Edward Haycock Sr. (29 July 1790 – 20 December 1870) was an English architect renowned for his work in the West Midlands and central and southern Wales during the late Georgian and early Victorian periods.[1]
Biography
Haycock was the grandson of William Haycock (1725–1802) of Shrewsbury and the son of John Hiram Haycock (1759–1830), who were architects and building contractors. He joined the family business after 1810 and assumed control following his father's death in 1830. Around 1845, he transitioned from building contracting to focus solely on architecture, with his son Edward Haycock Junior (1829/30-1882) later joining the practice and continuing it until about 1880.[2]
On 13 February 1827, Haycock married Mary Hatton at St Sepulchre-without-Newgate, London and had three sons and four daughters.[3]
In addition to his architectural career, Haycock was active in the political life of Shrewsbury as a Conservative. He served on the council for thirty-four years, became an alderman, and was mayor in 1842.[4] He was a friend of the Shrewsbury architect John Carline and also of Dr Robert Waring Darwin, the father of the naturalist Charles Darwin.[3]
He died on 20 December 1870 at his home, The Priory, Shrewsbury,[5] aged 80[4] and was buried in St Chad's churchyard.[3]
"Haycock Way", linking Shrewsbury's 20th century inner ring road to the Column roundabout at Abbey Foregate, is named after the family.[6]
Architectural career
Lord Hill's column, Shrewsbury 1815. Designed by Edward Haycock and modified by Thomas Harrison.
Haycock professionally trained in London under Sir Jeffrey Wyattville, exhibiting at the Royal Academy between 1808 and 1810. He then rejoined his father in the family building firm, working as builder and architect until about 1845, when he became a full-time architect. Work for the Gwynne family of Monachty led to the planning of Aberaeron. He was appointed County Surveyor of Shropshire from 1834 to 1866.
Associations and style
Haycock was part of a group of architects, including Thomas Farnolls Pritchard, Joseph Bromfield and John Carline, who established Shrewsbury as a major centre for architectural innovation in the later 18th and first half of the 19th century. This group gained many major architectural commissions in Shropshire and over much of Wales, despite competition from major London architects. Edward Haycock Snr specialised as a Gothic Revival architect.
Harbourmaster Hotel, Aberaeron
His father had used the Ionic order very effectively on the ill-fated Shrewsbury Shirehall[6] and Edward Haycock continued with the use of Ionic orders on his major projects as at Millichope Park, Glynllifon and Clytha Park.[7] His churches tend to be more pedestrian, using a simplified Gothic, often with crocketed pinnacles on the towers. A departure from this is St Catherine's, Doddington, (a suburb of Whitchurch, Shropshire) 1836–7, which has an impressive Grecian revival facade.
Aberaeron was founded by Rev. Alban Thomas Jones Gwynne following an Act of Parliament in 1807,[8] but it appears that town did not start to be laid out until about 1830.[9] Edward Haycock was employed by Colonel A J Gwynne[10] for supervising the building of houses and their layout in a grid plan around squares, including the principal one, Alban Square. In 1833, Samuel Lewis's “Topographical Dictionary of Wales” records “Upwards of thirty new leases have been granted, pursuant to which several houses have been already built, and others are already in progress; a general post-office, a posting-house and an excellent hotel have been established". The Town Hall (1833–35), which later became the Cardiganshire County Hall, a typical building in Haycock's style, soon followed.[11] The building of the planned town continued until the 1850s with a house in Portland Place being dated 1855. The posting house mentioned by Lewis could be the Castle and the hotel could be the Harbourmaster Hotel. Haycock achieved a consistency of style throughout the project which results in the attractive appearance of Aberaeron today.
A newspaper obituary states Haycock also "obtained first prizes for plans for the Birmingham and New Orleans Infirmaries"[17] but these are not mentioned by Colvin.
Nanteos Portico, new dining room and new frontage to stable block, c. 1839–49. The original stable block appear to have been built to designs by John Nash in c. 1813–15.[19]
Colvin H. (2008) A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600–1840. Yale University Press, 4th edition London.
Lloyd T et al.(2006):Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion: The Buildings of Wales, Yale University Press.
J Newman and N Pevsner, (2006), The Buildings of England: Shropshire, Yale.
R Scourfield and R Haslam (2013, The Buildings of Wales: Powys; Montgomeryshire, Radnorshire and Breconshire, Yale University Press.
References
^Colvin H. A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600–1840 Yale University Press, 3rd edition London, 1995, 478–481. The 4th edition, published in 2008 may contain further information.
^Brodie, Antonia (ed) "Directory of British Architects, 1834–1914": 2 Vols, British Architectural Library, Royal Institute of British Architects, 2001, 871–2.
^ abcLeach, Peter. 'Haycock, Edward (bap. 1790, d. 1870)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
^ abHobbs J L. 'The Haycocks', Shropshire Magazine, 11 (Feb 1960), 17–18
^"Deaths (notices)". The Shrewsbury Chronicle. 23 December 1870. p. 5.
^ abHaycock WayArchived 3 November 2018 at the Wayback Machine at Shrewsbury Local History website. Retrieved 9 January 2020. The page includes a photograph of Edward Sr.
^Crook, J. Mordaunt. "The Greek Revival: Neoclassical Attitudes in British Architecture 1760–1870". John Murray 1972, p.98, 102, Pls 98, 122,135
^Scourfield R and Haslam R. "The Buildings of Wales: Powys; Montgomeryshire, Radnorshire and Breconshire" Yale University Press 2013, 398
^Keeling-Roberts, Margaret (1981). In Retrospect, A Short History of The Royal Salop Infirmary. North Shropshire Printing Company. pp. 26–27.The completion stone of the rebuild names the architect as "Edward Haycocks" (sic).
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