. During his childhood in Knutsford, the young Edmund played with Elizabeth Stevenson, the future Mrs Gaskell. In 1812 the Sharpe family moved across Knutsford to a nearby farm called Heathside. Francis Sharpe then worked both as a farmer and as a music teacher. Edmund Sharpe was initially educated by his parents, but by 1818 he was attending a school in Knutsford. Two years later he was a boarder at a school near Runcorn. In 1821 Edmund went as a boarder to Burney's Academy in Greenwich. In November 1823 his father died suddenly aged 48, and his mother moved to Lancaster with her family, where Martha later resumed her teaching career.

Edmund later continued his education at Greenwich, and became its head boy. In August 1827 he moved to Sedbergh School (then in West Yorkshire, now in Cumbria), where he remained for two years. In November 1829 he entered St John's College, Cambridge, as a Lupton scholar; and at the end of his course in 1832 was awarded a Worts Travelling Bachelorship by the University of Cambridge, enabling him to travel abroad for three years' study. At the time the master of Trinity College was William Whewell, who also came from Lancaster; John Hughes, Sharpe's biographer, is of the opinion that Whewell was influential in Sharpe's gaining this award. Subsequently he graduated B.A. in 1833, and was admitted to the degree of M.A. in 1836. During his time abroad he travelled both in Germany and in southern France, studying Romanesque and early Gothic architecture. He had intended to travel further into northern France, but his tour was curtailed in Paris owing to "fatigue and illness". Sharpe returned home to Lancaster late in 1835, having by then decided to become an architect.

Architect

Lancaster practice

Edmund Sharpe started his practice at the end of 1835 in his mother's house, moving into premises in Sun Street in 1838. In October that year he took as his pupil Edward Graham Paley, then aged 15, who was later to become both his brother-in-law and his partner in the practice, which became known as Sharpe and Paley. Later in 1838 Sharpe took a house in St Leonard's Gate large enough to accommodate both himself and Paley, the premises in Sun Street continuing in use by the practice until after Sharpe's retirement. In 1841 Thomas Austin, half-brother of Hubert, also joined the practice as a pupil, and stayed until 1852 when he left to start a practice of his own in Newcastle upon Tyne. In 1845 Sharpe made Paley a partner, and in 1847 effectively handed over the practice to him. At about this time, John Douglas joined the practice as assistant to Paley, and stayed with the firm until about 1859, when he moved to Chester to establish his own practice. In 1851 Sharpe retired from the practice entirely, leaving Paley as sole principal until he was joined in 1867 by Hubert Austin from Gilbert Scott's office in London, who became Paley's partner the following year. The firm then became known as Paley and Austin. In 1877, the year of Sharpe's death, Paley's son (and Sharpe's nephew) Henry Paley (known as Harry) joined the practice as an apprentice.

Churches

St Mark's Church, Witton, one of Sharpe's earliest churches

Writing to William Whewell just before Christmas 1835, Sharpe announced his intention of becoming an architect. He also mentioned that plans for at least one church, St Mark's at Witton, south of Blackburn, were already well advanced, and that he was working towards another one, St Saviour's near Bamber Bridge, south of Preston. In addition, he was in contact with the Earl of Derby with a view to designing a church for him near his seat at Knowsley, northeast of Liverpool. Yet his first church may have been Immanuel Church, Feniscowles, near Blackburn, built in 1835–36 to the design of his cousin, the Revd J. W. Whittaker, Vicar of Blackburn since 1822. There is evidence that Sharpe was involved in the design, but this is inconclusive.

Four of Sharpe's earliest churches were in the Romanesque style. He chose this because "no style can be worked so cheap as the Romanesque". They "turned out to be little more than rectangular 'preaching boxes' ... with no frills and little ornamentation; and many of them were later enlarged". These churches were St Saviour, Bamber Bridge (1836–37); St Mark, Witton (1836–38); Christ Church, Chatburn (1837–38); and St Paul, Farington (1839–40), near Leyland. The only subsequent buildings in which Sharpe used Romanesque elements were in the chapel of All Saints, Marthall, near Knutsford (1839); St Mary, Conistone in Wharfedale (1846); and St Paul, Scotforth in south Lancaster (1874), the last church being built towards the end of his life.

