Edward Haycock Sr.


Edward Haycock Sr. 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.

Biography

Haycock was the grandson of William Haycock of Shrewsbury and the son of John Hiram Haycock, 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 later joining the practice and continuing it until about 1880.
On 13 February 1827, Haycock married Mary Hatton at St Sepulchre-without-Newgate, London and had three sons and four daughters.
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. He was a friend of the Shrewsbury architect John Carline and also of Dr Robert Waring Darwin, the father of the naturalist Charles Darwin.
He died on 20 December 1870 at his home, The Priory, Shrewsbury, aged 80 and was buried in St Chad's churchyard.
"Haycock Way", linking Shrewsbury's 20th century inner ring road to the Column roundabout at Abbey Foregate, is named after the family.

Architectural career

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. His father had used the Ionic order very effectively on the ill-fated Shrewsbury Shirehall and Edward Haycock continued with the use of Ionic orders on his major projects as at Millichope Park, Glynllifon and Clytha Park. 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, 1836–7, which has an impressive Grecian revival facade.

Town of Aberaeron

Aberaeron was founded by Rev. Alban Thomas Jones Gwynne following an Act of Parliament in 1807, but it appears that town did not start to be laid out until about 1830. Edward Haycock was employed by Colonel A J Gwynne 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, which later became the Cardiganshire County Hall, a typical building in Haycock's style, soon followed. 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.

List of architectural work

Public buildings and monuments

A newspaper obituary states Haycock also "obtained first prizes for plans for the Birmingham and New Orleans Infirmaries" but these are not mentioned by Colvin.

Churches

Shropshire
Staffordshire
Breconshire
Cardiganshire
Carmarthenshire
Ceredigion
Glamorgan
Merioneth
Monmouthshire
Montgomeryshire

Country houses

Shropshire
Herefordshire
Northamptonshire
  • Kelmarsh Hall. Minor alterations 1842.
  • Farthingstone Rectory. Enlarged 1842–3.
Caernarfonshire
Carmarthenshire
Cardiganshire
Ceredigion
  • 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.
Glamorgan
Montgomeryshire
Monmouthshire
Neath Port Talbot
Radnorshire
  • Stanage Park. Alterations 1845.

Literature

  • Colvin H. A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600–1840. Yale University Press, 4th edition London.
  • Lloyd T et al.:Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion: The Buildings of Wales, Yale University Press.
  • J Newman and N Pevsner,, The Buildings of England: Shropshire, Yale.
  • R Scourfield and R Haslam (2013, The Buildings of Wales: Powys; Montgomeryshire, Radnorshire and Breconshire, Yale University Press.