Alfred Hoare Powell (1865–1960) was an English Arts and Crafts architect, and designer and painter of pottery.

Career

Alfred Powell was born in

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...

, Berkshire, on 14 April 1865, the son of Thomas Edward Powell by Emma Corrie. He was the architectural pupil of

John Dando Sedding John Dando Sedding (13 April 1838 – 7 April 1891) was an English church architect, working on new buildings and repair work, with an interest in a "crafted Gothic" style. He was an influential figure in the Arts and Crafts movement, many of wh ...

, working in the 'crafted Gothic' tradition inspired by

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and pol ...

. His wife, Ada Louise Powell, née Lessore (1882-1956),British listed buildings: Studio Cottage, Rodmarton
Accessed 1 November 2012 was the daughter of an artist, and studied embroidery, calligraphy and illuminating. Together Alfred and Louise Powell became celebrated as pottery designers for

Wedgwood Wedgwood is an English fine china, porcelain and luxury accessories manufacturer that was founded on 1 May 1759 by the potter and entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood and was first incorporated in 1895 as Josiah Wedgwood and Sons Ltd. It was rapid ...

s. They hand-painted many thousands of pieces themselves and trained "paintresses" for Wedgwood. They collaborated on the revitalisation of the arts and crafts, rejecting industrialisation and designing furniture decoration, embroidery and ceramics, and encouraging a communitarian spirit in the South Cotswolds. Alfred Powell with the younger architect

Norman Jewson Norman Jewson (12 February 1884 – 28 August 1975) was an English architect-craftsman of the Arts and Crafts movement, who practised in the Cotswolds. He was a distinguished, younger member of the group which had settled in Sapperton, Glouce ...

was the most significant associate of

Ernest Gimson Ernest William Gimson (; 21 December 1864 – 12 August 1919) was an English furniture designer and architect. Gimson was described by the art critic Nikolaus Pevsner as "the greatest of the English architect-designers". Today his reputati ...

and the brothers Ernest and Sidney Barnsley at Sapperton, in

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

, in the Cotswold Arts and Crafts revival. He settled nearby at Gurners Farm, Oakridge Lynch in 1902, but sold the house in 1916, and moved to The Thatched House, Tunley near Oakridge, in the 1920s, and later lived at Tarlton near Rodmarton. He worked with

Detmar Blow Detmar Jellings Blow (24 November 1867 – 7 February 1939) was a British architect of the early 20th century, who designed principally in the arts and crafts style. His clients belonged chiefly to the British aristocracy, and later he became es ...

and F.W. Troup for both the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

and the

Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) (also known as Anti-Scrape) is an amenity society founded by William Morris, Philip Webb, and others in 1877 to oppose the destructive 'restoration' of ancient buildings occurring in ...

Architectural works

Powell's architectural works include a number of works for

Hugh Fairfax-Cholmeley Hugh may refer to: *Hugh (given name) Noblemen and clergy French * Hugh the Great (died 956), Duke of the Franks * Hugh Magnus of France (1007–1025), co-King of France under his father, Robert II * Hugh, Duke of Alsace (died 895), modern-day ...

, Squire of Brandsby, Yorkshire. He designed extensive modifications and extensions for Hugh's house at Mill Hill (original architect, Detmar Blow), changing it from a simple house designed for community living, to the desirable residence it remains to today. He designed the gardens, both flower and kitchen gardens, the gates and all external features. He designed Dale End House, Brandsby which was built for the artist Joseph Crawhall and his mother. He contributed elements to the design of Hugh Fairfax-Cholmeley's worker cottage design, to ensure that these were not just functional, but of good design. He also designed and built an ornamental fireplace at Swathgill in the 1920s, for the Fairfax-Cholmeleys, this included painted panels and tiles. Unfortunately, a later occupant of Swathgill dismantled the decorative elements of this fireplace, but the tiles survive, should a future occupant choose to reinstate them, though the painted panels have disappeared. Powell also designed fireplace tiles for Tom Jones's house in

St Nicholas-at-Wade St Nicholas-at-Wade (or St Nicholas) is both a village and a civil parish in the Thanet District of Kent, England. The parish had a recorded population of 782 at the 2001 Census, increasing to 852 at the 2011 census. The village of Sarre is part ...

: the tiles include the initials of Sidney Kyffin Greenslade (the architect who designed the house), and

Molly Bernhard-Smith Molly, Mollie or mollies may refer to: Animals * ''Poecilia'', a genus of fishes ** ''Poecilia sphenops'', a fish species * A female mule (horse–donkey hybrid) People * Molly (name) or Mollie, a female given name, including a list of persons ...

(the art dealer who introduced Tom Jones to the village). He did repairs at Barrington Court,

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

and

Queens' College Queens' College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Queens' is one of the oldest colleges of the university, founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou. The college spans the River Cam, colloquially referred to as the "light s ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

; and projects with other members of the

Gimson school Gimson is a surname which may refer to: * John Gimson (1983), Olympic silver Medalist * Alfred C. Gimson (1917–1985), English phonetician *Andrew Gimson (born 1958), British political journalist and writer *Christopher Gimson (1886–1975), Engli ...

at Pinbury Park and Rodmarton Manor, near Sapperton, and

Bedales School Bedales School is a co-educational, boarding and day independent school in the village of Steep, near the market town of Petersfield in Hampshire, England. It was founded in 1893 by John Haden Badley in reaction to the limitations of conven ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

. Long Copse (1897), at Ewhurst, was much praised by contemporaries; it was described by the painter

G.F. Watts George Frederic Watts (23 February 1817, in London – 1 July 1904) was a British painter and sculptor associated with the Symbolism (arts), Symbolist movement. He said "I paint ideas, not things." Watts became famous in his lifetime for hi ...

as the most beautiful house in

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

. His architectural work is described in Michael Drury's book, ''Wandering Architects: In Pursuit of an Arts and Crafts Ideal''. He built a summer home and pottery studio in Tarlton (). Now called Studio Cottage, it is a Grade II listed (2010) timber-framed house, with large grounds and a semi-circular

ha-ha A ha-ha (french: hâ-hâ or ), also known as a sunk fence, blind fence, ditch and fence, deer wall, or foss, is a recessed landscape design element that creates a vertical barrier (particularly on one side) while preserving an uninterrupted view ...

separating it from the surrounding land of the

Rodmarton Rodmarton is a village and civil parish in Gloucestershire. History Evidence of a Roman settlement has been found at Rodmarton. Through the parish runs a Roman trackway from Cirencester and Chavenage Green, adjacent to which is a long barrow ...

estate. It is in a poor state of repair. It has many

Arts and Crafts A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

features and original fittings, including some Gimson works. The pottery studio is a long thatched roofed building used by the Powells in their pottery design business, and to train local workers for

. Alfred Powell edited the memorial volume to his friend Ernest Gimson, ''Ernest Gimson: his life and work'' (1924), with contributions by

William Richard Lethaby William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

and F.L. Griggs.

Literature and Sources

*''Good Workmanship with Happy Thought: The Work of Alfred and Louise Powell'', Exhibition Catalogue, 1992 * *Jacqueline Sarsby, (1997), 'Alfred Powell: Idealism and Realism in the Cotswolds', ''Journal of Design History'', vol. 10, No. 4, ''Craft, Culture and Identity'', pp. 375–397

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Powell, Alfred Hoare Arts and Crafts architects 1865 births 1960 deaths Arts and Crafts movement artists Architects from Berkshire People from Reading, Berkshire Guild of St George