St Michael's Church, Kirkham showing Sharpe's steeple

By 1838, Sharpe had begun to experiment with elements of English Gothic architecture in his designs, initially the Early English style and in particular the lancet window, dating from the early 12th century or before. The first church he built in this style was St John the Evangelist, Cowgill, Dent, (1837–38), which was followed closely by Holy Trinity, Howgill (1837–38), and then by several other churches in a similar style. He was soon incorporating elements from later styles of English Gothic architecture, and by 1839 was designing churches using Perpendicular features, as at St Peter, Stainforth (1839–42), St John the Baptist, Bretherton, and St Peter, Mawdesley (both 1839–40).

Sharpe was one of the architects asked to design churches for the Church Building Commission. This had been established by the Church Building Acts of 1818 and 1824, and the resulting churches have been called Commissioners' churches. They were built to provide places of worship in newly-populated areas; and six of Sharpe's churches were designed for this purpose: St John, Dukinfield, St George, Stalybridge, St John the Baptist, Bretherton, St Paul, Farington, St Catharine, Scholes (near Wigan), and Holy Trinity, Blackburn.

Although some architects designed the earlier Commissioners' churches in neoclassical style, most were in Gothic Revival style. The earliest of these were based loosely on the Early English style, with single or paired lancet windows between buttresses in the sides of the church, and stepped triple lancets at the east end. Others were in a "stilted Perpendicular" style, with "thin west towers, thin buttresses, fat pinnacles, and interiors with three galleries and plaster vaults". These features were only loosely derived from medieval Gothic architecture, and were not true representations of that style. A major influence on the subsequent development of the Gothic Revival was A. W. N. Pugin (1812–52) and, influenced by him, the Cambridge Camden Society (later named the Ecclesiological Society). Amongst other things they argued that, not only should Gothic be the only right and proper style for churches, but that the features should be accurate representations of that style; they should be "correct" Gothic features, rather than being loosely derived from the style. The term used to describe churches designed using features only loosely derived from true Gothic is "pre-archaeological".

Sharpe's early Gothic Revival works were "pre-archaeological", including Holy Trinity, Blackburn, built in 1837–46 for Revd J. W. Whittaker. It is described by Hughes as his pièce de resistance, and contains "a mongrel mix of Gothic styles". Simultaneously Sharpe was involved in designing around twelve more churches in the northwest of England, which increasingly incorporated more "correct" Gothic features. In 1841 he obtained a contract to build three churches and associated structures (vicarages and schools) for the Weaver Navigation Trustees, at Weston Point, Runcorn; at Castle, Northwich; and in Winsford, all in Cheshire, and built between 1841 and 1844. Between 1835 and 1842 Sharpe designed some 30 new churches in Lancashire and Cheshire, all to a low budget, and all to a degree "pre-archaeological". In 1843 Sharpe was able to fulfil his promise to build a church for the Earl of Derby, and St Mary, Knowsley, was completed and consecrated the following year. It is described by John Hughes, Sharpe's biographer, as "one of Sharpe's loveliest creations". About the same time he designed a new steeple for St Michael, Kirkham. Both of these structures contained much more by way of "correct" Gothic features, and both were praised by the Camden Society in the Ecclesiologist.

St Paul's Church, Scotforth, Sharpe's last church

In the early 1840s Sharpe was invited by John Fletcher, his future brother-in-law, to build a church near his home in Little Bolton. Fletcher was the owner of a coal mine at Ladyshore, Little Lever, overlooking both the River Irwell and the Bolton-to-Bury Canal. He had been using the clay which came up with the coal to make refractory bricks for furnaces, and suggested its use for building the church, as it was much cheaper than stone. Sharpe designed the first church in England to be built, in whole or in part, from this material (terracotta), St Stephen and All Martyrs, Lever Bridge (1842–44). As terracotta is commonly used to make plant-pots and the like, Sharpe himself called this church, and its two successors, "the Pot churches", a nickname that has stuck. The advantages of terracotta were its cheapness, its sturdiness as a building material, and the fact that it can be moulded into almost any shape. It could therefore be used for walls, towers, arches, and arcades in a church, for the detailed decoration of capitals and pinnacles, and also, as at St Stephen's, for the furnishings, such as the altar, pulpit, font, organ case, and the pew ends. Apart from the foundations and the rubble within the walls, St Stephen and All Martyrs was constructed entirely from this material. The following year, a second church was built using terracotta, Trinity Church, Rusholme, south of Manchester (1845–46), built and paid for by Thomas Carill-Worsley, the owner of nearby Platt Hall. In this case, although the exterior is in terracotta, the interior is of plastered brick. The church was consecrated in June 1846, although at this time the spire was not yet started and several other features were incomplete, including the heating, seating, and floor tiling.

