Edmund Sharpe (31 October 1809 – 8 May 1877) was an English architect, architectural historian, railway engineer and sanitary reformer. Born in Knutsford, Cheshire, he was educated first by his parents and then at schools locally and in Runcorn, Greenwich and Sedbergh. Following his graduation from Cambridge University he was awarded a travelling scholarship, enabling him to study architecture in Germany and southern France. In 1835 he established an architectural practice in Lancaster, initially working on his own. In 1845 he entered into partnership with Edward Paley, one of his pupils. Sharpe's main focus was on churches, and he was a pioneer in the use of terracotta as a structural material in church building, designing what were known as "pot" churches, the first of which was St Stephen and All Martyrs' Church, Lever Bridge.
He also designed secular buildings, including residential buildings and schools, and worked on the development of railways in north-west England, designing bridges and planning new lines. In 1851 he resigned from his architectural practice, and in 1856 he moved from Lancaster, spending the remainder of his career mainly as a railway engineer, first in North Wales, then in Switzerland and southern France. Sharpe returned to England in 1866 to live in Scotforth near Lancaster, where he designed a final church near to his home.
While working in his architectural practice, Sharpe was involved in Lancaster's civic affairs. He was an elected town councillor and served as mayor in 1848–49. Concerned about the town's poor water supply and sanitation, he championed the construction of new sewers and a waterworks. He was a talented musician, and took part in the artistic, literary, and scientific activities in the town. Also an accomplished sportsman, he took an active interest in archery, rowing and cricket.
Sharpe achieved national recognition as an architectural historian. He published books of detailed architectural drawings, wrote a number of articles on architecture, devised a scheme for the classification of English Gothic architectural styles, and in 1875 was awarded the Royal Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects. He was critical of much of the restoration of medieval churches that had become a major occupation of contemporary architects. Towards the end of his career Sharpe organised expeditions to study and draw buildings in England and France. While on such an expedition to Italy in 1877, he was taken ill and died. His body was taken to Lancaster, where he was buried. Sharpe's legacy consists of about 40 extant churches; railway features, including the Conwy Valley Line and bridges on what is now the Lancashire section of the West Coast Main Line; and his archive of architectural books, articles and drawings.
Early life
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 marriage his wife, Martha Whittaker, 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 town from Over Knutsford to a farm in Nether Knutsford called Heathside, when Francis Sharpe then worked as both farmer and music teacher. Edmund 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,. and in 1821 at Burney's Academy in Greenwich... Edmund's father died suddenly in November 1823, aged 48,. and his mother moved to Lancaster with her family,.. where she later resumed her teaching career..
Edmund continued his education at Burney's Academy, and became head boy.. In August 1827 he moved to Sedbergh School (then in the West Riding of Yorkshire, now in Cumbria), where he remained for two years... In November 1829 he entered St John's College, Cambridge as a Lupton scholar.. At the end of his course in 1832 he was awarded a Worts Travelling Bachelorship by the University of Cambridge, which enabled him to travel abroad for three years' study.. At this time his friend from Lancaster at Trinity College, William Whewell, was Professor of Mineralogy. John Hughes, Edmund Sharpe's biographer, is of the opinion that Whewell was influential in gaining this award for Sharpe.. Edmund graduated BA in 1833, and was admitted to the degree of MA in 1836. During his time abroad he travelled in Germany and southern France,. studying Romanesque and early Gothic architecture.O'Donoghue, F. M. (1897), rev. Geoffrey K. Brandwood (2004) Sharpe, Edmund (1809–1877), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Retrieved on 18 February 2012 (). He had intended to travel further into northern France, but his tour was curtailed in Paris owing to "fatigue and illness".. Edmund returned home to Lancaster late in 1835, having by then decided to become an architect.. In December he wrote a letter to William Whewell saying that he had "finally determined to adopt the Profession of Architecture". Some sources state that Sharpe was articled to the architect Thomas Rickman.For example Sharpe did visit Rickman for a few days in 1832 and corresponded with him later. He may have been "acting as a research assistant" while on the Continent, but Hughes states "there is no evidence to suggest that Sharpe spent more time with Rickman, or served any kind of formal apprenticeship with him"..
