John Howell & Son
Encyclopedia
John Howell & Son, known as John Howell, was the leading building and engineering company in Hastings
, Sussex
in the 1860s. Its founder, John Howell Senior (ca.1825−1893) engineered churches and other public buildings in the area to the designs of innovative architects, including Holy Trinity Church
in 1860 to the design of Samuel Sanders Teulon
, and St Johns Church, Hollington in 1865−1868 for Edward Alexander Wyon
. John Howell Junior (1851−1903) constructed the old Gothic Revival
Hastings Grammar School building to the design of Jeffery and Skiller in 1883. Howell Senior was a campaigner on behalf of the Liberal Party
and held a prominent political position in the town from the 1860s to the 1880s. He came to Hastings as a fatherless boy, but was the Mayor
of Hastings by 1878.
, born around 1792. John Howell was born around 1825 in Birmingham, He married Ann Osborne (b. Winchelsea
ca.1827; d. Hastings 1886), at Rye
in 1850. She was the daughter of Richard Osborne, a carpenter born around 1791 in Winchelsea. John and Ann had three children: John Junior (born Hastings 1851), Ann (b.1853) and Sophia (b.1854). Howell died aged 69 at Hastings
on 1 December 1893.
He was born in poverty and was fatherless when he came to Hastings as a child; his life and work were based in Hastings. In boyhood he worked as an apprentice
carpenter. In 1841, at age seventeen, he was a carpenter living at White Rock Place, Hastings, with his mother Sophia, a lodging-house keeper, and his sister Sophia (b.ca.1823). He became a journeyman
carpenter. In 1851, at the age of twenty-six, he was a carpenter employing nineteen men and living with his wife Ann, aged twenty-four, at 21 White Rock, Hastings. He began his independent work by constructing stables for the Local Board
in Waterworks Road, Hastings. By 1857 at the age of 33 he was becoming successful: he took on a brickfield
at Silverhill and could accept major contracts as one of the town's biggest employers during the expansion of Hastings. In 1861 he was living at 12 Cambridge Gardens with his wife and three children as well as his widowed father-in-law Richard Osborne, two of Osborne's children and a servant, Caroline Phipps, brought from Winchelsea. In 1871 he was forty-six; a timber merchant and contractor employing 120 men. He was living with his wife and children at 50 Havelock Road. In 1881 he was describing himself as a timber merchant and living with his wife, three unmarried children and three female servants at Priory Mount, Cambridge Gardens. The Census of 1891 saw him as a widower and retired contractor, staying at the Palace Hotel at Fairfield, Derbyshire
with his daughter Ann who was still single at age thirty-eight, and his granddaughter Margery Carless, aged four years. In spite of his achievements, he was not the major nineteenth-century building contractor in Hastings; that was Peter Jenkins (1869−1899).
between Station Road and the top of the east side of Middle Street. In October 1864 the Council had to ask Howell to relieve the local nuisance caused by smoke from the sawmill, and in January 1865 the mill suffered from severe subsidence
. The Hastings News said that Howell "had the building shored with nearly forty timber beams, jacks and hydraulic presses. The building was forced back ten to eleven inches over a period of three days". The company organised an annual excursion for the employees: for example on 24 July 1869 seventy men were taken on six wagonette
s to the Bell Inn at Northiam
, leaving early in the morning and returning at midnight. Howell Senior retired in 1882, and the original company was dissolved, although his son continued in business under the same name.
against the Corn Laws
around 1843 when he was a nineteen-year-old apprentice. He was a lifelong campaigner on behalf of the Liberal Party
, and was said to have had an effect in Hastings constituency on the 1859 general election
. The Tories alleged corruption by Howell but lost their case. Howell's local influence was believed to have assisted two Liberals, Frederick North
and Harry Vane, to win the election instead of one Liberal and one Tory as had been expected. After the 1882 council elections:
Howell was a town councillor
in the 1860s and 1870s, although he had to resign as councillor on 11 September 1866 when his tender of £25,640 for the main drainage works was accepted by the Council. He was elected to the first School Board for the borough of Hastings in 1871, and was the first chairman of the Hastings Liberal Association when it was formed in November 1872. He was elected alderman in May 1873, and Mayor
of Hastings in 1878. He was elected president of the Liberal Association on 25 January 1883 after he retired from the building business, and was elected councillor representing Holy Trinity Ward on 22 November 1883. This occurred after a husting on 13 September of that year on the cricket ground involving thousands of local people, some bandstands, a fairground, food and an illuminated address to Howell as president of the Hastings Liberal Association.