Hornby Castle, remodelled by Sharpe

Towards the end of his life, Sharpe designed one more church incorporating terracotta, St Paul, Scotforth, Lancaster (1874–76). For this he returned to the Romanesque style, and used terracotta both as a building and a decorative material. By this time he was living in Scotforth, then a separate township to the south of Lancaster, but now absorbed into the city. The new church was built within 300 yards (274 m) of his home, and again terracotta was not the only material used. The walls are of stone, with terracotta being used for dressings, windows, doorways, the upper part of the tower, and internally for the piers and arches of the aisle arcades.

Other structures

During his time as an architect, Sharpe was also involved in the building, repair, and restoration of non-ecclesiastic structures, including houses and bridges. In 1837 he was appointed bridgemaster for the Hundred of Lonsdale South of the Sands, and in 1839 he supervised the repair of Skerton Bridge over the River Lune in Lancaster. The following year he designed a new bridge over the River Hyndburn at Fournessford, a village to the east of Wray. He had also been appointed as architect and superintendent of works for Lancaster Castle, the Judges' Lodgings, and the County Lunatic Asylum (later the Lancaster Moor Hospital). For the asylum he designed several new wings and a chapel, followed by extensions to the Union Workhouse. Sharpe was also involved in designing and altering several domestic buildings. In 1843 he designed a vicarage in Cockermouth, and the following year he started to remodel Capernwray Hall, north-east of Lancaster. In the same year he designed the Governor's House in Knutsford, and in 1845 he re-designed Redmarshall Old Rectory for the Revd Thomas Austin, father of Sharpe's pupil (also named Thomas) and his half-brother Hubert. Following Paley's becoming a partner in 1845, the pair worked together to design Lee Bridge in Over Wyresdale (1847), to plan the conversion of a disused manor house into the Furness Abbey Hotel (1847), and to arrange the remodelling of Hornby Castle (1847–52). In 1849–50 they planned the rebuilding and enlargement of the Charity School for Girls in Middle Street, Lancaster. In 1851 followed a new school, a National School for boys in St Leonard's Gate. Following this, the practice made plans for a new building at Giggleswick School, and new premises for Lancaster Grammar School in Moor Lane. However, by this time Sharpe was on the point of withdrawing from the practice, and it is likely that most of the designs were prepared by Paley.

Architectural historian

Page from Architectural Parallels

Sharpe studied and wrote about ecclesiastical architecture throughout his adult life, both sketching and measuring historical churches and ruins. This resulted in a systematic series of published drawings in twelve parts between 1845 and 1847 entitled Architectural Parallels, which contains measured drawings of abbey churches in the early Gothic style, reissued as a single work in 1848. Sharpe intended to produce a further version with text, but this never transpired. Also in 1848 a Supplement to Architectural Parallels, was published, containing yet more detailed drawings. Simultaneously, Sharpe had produced Decorated Windows in two volumes, the first of which was published in 1845, and the second in 1849. The work, which was praised by John Ruskin in The Stones of Venice, consisted largely of drawings by Sharpe's pupils—Paley, Austin, and R. J. Withers—with text by Sharpe describing and analysing the tracery of Gothic windows.

In 1851 Sharpe published a monograph entitled The Seven Periods of English Architecture; a small book of about 50 pages suggesting a new scheme for classifying the styles of English ecclesiastical architecture "from the Heptarchy to the Reformation". This was intended to replace the scheme then in use, proposed in 1817 by Thomas Rickman. Rickman had identified four periods or styles, namely "the Norman style", "the Early English style", "the Decorated English style", and "the Perpendicular English style", the last three styles being Rickman's classification of the stages of English Gothic architecture. Sharp first divided the styles into two classes, the Romanesque and the Gothic, the former being characterised by the exclusive use of the "circular arch", and the latter by the use of the "pointed arch". He divided the Romanesque class into the "Saxon period" and the "Norman period", then came a "Transitional period". The Gothic class was divided into four periods (in contrast to Rickman's three periods), which he named the "Lancet period", the "Geometrical period", the Curvilinear period", and the "Rectilinear period". Following its publication, Sharpe read a paper to the Royal Institute of British Architects describing his system. The monograph and the paper led to serious controversy and debate between Sharpe and his followers on one side and the supporters of Rickman's scheme on the other, published in the journal The Builder until the editor called a halt to the correspondence.