Architect
Lancaster practice
Edmund Sharpe started his practice at the end of 1835 in his mother's house in Penny Street, moving into premises in Sun Street in 1838... In October that year he took as his pupil Edward Graham Paley, then aged 15... Later in 1838 Sharpe took a house in St Leonard's Gate large enough to accommodate himself and Paley; the practice continued to use the premises in Sun Street until after Sharpe's retirement.. In 1841 Thomas Austin also joined the practice as a pupil, staying until 1852 when he left to set up on his own as an architect in Newcastle upon Tyne.. In 1845 Sharpe made Paley a partner, and in 1847 effectively handed the business over to him.. At about this time also, John Douglas joined the firm as Paley's assistant, and stayed with the firm until about 1859, when he moved to Chester to establish his own practice.. Sharpe retired completely from the practice in 1851, leaving Paley as sole principal.. Also in 1851 Paley married Sharpe's sister, Frances..
Churches
In his letter of December 1835 to William Whewell, Sharpe also mentioned that plans for at least one church, St Mark's at Witton, west 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.
Four of Sharpe's earliest churches – St Saviour, Bamber Bridge (1836–37); St Mark, Witton (1836–38); Christ Church, Chatburn (1837–38); and St Paul, Farington, near Leyland (1839–40) – were in the Romanesque style, which he chose 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". The only subsequent churches in which Sharpe used Romanesque elements were 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 built towards the end of his life.
By 1838 Sharpe had begun to experiment with elements of English Gothic architecture, initially in the Early English style and in particular the lancet window, dating from the early 12th century or earlier. The first church he built in this style was St John the Evangelist, Cowgill, Dent, (1837–38), followed closely by Holy Trinity, Howgill (1837–38), and then by several others in the same 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 who designed churches for the Church Building Commission, which had been established by the Church Building Acts of 1818 and 1824. The resulting churches have been called Commissioners' churches, and were built to provide places of worship in newly populated areas. Sharpe designed six churches for the Commission: St John, Dukinfield, St George, Stalybridge (both 1838–40), St John the Baptist, Bretherton, St Paul, Farington, St Catharine, Scholes (near Wigan; 1839–41), and Holy Trinity, Blackburn (1837–46).He is also credited with the design of St. Bridgets, Beckermet, Cumberland (1842–43).Hyde, Matthew; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2010) , Cumbria, The Buildings of England, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, p. 217,
Although some architects designed the earlier Commissioners' churches in neoclassical style, most were in Gothic Revival style. The earliest of the Gothic Revival churches 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 it. A major influence on the subsequent development of the Gothic Revival was AWN Pugin (1812–52) and, influenced by him, the Cambridge Camden Society (later named the Ecclesiological Society). Among other things, they argued that not only should Gothic be the only right and proper style for churches, but that their features should be accurate representations of that style; they should be "correct" Gothic features, rather than being loosely derived from the style. The term "pre-archaeological" was used to describe churches designed using features only loosely derived from true Gothic.
Sharpe's early Gothic Revival works were pre-archaeological, including Holy Trinity, Blackburn, built in 1837–46 for Revd JW Whittaker. Hughes expresses the opinion that this church is Sharpe's pièce de resistance, it contains "a mongrel mix of Gothic styles". Simultaneously Sharpe was involved in the design of about twelve more churches in Northwest 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; Castle, Northwich; and Winsford. All three were in Cheshire, and built between 1841 and 1844. Between 1835 and 1842 Sharpe designed about 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; this was St Mary, Knowsley, which was completed and consecrated the following year. It is described by Hughes as "one of Sharpe's loveliest creations". About the same time he designed a new steeple for St Michael, Kirkham; the steeple and St Mary's Church contained much more in the way of "correct" Gothic features, and both were praised by the Camden Society in The Ecclesiologist..