were found on this site by Howell's workmen. The Music Hall or Central Assembly Room between Robertson Street and Havelock Road, re-named as the Public Hall in 1883, was begun in July 1858 and built speedily; the opening on 12 January 1859 featured Handel's
Messiah
. It was an Italianate building with its main entrance in Robertson Street. The main hall on the first floor measured 75 feet by 45 feet and 30 feet high, and its staircases gave access to Havelock Road and Robertson Street. The ground floor had a large room for the Hastings Mechanics' Institution at the west end, and shops at the east end, with a shopping arcade running north-south in the centre. There was an arched cellar in the basement. From the 1920s to the 1970s it was a cinema; today it faces Cambridge Road and the ground floor is occupied by public house
s, with music in the cellar. Howell built Holy Trinity Church
, Robertson Street, in 1860 for architect Samuel Sanders Teulon
; the site cost £2,300. The nave was opened on 29 September 1858 and the chancel on 10 August 1862, but it was consecrated as late as 13 April 1882 due to debt. In July of that year there was strike action
by the masons
when their employer Howell Senior refused to dismiss a non-union
man. Holy Trinity is now a listed building. He engineered the basement of the Queens Hotel in 1862; it exists today in the town conservation area
without its cupolas and forecourt, and has been converted into flats.
He also constructed the town’s main drainage works between 1866 and the summer of 1868, for a fee of £25,640. Work started on 12 October 1866. The system ran "from St Leonards
Archway via the Priory (near the Memorial) to a large arched tank at Rock-a-Nore
holding one and a half million gallons, then to the mouth of an iron outlet pipe off Ecclesbourne Glen
". People could now experience "clean bathing in a pure sea": this may explain the necessity for the new drainage system. The work involved embedding planks up to four feet deep into rock. He was the builder of St Johns Church, Hollington, from 1865 to 1868, for architect Edward Alexander Wyon
(1842–1872). St John's Church is not listed. Howell was the engineer for the new Council building to the design of Mr Smith; this could be George Smith
who lived at Copthorne
. The building was opened in 1868 and stood on the corner of Bank Buildings and Middle Street; now the corner of Middle Street and Station Road. St Andrews Church, Queens Road, was begun in November 1869 and completed to the design of Matthew Edward Habershon; Howell's fee was £3,235. It held a congregation of 2,000 and survived until 1970 when it was declared unsafe and demolished.
He bid unsuccessfully for the job of constructing Hastings Pier
in 1869 to 1872. However he did win a major contract for the large-scale development of the Cornwallis Estate in 1873. That job included Cambridge Gardens, Cornwallis Gardens and Holmesdale Gardens; March 1873 saw him already laying out Cambridge Gardens on the site of Priory farmyard, and demonstrating his local influence regarding the positioning of adjacent developments. Howell Senior eventually took up residence on the estate at number seven Holmesdale Gardens and called it Priory Mount. It is now the Westwood Centre. Emmanuel Church, Priory Road (now Vicarage Road), was built to the design of Jeffrey & Skiller in 1873. His fee for this job was paid by a local benefactor, Mrs Mendham, who also laid a memorial stone there. In 1875 he engineered a roller skating rink, later called the Cambridge Hall, on the east side of Cambridge Gardens; the site now contains the ESK Warehouse. It was a "large, iron-framed shed with wood panels", 120 ft by 60 ft by 27 ft high, and was opened on 1 February 1875. It was built to the design of "Mr Plumpton of New York" (possibly James Leonard Plimpton
) who had designed the skates which would be hired and sold there.
His undated buildings include the London and County Bank which is now the National Westminster Bank. He built the St Mary Magdalen Schools; these are as yet unidentified, but one of them may be the listed Training College, Former Convent of the Holy Child Jesus, Hastings, which was designed by William Wardell
. They may alternatively be schools built with funds from the Magdalen charity, including Hastings Grammar School. He built the Memorial Chapel which was in Bank Buildings and is now on the west side of Station Road, and numerous domestic buildings. He is credited with the undated construction of The Hastings and East Sussex Liberal Club building at 4 Pelham Street, Hastings; this is now part of Lloyds Bank in Wellington Place. It was owned by a company, and the Liberals occupied it until it was sold to a judge for £1,700 in 1894.
(1854−1927). It was built mainly in 1884 to 1885 but completed in the 1890s. It is now a United Reformed Church
.
. He and his wife Lilla had six children, all born at St Leonards
: Cecil John (born around 1884); Gladys Lilian (b.ca.1886); Reginald Edward (b.ca.1887); Mabel E.O. (b.ca.1889; Herbert Edgar (b.ca.1890); Wilfred Douglas. (b.ca.1896).
By the time he was nineteen years old in 1871 he was living with his parents in Havelock Road and articled
to an attorney
. He became a partner in the firm sometime after 1873. By 1881 at age twenty-nine he was describing himself as a timber merchant like his father, and living with his parents at Priory Mount in Cambridge Gardens, Hastings. He continued under the same company name after his father retired in 1882 and the original firm was dissolved. He married Mrs Lilla Harford (b. Barnstaple
ca.1856; d. Wandsworth
1930) of Cambridge Gardens, Hastings on 7 June 1882, when his employees received a half-day holiday, an afternoon of entertainment at Field's Farm, Ore
and an evening dinner at the Grand Hotel in Queens Road, Hastings. Around a hundred of the men took advantage of this. By 1991 the family was living at Rothesay, Clive Road, Hastings, with five of their children: Cecil, Gladys, Reginald, Mabel and Herbert. They had seven servants living in: a housekeeper, parlourmaid, cook, housemaid, under-nurse, coachman and gardener. The 1901 Census finds John Howell Junior as a solicitor still living with his wife, his stepson Hugh Cardinal Harford (b. Middlesex ca.1877) and five of their children at Rothesay. His eldest son Cecil was at that time a commercial clerk living at a boarding house in Rochester, Kent. John Howell Junior died aged 52 years on 13 December 1903 in his home at 20 Holmesdale Gardens which he had built with his father soon after joining the firm. He left £53,352 in his will.