In 1869 Sharpe joined the Architectural Association, established in 1847 "by a group of dissatisfied young architects ... to provide a self-directed, independent education at a time when there was no formal training available". He then proposed and organised a series of six annual expeditions to study and draw buildings in different areas, which took place between 1870 and 1875. In 1870 the expedition was to Lincoln, Sleaford, and Spalding; in 1871 to Ely, Lynn, and Boston; the following year to Stamford, Oundle, Wellingborough, and Northampton; and in 1873 to Grantham, Newark, Southwell, Ashbourne, and Lichfield. The final two expeditions were to France: in 1874 to the northern part of the country, visiting places around Paris including Soissons, Laon, Rheims, and Chartres; the following year it was to the Charente district of southwest France, including Angoulême. In 1876 Sharpe gave a lecture on this expedition in London, linking the architecture of the region with Byzantine architecture elsewhere. Following Sharpe's death in 1877 the Association complied with his wish that the expeditions should be continued; and in 1882 it published Charente: In Memory of Edmund Sharpe, 1875.

Sharpe's drawing of St Walderic's Chapel, Murrhardt, Germany

In 1875 Sharpe was awarded the Royal Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects, presented to him by Sir George Gilbert Scott, largely in recognition of his writings. In addition to those recorded above, these include An Account of the Churches visited during the Lincoln Excursion of the Architectural Association (1871), The Mouldings of the six periods of British Architecture from the Conquest to the Reformation, together with the Ornamentation of the Transitional Period of British Architecture (1871), and Illustrated Papers on Church Architecture. No. 3: The Ornamentation of the Transitional Period in Central Germany (1877). Other writings by Sharpe were published in The Builder and the Architect. He also delivered papers to the Architectural Association, and to the Royal Institute of British Architects. Amongst other subjects, he argued for restraint in the use of colour in the decoration of churches, both in the painting of walls and the stonework, and in the stained glass. He was also very critical of recent restorations of medieval churches, which had been a major occupation of architects during the previous 20 years. He was particularly caustic about the removal of whitewash from the interior of churches, and the damage thus caused to the underlying stonework. Between January 1874 and February 1875 Sharpe published The Architecture of the Cistercians, dealing in considerable detail with the design and functions of Cistercian monasteries built in the 12th and 13th centuries, both in Britain and in Europe. In addition, Sharpe attended several meetings of the Archaeological Institute, and was a Vice-President of the British Archaeological Association.

Railway developer and engineer

England

Sharpe in 1845 as Secretary of the "Little" North Western Railway

During the time that Sharpe was designing churches, he was augmenting his income by working as a sub-contractor in building railways. These were the lines between Lancaster and Preston, Lancaster and Skipton, and between Liverpool and Southport. He first became involved with the Lancaster and Preston Junction Railway in 1838, two years after Joseph Locke was appointed as engineer for the line. Sharpe submitted a tender to supply the masonry work for the "Lancaster Contract", the northern section of the line; and Peter Perry from Durham submitted a tender for the earthwork. Locke insisted that both earthwork and masonry work should be under one contract, which Perry accepted and subcontracted the masonry work to Sharpe. Subsequently Perry reneged on his part of the contract, resulting in serious disputes between Sharpe, Locke, and the directors of the railway company concerning the costs involved and the quality of the work. The masonry for this section of the line included 15 under-and-over bridges and the six-arch viaduct over the River Conder at Galgate. The eventual outcome of the conflict was that Sharpe was dismissed from the work with agreed financial compensation, having built most but not all of these structures.

Sharpe's next venture into railway building came in 1845 when, with others, he promoted the building of a cross-country line from Lancaster to Skipton, to join the Midland Railway in the West Riding of Yorkshire. This became known as the "Little" North Western Railway ("L"NWR), with projected branches joining the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway, then under construction, at a point near Milnthorpe and Orton. In the event the Milnthorpe branch was dropped during the committee stage of the enabling Bill's passage through Parliament, leaving the Lancaster and Orton branches intact, parting at Ingleton and making much use of the Lune Valley.

