John Berry Clacy (1810–80) was a Victorian architect whose practice was centred on

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

and

Wokingham Wokingham is a market town in Berkshire, England, west of London, southeast of Reading, north of Camberley and west of Bracknell. History Wokingham means 'Wocca's people's home'. Wocca was apparently a Saxon chieftain who may als ...

in the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

county of

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

Family

John's paternal grandfather and his ancestors were long resident around

Barkham Barkham is a village and civil parish in the borough of Wokingham in Berkshire, England, located around southwest of the town of Wokingham. Geography The old part of Barkham is the small settlement by the parish church and is close to Barkham ...

. John was brother-in-law of the Australian travel writer, Ellen Clacy.

Career

Most of Clacy's significant works are

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

buildings, but the Corn Exchange in Reading that he designed with F. Hawkes is in a style that

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...

described as ''"free, debased

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

"''.Pevsner, 1966, page 204 Clacy's son had joined him in his practice by 1862.Pevsner, 1966, page 75 In 1868 Clacy and Son's practice was recorded as being in

Work

*St. Mary's parish church,

Burghfield Burghfield is a village and large civil parish in West Berkshire, England, with a boundary with Reading. Burghfield can trace its history back to before the Domesday book, and was once home to three manors: Burghfield Regis, Burghfield Abbas a ...

, Berkshire, 1843 *King Alfred's Grammar School,

Wantage Wantage () is a historic market town and civil parish in Oxfordshire, England. Although within the boundaries of the historic county of Berkshire, it has been administered as part of the Vale of White Horse district of Oxfordshire since 1974. T ...

, Berkshire (now

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

), 1849–50 * Corn Exchange, Reading, 1854 (with F. Hawkes) *St. Helen's parish church,

Dry Sandford Dry Sandford is a village in the Vale of White Horse district of England, about north-west of Abingdon. It is one of two villages in the civil parish of St Helen Without. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred ...

, Oxfordshire, 1855 *Holy Trinity and All Saints parish church,

Hawley, Hampshire Hawley is a small village in the Hart district of northeastern Hampshire, England. The village is contiguous with the small town of Blackwater. It is on the western edge of the Blackwater Valley conurbation, about northwest of central Farnbor ...

: extensions, 1857 *St. Andrew's parish church,

South Stoke, Oxfordshire South Stoke is a village and civil parish on an east bank of the Thames, about north of Goring-on-Thames in South Oxfordshire. It includes less than to its north the hamlet and manor house of Littlestoke (a.k.a. Stoke Marmion). Manor In 975 ...

: restoration and extensions, 1857Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, page 773 *St. James' parish church,

, Berkshire, 1860–62 (with his son)

References

Sources

* * * * 1810 births 1880 deaths People from Reading, Berkshire 19th-century English architects Gothic Revival architects English ecclesiastical architects Architects from Berkshire {{UK-architect-stub