The 1911 Census saw Lilla Howell as a widow, living at Preston House, Dulwich Road, Herne Hill
, with five of her seven children. Hugh was an insurance inspector; Gladys was a costumier, Reginald was a Lloyds shipping agent, Herbert was a flour merchant and Wilfred was a college student. Cecil John spent some time in India as a merchant, and 1925 saw him returning home on the SS Warwickshire with his five-year-old son Peter John Howell; they were then living at 27 Pinfold Road, Streatham Hill
, London. There is therefore no evidence yet found that John Howell & Son continued as a building or engineering firm after the death of John Howell Junior in 1903.
building for Hastings Grammar School
(pictured above), designed by Jeffery and Skiller of Havelock Road, Hastings. The foundation stone was laid on 15 September 1882, and the first section was opened on 4 July 1883. It was built on a slope using Kentish ragstone
and Bath Stone
dressings, and shortage of funds meant that it had to be built in stages. In the first stage the building contained a large schoolroom with "a raised platform at one end and a gallery at the other; four adjoining classrooms; above, space not yet used as part of the second section; below, a covered playground". The second stage included accommodation for thirty boarders and a master. The planned capacity was for up to 140 boys, and cost around £10,000. The school ultimately had an eighty-foot clock tower. Hastings Grammar School was demolished in 1965 or 1966 to be replaced by another building. He built St Peter's Church
, Lower Park Road, to the design of James Brooks (1825–1901). The foundation stone was laid in 1883, and it was completed in 1885.
Hastings
Hastings is a town and borough in the county of East Sussex on the south coast of England. The town is located east of the county town of Lewes and south east of London, and has an estimated population of 86,900....
, Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
in the 1860s. Its founder, John Howell Senior (ca.1825−1893) engineered churches and other public buildings in the area to the designs of innovative architects, including Holy Trinity Church
Holy Trinity Church, Hastings
Holy Trinity Church is an Anglican church in the centre of Hastings, a town and borough in the English county of East Sussex. It was built during the 1850s—a period when Hastings was growing rapidly as a seaside resort—by prolific and eccentric architect Samuel Sanders Teulon, who was "chief among...
in 1860 to the design of Samuel Sanders Teulon
Samuel Sanders Teulon
Samuel Sanders Teulon was a notable 19th century English Gothic Revival architect.-Family:Teulon was born in Greenwich in south-east London, the son of a cabinet-maker from a French Huguenot family. His younger brother William Milford Teulon also became an architect...
, and St Johns Church, Hollington in 1865−1868 for Edward Alexander Wyon
Edward Alexander Wyon
Edward Alexander Wyon was a London architect and poet, descended from the Wyon family of engravers. His only known building is St John the Evangelist Church in Hollington, Hastings in East Sussex. His posthumous publication, A Memorial Volume of Poems , continues to be reprinted in the 21st century...
. John Howell Junior (1851−1903) constructed the old Gothic Revival
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
Hastings Grammar School building to the design of Jeffery and Skiller in 1883. Howell Senior was a campaigner on behalf of the Liberal Party
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
and held a prominent political position in the town from the 1860s to the 1880s. He came to Hastings as a fatherless boy, but was the Mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
of Hastings by 1878.
Personal history
His mother was Sophia Howell of BirminghamBirmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, born around 1792. John Howell was born around 1825 in Birmingham, He married Ann Osborne (b. Winchelsea
Winchelsea
Winchelsea is a small village in East Sussex, England, located between the High Weald and the Romney Marsh, approximately two miles south west of Rye and seven miles north east of Hastings...
ca.1827; d. Hastings 1886), at Rye
Rye, East Sussex
Rye is a small town in East Sussex, England, which stands approximately two miles from the open sea and is at the confluence of three rivers: the Rother, the Tillingham and the Brede...
in 1850. She was the daughter of Richard Osborne, a carpenter born around 1791 in Winchelsea. John and Ann had three children: John Junior (born Hastings 1851), Ann (b.1853) and Sophia (b.1854). Howell died aged 69 at Hastings
Hastings
Hastings is a town and borough in the county of East Sussex on the south coast of England. The town is located east of the county town of Lewes and south east of London, and has an estimated population of 86,900....
on 1 December 1893.