About this time too, the amount of trade handled by the Port of Lancaster was declining, largely owing to silting up of the River Lune. In May 1842 Sharpe had been elected a Port Commissioner, and subsequently suggested the Morecambe Bay Harbour Project, proposing to build a new port at Poulton-le-Sands (soon to become part of Morecambe), and linking it to Lancaster by means of a ship canal. After prolonged discussion this proved to be too expensive, and it was agreed to link Lancaster and Morecambe by railway rather than by canal. An Act for the creation of the Morecambe Harbour and Railway Company (MH&R) received Royal assent in July 1846, the revised plan being to link this line to the "L"NWR at Green Ayre, in the northern part of Lancaster next to the River Lune. A clause in the Act allowed this railway to be sold to the "L"NWR, which took place eventually in October. The parts played by Sharpe in all of this financial manoeuvring were conflicting and complex: he was simultaneously a Port Commissioner, a Town Councillor, a member of the board of the Morecambe Bay Harbour Company, and Secretary to the "L"NWR. In 1847, near the Morecambe terminus of the railway, Sharpe laid the first stone of the North Western Hotel (later the Midland), which he (or more probably Paley) had designed. In April that year Sharpe had resigned as Secretary to the "L"NWR to enable him to tender for building the line from Morecambe to Wennington, a village north-east of Lancaster near to the Yorkshire border. His tender of £100,000 (£6,700,000 as of 2012) for the line (excluding the bridge over the River Lune at Green Ayre) was accepted. He also awarded himself the contract for building the harbour. In June 1848 the section from Lancaster to Morecambe was opened, and by October 1849 the ten-mile section from Lancaster to Wennington was completed. In September Sharpe had resigned as a director of the "L"NWR to become its traffic manager, and was then contracted to manufacture and supply rolling stock for the railway, something of which he had no expertise or previous experience. By February 1851 the line was experiencing difficulties, its traffic being less than expected and its costs rising; and in December Sharpe was given notice that his contract with the company would be curtailed the following month.

Sharpe then turned his attention to the Liverpool, Crosby and Southport Railway (LCSR) and acted as its company secretary for a while. When in 1854 the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway discontinued leasing its rolling stock to the LCSR, Sharpe arranged the manufacture of its own locomotives and carriages. Also in 1854 he submitted proposals for a branch line running from Bootle to the North Docks in Liverpool, part of which was built in March 1855, though the project was never completed.

North Wales

North Llanrwst railway station on the Conwy Valley Line in 2006

In 1858 a prospectus for a railway line up the Conwy Valley from Conwy to Llanrwst was published, with Sharpe named as its engineer. The intention was to build a line from the Chester and Holyhead Railway to Betws-y-Coed, passing through Llanrwst, which would be 15 miles (24 km) long, with a gauge of 3 feet 3 inches (991 mm). A series of discussions and negotiations followed, resulting in changes to the route of the line from the west to the east side of the river, building it to the standard gauge (4 ft 8½in (1,435mm)), and running from Conwy only as far as Llanrwst. Construction started on 27 August 1860, and the railway was opened on 17 June 1863, an extension of the line to Betws-y-Coed being completed in 1868. Meanwhile, and before the line was opened, Sharpe had moved with his family to live in Geneva.

Abroad

In 1860 in Switzerland a horse-drawn tramway had been built by Charles Burn, an Englishman, between Geneva and Carouge, a distance of about 4 miles (6 km). This proved to be a success, and Burn planned to build more lines. In 1863 he was joined by Edmund Sharpe as a partner, but after a short time of working together the partnership was dissolved, and Sharpe continued with the project alone. By March 1864 a line from the centre of Geneva to Chêne-Bougeries, a distance of about 6 miles (10 km), was under construction to an innovative design. The line to Carouge had two grooved rails. Sharpe's line had two flat rails, with a third grooved rail between them, along which ran a wheel allowing the tram to be steered; it could also be raised to permit the tram to deviate from the track to pass round obstacles, or it could come to the pavement. This line was Sharpe's sole venture in Switzerland.

In August 1863, Sharpe had been granted the concession for building a railway line in southern France from Perpignan to Prades in the Pyrenees, a distance of 26 miles (42 km). Work began on the line in 1865, but proceeded very slowly. Progress was blocked by local landowners and legal processes, and there were difficulties with money. Sharpe was managing the project largely from Paris through a series of agents. By the later part of 1864 this was adversely affecting his health, and in 1865 he spent some time in Italy to recuperate. On his return, problems continued to mount, so that in 1867 he renounced his concession. The line was eventually taken over by the State, and was not fully completed until about 1877. At some point Sharpe also bought property and iron mines along the route of the line.

