Thomas Earp (1828–1893) was a British sculptor and architectural carver who was active in the late 19th century. His best known work is his 1863 reproduction of the
Eleanor Cross which stands at
Charing Cross in London. He specialised in sculpture for
Gothic Revival churches and worked closely with the architect
George Edmund Street
George Edmund Street (20 June 1824 – 18 December 1881), also known as G. E. Street, was an English architect, born at Woodford in Essex. Stylistically, Street was a leading practitioner of the Victorian Gothic Revival. Though mainly an eccl ...
in the 1860s and 1870s.
Early life and career
Earp was born in
Nottingham
Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...
, England. He studied at the
Nottingham School of Art and Design and after completing his studies in the early 1850s went to work for the building contractor
George Myers (who himself worked extensively for
Pugin) in London.
Around 1851 Earp founded his own architectural sculpture practice. By 1864 he was established at 1 Kennington Road, Lambeth, and employed 24 people. One of his projects, a marble and alabaster
reredos,
pulpit and
baptismal font for the
Church of St John the Baptist, Huntley, was particularly acclaimed and was exhibited at the
Great Exhibition of 1862.
[
]
Earp and Hobbs Ltd
Earp's practice expanded in 1864 when he went into partnership with another sculptor, Edwin Hobbs Senior (c.1841-1904). Together they opened premises in Chorlton-upon-Medlock
Chorlton-on-Medlock or Chorlton-upon-Medlock is an inner city area of Manchester, England.
Historically in Lancashire, Chorlton-on-Medlock is bordered to the north by the River Medlock, which runs immediately south of Manchester city centre. I ...
, Manchester on Lower Mosley Street, later moving to premises in Moss Side
Moss Side is an inner-city area of Manchester, England, south of the city centre, It had a population of 20,745 at the 2021 census. Moss Side is bounded by Hulme to the north, Chorlton-on-Medlock, Rusholme and Fallowfield to the east, W ...
. While Hobbs was based in Manchester, Earp worked from the London office at 32 Canterbury Place, Lambeth Walk. In the late 1880s the business was renamed Earp, Son and Hobbs, and by 1900 it was trading as Earp and Hobbs Ltd. Thomas Earp's son, Edgar Earp worked in the practice along with Edwin Hobbs Junior.
Works
Works include:
* Carving at Shadwell Court, Brettenham, Norfolk for Samuel Sanders Teulon
Samuel Sanders Teulon (2 March 1812 – 2 May 1873) was an English Gothic Revival architect, noted for his use of polychrome brickwork and the complex planning of his buildings.
Family
Teulon was born in 1812 in Greenwich, Kent, the son of a ...
(1865-60) Although Historic England
Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked w ...
records Teulon's carver as "unknown", Mark Girouard suggests Earp, and is followed in this by Pevsner Pevsner or Pevzner is a Jewish surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Aihud Pevsner (1925–2018), American physicist
* Antoine Pevsner (1886–1962), Russian sculptor, brother of Naum Gabo
* David Pevsner, American actor, singer, da ...
.
*carved pulpit, Church of St James the Less, Pimlico, London (1862)
*reredos at St Mary Magdalene, Paddington
*reredos at St Peter, Kirkgate, Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...
*Horton family mausoleum, All Saints' churchyard, Middleton Cheney, Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by
two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...
( William Wilkinson, 1866–67)
*architectural detail, St. James's Church, Milnrow
Milnrow is a suburban town within the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on the River Beal at the foothills of the South Pennines, and forms a continuous urban area with Rochdale. It is east of Rochdale to ...
, Lancashire (GE Street, 1868–69)
* City Police Courts, Manchester, (Thomas Worthington Thomas or Tom Worthington may refer to:
*Thomas Worthington (Douai) (1549–1627), English Catholic priest and third President of Douai College
* Thomas Worthington (Dominican) (1671–1754), English Dominican friar and writer
* Thomas Worthington ...
, 1867–73);
*Annunciation group, Cathedral Church of St Marie, Sheffield
The Cathedral Church of St Marie is the Roman Catholic cathedral in Sheffield, England. It lies in a slightly hidden location, just off Fargate shopping street, but signals its presence with a tall spire. It is an especially fine example of an E ...
(1879)
*reredos,Cathedral Church of St Andrew, Sydney (1886)
*the baptismal font in Rochester Cathedral
Rochester Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an English church of Norman architecture in Rochester, Medway, Rochester, Kent.
The church is the cathedral of the Diocese of Rochester in the Church o ...
(1893)
*the baptismal font in St Mary's Church, Portsea
St Mary's Church is the main Church of England parish church for the areas of Portsea and Fratton, both located in the city of Portsmouth, Hampshire. Standing on the oldest church site on Portsea Island, the present building, amongst the largest ...
(1889)
* Reredos, St James's Episcopal Church, Leith
Leith (; gd, Lìte) is a port area in the north of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith. In 2021, it was ranked by ''Time Out'' as one of the top five neighbourhoods to live in the world.
The earliest ...
(1862–65)
*the Eleanor Cross, Charing Cross, London (1863)
*Reredos in the Lady Chapel, St Margaret's Convent of the Ursulines of Jesus, The Grange, Edinburgh (1877)
*architectural detail, St Silas's Church, Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
(John Honeyman
John Honeyman (1729August 18, 1822) was an American spy and British informant for George Washington, primarily responsible for spreading disinformation and gathering the intelligence crucial to Washington's victory in the Battle of Trenton.
...
, 1864)
*Crucifixion Scene above the altar, Church of St Thomas à Becket in South Cadbury
South Cadbury is a village in the civil parish of South Cadbury and Sutton Montis, in the South Somerset council area of the English county of Somerset. The parish includes the village of Sutton Montis.
It is famous as the location of the hill fo ...
(1870)
* St John the Divine, Kennington, London
*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 eccen ...
*St Leonard's Church, Bridgnorth
St Leonard's Church is a redundant Anglican church in Bridgnorth, Shropshire, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building, and is under the care of the Churches Conservation T ...
*St Jude's Church, Kensington
St Jude's Church, Courtfield Gardens, Kensington, London, was designed by architects George Godwin and Henry Godwin, and built between 1867–70; the tower and spire were constructed in 1879. It was built on the northern portion of Captain Rober ...
, London
*pulpit, St Michael and All Angels Church, Hughenden, Buckinghamshire
*pulpit, Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin
Christ Church Cathedral, more formally The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, is the cathedral of the United Dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough and the cathedral of the ecclesiastical province of the United Provinces of Dublin and Cashel in the ( ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Earp, Thomas
1828 births
1893 deaths
19th-century British sculptors
Artists from Nottingham
British architectural sculptors
English sculptors
English male sculptors
Monumental masons