He was born in poverty and was fatherless when he came to Hastings as a child; his life and work were based in Hastings. In boyhood he worked as an apprentice
Apprenticeship
Apprenticeship is a system of training a new generation of practitioners of a skill. Apprentices or protégés build their careers from apprenticeships...
carpenter. In 1841, at age seventeen, he was a carpenter living at White Rock Place, Hastings, with his mother Sophia, a lodging-house keeper, and his sister Sophia (b.ca.1823). He became a journeyman
Journeyman
A journeyman is someone who completed an apprenticeship and was fully educated in a trade or craft, but not yet a master. To become a master, a journeyman had to submit a master work piece to a guild for evaluation and be admitted to the guild as a master....
carpenter. In 1851, at the age of twenty-six, he was a carpenter employing nineteen men and living with his wife Ann, aged twenty-four, at 21 White Rock, Hastings. He began his independent work by constructing stables for the Local Board
Board of Trade
The Board of Trade is a committee of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, originating as a committee of inquiry in the 17th century and evolving gradually into a government department with a diverse range of functions...
in Waterworks Road, Hastings. By 1857 at the age of 33 he was becoming successful: he took on a brickfield
Brickworks
A brickworks also known as a brick factory, is a factory for the manufacturing of bricks, from clay or shale. Usually a brickworks is located on a clay bedrock often with a quarry for clay on site....
at Silverhill and could accept major contracts as one of the town's biggest employers during the expansion of Hastings. In 1861 he was living at 12 Cambridge Gardens with his wife and three children as well as his widowed father-in-law Richard Osborne, two of Osborne's children and a servant, Caroline Phipps, brought from Winchelsea. In 1871 he was forty-six; a timber merchant and contractor employing 120 men. He was living with his wife and children at 50 Havelock Road. In 1881 he was describing himself as a timber merchant and living with his wife, three unmarried children and three female servants at Priory Mount, Cambridge Gardens. The Census of 1891 saw him as a widower and retired contractor, staying at the Palace Hotel at Fairfield, Derbyshire
Fairfield, Derbyshire
Fairfield is an urban area of Buxton in Derbyshire, located half a mile to the North-East from Buxton town centre. It is centred around the "Green" a village green.-History:...
with his daughter Ann who was still single at age thirty-eight, and his granddaughter Margery Carless, aged four years. In spite of his achievements, he was not the major nineteenth-century building contractor in Hastings; that was Peter Jenkins (1869−1899).
Company
The Hastings News said that he was "one of the most prominent members of the Victorian building trade (in Hastings)", that "all he touched seemed to turn to gold," and that "he was popular with his workforce for being firm but fair". The company's office was in a large sawmillSawmill
A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....
between Station Road and the top of the east side of Middle Street. In October 1864 the Council had to ask Howell to relieve the local nuisance caused by smoke from the sawmill, and in January 1865 the mill suffered from severe subsidence
Subsidence
Subsidence is the motion of a surface as it shifts downward relative to a datum such as sea-level. The opposite of subsidence is uplift, which results in an increase in elevation...
. The Hastings News said that Howell "had the building shored with nearly forty timber beams, jacks and hydraulic presses. The building was forced back ten to eleven inches over a period of three days". The company organised an annual excursion for the employees: for example on 24 July 1869 seventy men were taken on six wagonette
Wagonette
A wagonette or an omnibus is a horse-drawn wagon for passenger transport. Two wooden benches along the right and left side of the wagon platform can hold several sitting people facing each other. The driver sits on a separate, front-facing bench.The term carried over to motorized vehicles...
s to the Bell Inn at Northiam
Northiam
Northiam is a village and civil parish in the Rother District of East Sussex, England. The village is located thirteen miles north of Hastings in the valley of the River Rother. The main road that passes through it is the A28 which goes to Canterbury and Hastings.-Governance:The lowest level of...
, leaving early in the morning and returning at midnight. Howell Senior retired in 1882, and the original company was dissolved, although his son continued in business under the same name.
Political life
John Howell Senior became a Liberal Party activist in the campaignAnti-Corn Law League
The Anti-Corn Law League was in effect the resumption of the Anti-Corn Law Association, which had been created in London in 1836 but did not obtain widespread popularity. The Anti-Corn Law League was founded in Manchester in 1838...
against the Corn Laws
Corn Laws
The Corn Laws were trade barriers designed to protect cereal producers in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland against competition from less expensive foreign imports between 1815 and 1846. The barriers were introduced by the Importation Act 1815 and repealed by the Importation Act 1846...
around 1843 when he was a nineteen-year-old apprentice. He was a lifelong campaigner on behalf of the Liberal Party
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
, and was said to have had an effect in Hastings constituency on the 1859 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1859
In the 1859 United Kingdom general election, the Whigs, led by Lord Palmerston, held their majority in the House of Commons over the Earl of Derby's Conservatives...