Civic life and sanitary reform

Concurrently with designing churches and building railways, Sharpe was heavily involved in the civic life of Lancaster, particularly in pioneering sanitary reform. By political persuasion he was a Conservative, joining the local Heart of Oak Club in 1837. He was elected as town councillor for Castle Ward in 1841, a post that he held for ten years, and in 1843 he was appointed as the town council's representative on the local police commission. He was also a visitor to the national schools, and in 1848 he was elected as mayor. These appointments gave him opportunity to observe the unsatisfactory state of sanitation of the town, and the determination to do something to improve it. The town was overcrowded, it suffered from poor housing, open sewers, overflowing cesspits, and a very poor water supply, mainly from wells polluted by infiltration. Many people suffered from typhus, and in 1848 there was an outbreak of cholera. At the time it was described as being "a disgustingly dirty and smelly place" where "the majority of working-class inhabitants simply succumbed to the inevitable and continued to die". The police commission had been established in Lancaster in 1825 for the purpose of "cleansing, lighting and watching" the town; but owing to conflicts of interest there was constant friction between the commission and the town council, the former tending to block any necessary reforms on grounds of cost to the ratepayers. This was not resolved until the two bodies merged in 1849, during Sharpe's mayoralty. The functions of the new body included the establishment of the first Lancaster Board of Health.

Interior of Lancaster Castle in 1824

Before, during and after his mayoralty, Sharpe played a major role in promoting sanitary reform, often meeting considerable opposition and needing to use his oratorical, political and persuasive skills to the full. A campaign was initiated in 1847 by two Lancaster doctors, Thomas Howitt and Edward Denis de Vitre, and they were soon joined by Sharpe who drew extensively on his experience of having accompanied Professor Richard Owen (born and educated in Lancaster) on his tour of inspection of the town in 1844, the report of which was published the following year. In 1848 Robert Rawlinson, another Lancastrian, was appointed as local surveyor, and published another report recommending new sewers and drains and the construction of a waterworks. Though agreeing in principle, Sharpe was not satisfied with the details of Rawlinson's report; so later that year, during his mayoralty, he travelled to London with the town clerk and a former mayor to meet representatives of the General Board of Health, including its chairman, Lord Morpeth, and its secretary Edwin Chadwick. As a result, the Board of Health appointed James Smith from Scotland as an inspector, and commissioned him to produce a further report on Lancaster. Smith's investigation took place in January 1849, and his report was received in July. In his conclusions, Smith noted that Lancaster was favourably situated to provide a healthy environment for its inhabitants, and that this could be achieved by "a complete and constant supply of pure and soft water, and ... a thorough system of drainage and sewerage". Following this, an Act of Parliament gave approval for these measures to be carried out, and in 1852 royal assent was given for the waterworks to be constructed. Delays, disputes and controversies continued for a further seven years, until the waterworks was opened in 1855, when work on the drainage and sewage systems was well under way.

Shortly after his return to Lancaster in 1866 Sharpe was again involved in local politics. In 1867 the constituency of Lancaster was disfranchised because of corruption, and so lost its two Members of Parliament. Sharpe wrote a long letter to Benjamin Disraeli (Chancellor of the Exchequer, and responsible for the Reform Act of that year), arguing the case for reinstating Lancaster as a parliamentary constituency, and putting forward his own proposals for electoral reform. His letter received no reply, and Lancaster remained without parliamentary representation for the next 20 years.

Personal and family life

Bolton Parish Church

On 27 July 1843 Sharpe married Elizabeth Fletcher, second sister of John Fletcher, at Bolton Parish Church. The couple had five children: Francis in 1845, Edmund junior (known as Ted) in 1847, Emily in 1849, Catherine (known as Kate) in 1850, and Alfred in 1853.

In early 1856 Sharpe moved his family from Lancaster to live in North Wales at the head of the Conwy Valley. He was then aged 47, and he spent the next seven years there, which was described later as "perhaps the happiest years of his life". The family initially lived in a semi-detached house called Bron Haul near Betws-y-Coed, on what is now the A5 road. Two years later he bought a larger property called Coed-y-Celyn on the east bank of the River Lledr, about a mile south of Betws-y-Coed.

In April 1863, two months before the opening of the Conwy and Llanrwst Railway, Sharpe again moved with his family to Geneva, where they lived for about three years in a rented property called Richemont on the road from Geneva to Chêne-Bougeries. Finally in 1866 the family moved back to Lancaster to live in Scotforth, then a small township to the south of the town.

Elizabeth Sharpe died on 15 March 1876, one month after the consecration of St Paul, Scotforth; and a plaque to her memory can be found in the chancel of the church. In March 1877 Sharpe travelled to northern Italy with his two daughters, his youngest son Alfred, and three research assistants, to make drawings of 12th-century churches in the region. During the visit he became seriously ill with a chest infection, and died on 8 May, in or near Milan. His body was brought to Lancaster where he was buried on 19 May in the municipal cemetery alongside his wife. A plaque to his memory was also placed in the chancel of St Paul's, next to that of his wife. "Glowing obituaries" were carried by the local newspapers and the architectural press, including the Builder, the Building News, and the Architect. His estate was valued at "under £14.000" (£980,000 as of 2012).

Other interests

During his early life, Sharpe developed interests in cricket and in rowing, which he was later to continue. When at Cambridge, he was a member of the Lady Margaret Boat Club, but being of small stature he was a cox rather than a rower. On returning to Lancaster in 1835, Sharpe resumed his sporting interests, taking up archery and joining the John O'Gaunt Bowmen. In June 1841 he helped to found the Lancaster Lunesdale Cricket Club, which was initially short-lived, being dissolved in September 1842 when Sharpe helped to found the Lancaster Rowing Club. The cricket club was re-formed in 1848, and thereafter continued to flourish.

Whilst living in Lancaster, Sharpe was active in a number of voluntary societies. He was an accomplished musician, and took part as a member of the committee in organising the first concert of the Lancaster Choral Society, which took place in September 1836. The society continued to thrive for a number of years, and for a time Sharpe was its conductor. By the beginning of the following year he was a member of the Lancaster Literary, Scientific, and Natural History Society, and gave a number of talks to the society, in time becoming a member of its committee. Later that year he was secretary and treasurer for the Lancaster Institution for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts, and in April 1840 he became a committee member of Lancaster's Protestant Association. In 1842 he joined a committee to promote congregational singing, and gave an illustrated series of lectures on its history and merits. His love of music continued throughout his life, and included training choirs, composing hymn tunes, and manufacturing musical instruments which were similar to small harmoniums.

In early 1843 Sharpe bought Lancaster's Theatre Royal (now the Grand Theatre), the third-oldest provincial theatre in Britain, which had been opened in 1782. He spent £680 (£60,000 as of 2012) on converting it into the Music Hall and Museum. It was the only place in Lancaster, other than the churches, able to accommodate 400 or more people, and so was used for a variety of purposes, including concerts, lectures, and religious meetings. In 1848 Sharpe started the Lancaster Athenaeum, a private society for "the promotion of public entertainment and instruction", to which end it organised lectures on literary and scientific subjects, concerts and exhibitions, and held its meetings in the Music Hall, which was at one period renamed the Athenaeum.

Sharpe played a large part in arranging Queen Victoria's visit to Lancaster in October 1851, and with Paley designed four triumphal arches for the occasion. He also took part in the proceedings on the day, when he escorted the Queen, Prince Albert, and the Prince of Wales to the top of the castle tower. The following year Sharpe became the proprietor of the Phoenix Foundry on Germany Street, a factory which supplied, amongst other things, cast iron pipes for the Lancaster waterworks, sewers and drains, and shells for the Crimean War.

Appraisal

Sharpe's biographer, John Hughes, considers that he was never in the "first division" of church architects of the 19th century. His designs were "basic, workmanlike, and occasionally imaginative, though hardly inspiring". There can be no such thing as a "typical" Sharpe church. He was an innovator and experimenter and, throughout his life, a student of architecture. The architectural styles he used started with the Romanesque, passed through "pre-archaeological" Gothic to "correct" Gothic, and then back to Romanesque for his last church. The sizes of the churches varied from the small simple churches at Cowgill and Howgill, to the large and splendid, such as Holy Trinity, Blackburn. During his earlier years in practice, between 1838 and 1842, Britain was going through a period of severe economic recession, which may have been the reason Sharpe designed many of his churches to be built as cheaply as possible.

Yet as an architectural historian, Hughes considers him to be "in the top rank". His drawings of authentic Gothic buildings were still in use a century after his death. Sharpe was considered to be the leading authority in England on Cistercian abbeys. He was also considered by some to have been an early pioneer of the Gothic Revival, though this was "probably more for his books than for his buildings". As a railway engineer he was "hardly an unqualified success"; but his administrative and persuasive skills were considerable, as is shown in his planning of railways in northwest England, and in the sanitary reform and water supply of Lancaster. As an amateur musician his "gifts were prodigious". Hughes considers that he "used his talents to the full", and in view of the ways in which he employed his many gifts, the architectural historian James Price describes him as Lancaster's "Renaissance man".