. The Tories alleged corruption by Howell but lost their case. Howell's local influence was believed to have assisted two Liberals, Frederick North
Frederick North (MP)
Frederick North DL, JP , was a British Liberal politician.-Background and education:A member of the North family headed by the Earl of Guilford, Frederick North was the son of Francis Frederick North, great-grandson of the Hon. Roger North, younger son of Dudley North, 4th Baron North...
and Harry Vane, to win the election instead of one Liberal and one Tory as had been expected. After the 1882 council elections:
"The Liberals had issued writs in the High Court of Justice charging Cllrs Edwin Smith (All Saints ward), George Edmed (St Clements ward) and George Archibald Thorpe (Holy Trinity ward) with bribery, undue influence, giving ‘treats’ and hiring vehicles to convey voters to the polls".The Liberals lost their case, but were still supported by the Hastings News, a Liberal newspaper. In response the Tories issued a writ accusing Howell of perjury, citing the method of payment by Howell to Mr Kendal, a private investigator hired to discover evidence of corruption by the Tories in the 1882 election. The Tories were supported by the Hastings Observer, which "took great delight in the failure of the Liberal case, highlighting the poor quality evidence". The same newspaper "also revived the 1869 case, arguing forcefully that the two Liberals had been elected wrongly". The Tories lost their case against Howell.
Howell was a town councillor
Councillor
A councillor or councilor is a member of a local government council, such as a city council.Often in the United States, the title is councilman or councilwoman.-United Kingdom:...
in the 1860s and 1870s, although he had to resign as councillor on 11 September 1866 when his tender of £25,640 for the main drainage works was accepted by the Council. He was elected to the first School Board for the borough of Hastings in 1871, and was the first chairman of the Hastings Liberal Association when it was formed in November 1872. He was elected alderman in May 1873, and Mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
of Hastings in 1878. He was elected president of the Liberal Association on 25 January 1883 after he retired from the building business, and was elected councillor representing Holy Trinity Ward on 22 November 1883. This occurred after a husting on 13 September of that year on the cricket ground involving thousands of local people, some bandstands, a fairground, food and an illuminated address to Howell as president of the Hastings Liberal Association.
Works
His first major work was the west side of Warrior Square, completed in 1855. In the same year, Roman coinsRoman currency
The Roman currency during most of the Roman Republic and the western half of the Roman Empire consisted of coins including the aureus , the denarius , the sestertius , the dupondius , and the as...
were found on this site by Howell's workmen. The Music Hall or Central Assembly Room between Robertson Street and Havelock Road, re-named as the Public Hall in 1883, was begun in July 1858 and built speedily; the opening on 12 January 1859 featured Handel's
George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...
Messiah
Messiah (Handel)
Messiah is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742, and received its London premiere nearly a year later...
. It was an Italianate building with its main entrance in Robertson Street. The main hall on the first floor measured 75 feet by 45 feet and 30 feet high, and its staircases gave access to Havelock Road and Robertson Street. The ground floor had a large room for the Hastings Mechanics' Institution at the west end, and shops at the east end, with a shopping arcade running north-south in the centre. There was an arched cellar in the basement. From the 1920s to the 1970s it was a cinema; today it faces Cambridge Road and the ground floor is occupied by public house
Public house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
s, with music in the cellar. Howell built Holy Trinity Church
Holy Trinity Church, Hastings
Holy Trinity Church is an Anglican church in the centre of Hastings, a town and borough in the English county of East Sussex. It was built during the 1850s—a period when Hastings was growing rapidly as a seaside resort—by prolific and eccentric architect Samuel Sanders Teulon, who was "chief among...
, Robertson Street, in 1860 for architect Samuel Sanders Teulon
Samuel Sanders Teulon
Samuel Sanders Teulon was a notable 19th century English Gothic Revival architect.-Family:Teulon was born in Greenwich in south-east London, the son of a cabinet-maker from a French Huguenot family. His younger brother William Milford Teulon also became an architect...
; the site cost £2,300. The nave was opened on 29 September 1858 and the chancel on 10 August 1862, but it was consecrated as late as 13 April 1882 due to debt. In July of that year there was strike action
Strike action
Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
by the masons
Stonemasonry
The craft of stonemasonry has existed since the dawn of civilization - creating buildings, structures, and sculpture using stone from the earth. These materials have been used to construct many of the long-lasting, ancient monuments, artifacts, cathedrals, and cities in a wide variety of cultures...
when their employer Howell Senior refused to dismiss a non-union
Trade unions in the United Kingdom
Trade unions in the United Kingdom were first decriminalised under the recommendation of a Royal Commission in 1867, which agreed that the establishment of the organisations was to the advantage of both employers and employees...
man. Holy Trinity is now a listed building. He engineered the basement of the Queens Hotel in 1862; it exists today in the town conservation area
Conservation area
A conservation areas is a tract of land that has been awarded protected status in order to ensure that natural features, cultural heritage or biota are safeguarded...
without its cupolas and forecourt, and has been converted into flats.
He also constructed the town’s main drainage works between 1866 and the summer of 1868, for a fee of £25,640. Work started on 12 October 1866. The system ran "from St Leonards
St Leonards-on-Sea
St Leonards-on-Sea is part of Hastings, East Sussex, England, lying immediately to the west of the centre. The original part of the settlement was laid out in the early 19th century as a new town: a place of elegant houses designed for the well-off; it also included a central public garden, a...
Archway via the Priory (near the Memorial) to a large arched tank at Rock-a-Nore
Rock-a-Nore
Rock-a-Nore is an urban area of Hastings, stretching from the Old Town area along Rock-a-Nore Road between the cliffs and the beach...
holding one and a half million gallons, then to the mouth of an iron outlet pipe off Ecclesbourne Glen
Glen
A glen is a valley, typically one that is long, deep, and often glacially U-shaped; or one with a watercourse running through such a valley. Whittow defines it as a "Scottish term for a deep valley in the Highlands" that is "narrower than a strath."...
". People could now experience "clean bathing in a pure sea": this may explain the necessity for the new drainage system. The work involved embedding planks up to four feet deep into rock. He was the builder of St Johns Church, Hollington, from 1865 to 1868, for architect Edward Alexander Wyon
Edward Alexander Wyon
Edward Alexander Wyon was a London architect and poet, descended from the Wyon family of engravers. His only known building is St John the Evangelist Church in Hollington, Hastings in East Sussex. His posthumous publication, A Memorial Volume of Poems , continues to be reprinted in the 21st century...
(1842–1872). St John's Church is not listed. Howell was the engineer for the new Council building to the design of Mr Smith; this could be George Smith
George Smith (architect)
George Smith was an English architect and surveyor of the early 19th century, with strong connections with central and south-east London....
who lived at Copthorne
Copthorne, West Sussex
Copthorne is a village in the Mid Sussex district of West Sussex, England. It lies close to Gatwick Airport, south of London, north of Brighton, and northeast of the county town of Chichester. Nearby towns include Crawley to the southwest and East Grinstead to the east...
. The building was opened in 1868 and stood on the corner of Bank Buildings and Middle Street; now the corner of Middle Street and Station Road. St Andrews Church, Queens Road, was begun in November 1869 and completed to the design of Matthew Edward Habershon; Howell's fee was £3,235. It held a congregation of 2,000 and survived until 1970 when it was declared unsafe and demolished.
He bid unsuccessfully for the job of constructing Hastings Pier
Hastings Pier
Hastings Pier was a pleasure pier in Hastings, East Sussex, England. Built in 1872 and enjoying its prime in the 1930s, though becoming a popular music venue in the 1960s, it received major storm damage in 1990, closed to the public between 1999 and 2002, then closed again from 2006. Efforts...
in 1869 to 1872. However he did win a major contract for the large-scale development of the Cornwallis Estate in 1873. That job included Cambridge Gardens, Cornwallis Gardens and Holmesdale Gardens; March 1873 saw him already laying out Cambridge Gardens on the site of Priory farmyard, and demonstrating his local influence regarding the positioning of adjacent developments. Howell Senior eventually took up residence on the estate at number seven Holmesdale Gardens and called it Priory Mount. It is now the Westwood Centre. Emmanuel Church, Priory Road (now Vicarage Road), was built to the design of Jeffrey & Skiller in 1873. His fee for this job was paid by a local benefactor, Mrs Mendham, who also laid a memorial stone there. In 1875 he engineered a roller skating rink, later called the Cambridge Hall, on the east side of Cambridge Gardens; the site now contains the ESK Warehouse. It was a "large, iron-framed shed with wood panels", 120 ft by 60 ft by 27 ft high, and was opened on 1 February 1875. It was built to the design of "Mr Plumpton of New York" (possibly James Leonard Plimpton
James Leonard Plimpton
James Leonard Plimpton was an American inventor who is known for changing the skating world with his patented roller skates in 1863. Pimpton's roller skates were safer and easier to use than the existing versions, his "rocker skate" or Quad skates allowed people to steer just by leaning to the...
) who had designed the skates which would be hired and sold there.
His undated buildings include the London and County Bank which is now the National Westminster Bank. He built the St Mary Magdalen Schools; these are as yet unidentified, but one of them may be the listed Training College, Former Convent of the Holy Child Jesus, Hastings, which was designed by William Wardell
William Wardell
William Wilkinson Wardell was a Civil Engineer and Architect, notable not only for his work in Australia, the country to which he emigrated in 1858, but also for having a successful career as a surveyor, and an ecclesiastical architect in England and Scotland before his departure.In Australia,...
. They may alternatively be schools built with funds from the Magdalen charity, including Hastings Grammar School. He built the Memorial Chapel which was in Bank Buildings and is now on the west side of Station Road, and numerous domestic buildings. He is credited with the undated construction of The Hastings and East Sussex Liberal Club building at 4 Pelham Street, Hastings; this is now part of Lloyds Bank in Wellington Place. It was owned by a company, and the Liberals occupied it until it was sold to a judge for £1,700 in 1894.
Buildings by both partners
John Howell Senior's last work built in cooperation with his son was Robertson Street Congregational Church, Hastings, to the design of Henry WardHenry Ward (architect)
Henry Ward ARIBA was the architect of many large public buildings in and around Hastings, East Sussex, some of which are listed buildings.-Biography:...
(1854−1927). It was built mainly in 1884 to 1885 but completed in the 1890s. It is now a United Reformed Church
United Reformed Church
The United Reformed Church is a Christian church in the United Kingdom. It has approximately 68,000 members in 1,500 congregations with some 700 ministers.-Origins and history:...