See also

• Sharpe, Paley and Austin
• List of architectural works by Edmund Sharpe
• List of works by Sharpe and Paley

Notes

^A A Worts Travelling Bachelorship (now known as a Worts Travelling Scholars Fund) is the result of a bequest by Wiliam Worts, who died in 1709. It makes grants "for the promotion or encouragement of investigations in countries outside Great Britain respecting the religion, learning, law, politics, customs, manner and rarities, natural or artificial, of those countries, or for purposes of geographical discovery or of antiquarian or scientific research in such countries".
^B A further Commissioners' church was later designed in conjunction with Paley, St Saviour, Ringley (1850–54).
^C Holy Trinity is now redundant and is in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust, the only one of Sharpe's churches to be so preserved.
^D Unfortunately the spire was not as durable as the rest of the church. By 1936 it had become unsafe, and it was dismantled. In 1966 the lantern and bell-tower were also demolished.
^E The tower was not completed until 1850. It was built from terracotta of inferior quality, and was later found to be unsafe, being rebuilt in 1912.
^F Sharpe identified the "principal characteristic" of the periods as follows: Norman – "The universal use of the circular arch in every part of a building throughout the period"; Transitional – "The contemporaneous use, in the same building, of circular and pointed arches"; Lancet – "The lancet window used singly, in couplets and triplets, and arranged in groups of four, five, and seven"; Geometrical – "Simple geometrical tracery in the heads of the windows, in panels and in arcades"; Curvilinear – "Flowing tracery in the windows, and the prevalence of the ogee curve in all the details"; Rectilinear – "The prevalence of straight lines, both horizontal and vertical, in the tracery of windows, in panels and in arcades".
^G The two older boys were educated at Rossall School, and Alfred at Haileybury College. Francis became the proprietor of the Phoenix Foundry, while Edmund (junior) joined the textile coating firm of Storey Brothers, Lancaster, and later became Lord of the Manor of Halton. Alfred had a career as a big-game hunter in Central Africa, then as a colonial civil servant, being knighted in 1897, and later becoming the first Governor of Nyasaland (now Malawi). The girls did not marry; they lived together in Ambleside, and later moved back to Lancaster.
^H An example of this is given in Bumpus, T. Francis (c. 1920(?)), A Guide to Gothic Architecture, London: T. Werner Laurie, p. 76 , which states "Mr Sharpe (d. 1877) was one of the earliest, ablest and most zealous pioneers of the English Gothic revival".

References

Bibliography

• Hartwell, Clare; Hyde, Matthew; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2004), Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East, The Buildings of England, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-10583-5 
• Hartwell, Clare; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2009) [1969], Lancashire: North, The Buildings of England, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, ISBN 978-0-300-12667-9 
• Hughes, John M. (2010), Edmund Sharpe: Man of Lancaster, John M. Hughes . Although this is self-published, it is a scholarly work and fully referenced throughout. As of 2012 it is available only as a CD. Hughes is also a contributor to Brandwood, Geoff, The Architecture of Sharpe, Paley and Austin, English Heritage, ISBN 978-1-848020-49-8  (to be published during 2012), and is credited as a source for the article on Sharpe in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• Pollard, Richard; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2006), Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West, The Buildings of England, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-10910-5 
• Port, M. H. (2006), 600 New Churches: The Church Building Commission 1818-1856 (2nd ed.), Reading: Spire Books, ISBN 978-1-904965-08-4 
• Price, James (1998), Sharpe, Paley and Austin: A Lancaster Architectural Practice 1836–1942, Lancaster: Centre for North-West Regional Studies, ISBN 1-86220-054-8 
• Rickman, Thomas (1835), An attempt to discriminate the styles of architecture in England from the Conquest to the Reformation (4 ed.), London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Green and Longman, http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=wXhZAAAAYAAJ&dq=Thomas+Rickman&source=gbs_navlinks_s, retrieved 19 February 2011 
• Sharpe, Edmund (1851), The seven periods of English architecture defined and illustrated, London: George Bell, http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=uiAPAQAAMAAJ&dq=Edmund+Sharpe&source=gbs_navlinks_s, retrieved 19 February 2011 

External links

Media related to Edmund Sharpe at Wikimedia Commons