.
Personal history
John Howell Junior (born Hastings 1851; died Hastings 1903) was the son and business partner of John Howell Senior; he also practised as a solicitorSolicitor
Solicitors are lawyers who traditionally deal with any legal matter including conducting proceedings in courts. In the United Kingdom, a few Australian states and the Republic of Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers , and a lawyer will usually only hold one title...
. He and his wife Lilla had six children, all born at St Leonards
St Leonards-on-Sea
St Leonards-on-Sea is part of Hastings, East Sussex, England, lying immediately to the west of the centre. The original part of the settlement was laid out in the early 19th century as a new town: a place of elegant houses designed for the well-off; it also included a central public garden, a...
: Cecil John (born around 1884); Gladys Lilian (b.ca.1886); Reginald Edward (b.ca.1887); Mabel E.O. (b.ca.1889; Herbert Edgar (b.ca.1890); Wilfred Douglas. (b.ca.1896).
By the time he was nineteen years old in 1871 he was living with his parents in Havelock Road and articled
Articled clerk
An articled clerk, also known as an articling student, is an apprentice in a professional firm in Commonwealth countries. Generally the term arises in the accountancy profession and in the legal profession. The articled clerk signs a contract, known as "articles of clerkship", committing to a...
to an attorney
Solicitor
Solicitors are lawyers who traditionally deal with any legal matter including conducting proceedings in courts. In the United Kingdom, a few Australian states and the Republic of Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers , and a lawyer will usually only hold one title...
. He became a partner in the firm sometime after 1873. By 1881 at age twenty-nine he was describing himself as a timber merchant like his father, and living with his parents at Priory Mount in Cambridge Gardens, Hastings. He continued under the same company name after his father retired in 1882 and the original firm was dissolved. He married Mrs Lilla Harford (b. Barnstaple
Barnstaple
Barnstaple is a town and civil parish in the local government district of North Devon in the county of Devon, England, UK. It lies west southwest of Bristol, north of Plymouth and northwest of the county town of Exeter. The old spelling Barnstable is now obsolete.It is the main town of the...
ca.1856; d. Wandsworth
Wandsworth
Wandsworth is a district of south London, England, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It is situated southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.-Toponymy:...
1930) of Cambridge Gardens, Hastings on 7 June 1882, when his employees received a half-day holiday, an afternoon of entertainment at Field's Farm, Ore
Ore, Sussex
Ore, a former village, is a suburb of the urban area of the town and borough of Hastings in East Sussex. It is located to the north-east of the town on the main road to Rye...
and an evening dinner at the Grand Hotel in Queens Road, Hastings. Around a hundred of the men took advantage of this. By 1991 the family was living at Rothesay, Clive Road, Hastings, with five of their children: Cecil, Gladys, Reginald, Mabel and Herbert. They had seven servants living in: a housekeeper, parlourmaid, cook, housemaid, under-nurse, coachman and gardener. The 1901 Census finds John Howell Junior as a solicitor still living with his wife, his stepson Hugh Cardinal Harford (b. Middlesex ca.1877) and five of their children at Rothesay. His eldest son Cecil was at that time a commercial clerk living at a boarding house in Rochester, Kent. John Howell Junior died aged 52 years on 13 December 1903 in his home at 20 Holmesdale Gardens which he had built with his father soon after joining the firm. He left £53,352 in his will.
The 1911 Census saw Lilla Howell as a widow, living at Preston House, Dulwich Road, Herne Hill
Herne Hill
Herne Hill is located in the London Borough of Lambeth and the London Borough of Southwark in Greater London. There is a road of the same name which continues the A215 north of Norwood Road and was called Herne Hill Road.-History:...
, with five of her seven children. Hugh was an insurance inspector; Gladys was a costumier, Reginald was a Lloyds shipping agent, Herbert was a flour merchant and Wilfred was a college student. Cecil John spent some time in India as a merchant, and 1925 saw him returning home on the SS Warwickshire with his five-year-old son Peter John Howell; they were then living at 27 Pinfold Road, Streatham Hill
Streatham
Streatham is a district in Surrey, England, located in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is situated south of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.-History:...
, London. There is therefore no evidence yet found that John Howell & Son continued as a building or engineering firm after the death of John Howell Junior in 1903.
Works
John Howell Junior was the engineer of the previous Gothic RevivalGothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
building for Hastings Grammar School
William Parker Sports College
The William Parker Sports College, formerly known as Hastings Grammar School, and later as William Parker School, is a secondary school in Hastings, East Sussex in the United Kingdom...
(pictured above), designed by Jeffery and Skiller of Havelock Road, Hastings. The foundation stone was laid on 15 September 1882, and the first section was opened on 4 July 1883. It was built on a slope using Kentish ragstone
Rag-stone
Rag-stone is a name given by some architectural writers to work done with stones which are quarried in thin pieces, such as the Horsham sandstone, Yorkshire stone, the slate stones, but this is more properly flag or slab work. By rag-stone, near London, is meant an excellent material from the...
and Bath Stone
Bath Stone
Bath Stone is an Oolitic Limestone comprising granular fragments of calcium carbonate. Originally obtained from the Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines under Combe Down, Somerset, England, its warm, honey colouring gives the World Heritage City of Bath, England its distinctive appearance...
dressings, and shortage of funds meant that it had to be built in stages. In the first stage the building contained a large schoolroom with "a raised platform at one end and a gallery at the other; four adjoining classrooms; above, space not yet used as part of the second section; below, a covered playground". The second stage included accommodation for thirty boarders and a master. The planned capacity was for up to 140 boys, and cost around £10,000. The school ultimately had an eighty-foot clock tower. Hastings Grammar School was demolished in 1965 or 1966 to be replaced by another building. He built St Peter's Church
St Peter's Church, St Leonards-on-Sea
St Peter's Church is an Anglican church in the Bohemia area of the town and seaside resort of , part of the Borough of Hastings in East Sussex, England. Founded in 1883 in response to the rapid residential growth of this part of St Leonards-on-Sea, the "outstanding late Victorian church" was...
, Lower Park Road, to the design of James Brooks (1825–1901). The foundation stone was laid in 1883, and it was completed in 1885.
List of works in Hastings area
Churches
- Holy Trinity ChurchHoly Trinity Church, HastingsHoly Trinity Church is an Anglican church in the centre of Hastings, a town and borough in the English county of East Sussex. It was built during the 1850s—a period when Hastings was growing rapidly as a seaside resort—by prolific and eccentric architect Samuel Sanders Teulon, who was "chief among...
, Robertson Street (1860−1862; architect Samuel Sanders TeulonSamuel Sanders TeulonSamuel Sanders Teulon was a notable 19th century English Gothic Revival architect.-Family:Teulon was born in Greenwich in south-east London, the son of a cabinet-maker from a French Huguenot family. His younger brother William Milford Teulon also became an architect...
) - St Johns Church, Hollington (1865−1868; architect Edward Alexander WyonEdward Alexander WyonEdward Alexander Wyon was a London architect and poet, descended from the Wyon family of engravers. His only known building is St John the Evangelist Church in Hollington, Hastings in East Sussex. His posthumous publication, A Memorial Volume of Poems , continues to be reprinted in the 21st century...
) - St Andrews Church, Queens Road (1869; architect Matthew Edward Habershon) Demolished
- Emmanuel Church, Priory Road – now Vicarage Road (1873; architects Jeffrey & Skiller)
- Memorial Chapel, west side of Station Road (before 1884; architect unknown)
- Robertson Street Congregational Church, now United Reformed Church (1884−1885, completed 1890s; architect Henry WardHenry Ward (architect)Henry Ward ARIBA was the architect of many large public buildings in and around Hastings, East Sussex, some of which are listed buildings.-Biography:...
) - St Peters Church, Lower Park Road (1883−1885; architect James Brooks)
Public works
- Stables for the Local BoardBoard of TradeThe Board of Trade is a committee of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, originating as a committee of inquiry in the 17th century and evolving gradually into a government department with a diverse range of functions...
in Waterworks Road, (before 1851; possibly self-designed) - Music Hall, Central Assembly Room or Public Hall now in Cambridge Road (1858; architect unknown)
- Hastings' main drainage works (1866−1868; engineer unknown)
- Council offices, corner of Middle Street and Station Road (1868; architect possibly George SmithGeorge Smith (architect)George Smith was an English architect and surveyor of the early 19th century, with strong connections with central and south-east London....
) - Roller skating rink or Cambridge Hall, in Cambridge Gardens, on current ESK Warehouse site (1875; architect possibly James Leonard PlimptonJames Leonard PlimptonJames Leonard Plimpton was an American inventor who is known for changing the skating world with his patented roller skates in 1863. Pimpton's roller skates were safer and easier to use than the existing versions, his "rocker skate" or Quad skates allowed people to steer just by leaning to the...
) Demolished - Mary Magdalen schools, possibly built with funds from the Magdalen charity (undated; architect unknown)
- Hastings and East Sussex Liberal Club, 4 Pelham Street, now part of Lloyds Bank in Wellington Place.
- Hastings Grammar School (1882−1883; architects Jeffery & Skiller) Demolished 1965−1966
Domestic and commercial buildings
- West side of Warrior Square (completed 1855; architect unknown)
- Basement of the Queens Hotel (1862; architect unknown)
- Cornwallis Estate including Cambridge Gardens, Cornwallis Gardens and Holmesdale Gardens (1873; architect unknown)
- - Priory Mount, 7 Holmesdale Gardens, now the Westwood Centre, was occupied by John Howell Senior from at least 1881 to 1893.
- - 20 Holmesdale Gardens was occupied by John Howell Junior in 1902−1903.
- London and County Bank, now the National Westminster Bank (undated; architect unknown)
- Numerous domestic buildings (details unknown)
External links
- 1066 Network (includes links to Hastings history sites)
- Hastings Chronicle (historical sources for Hastings, East Sussex)