Edward Haycock Snr

Edward Haycock Sr. (29 July 1790 – 20 December 1870) was an English architect working in the West Midlands and in central and southern Wales in the late Georgian and early Victorian periods.

Biography

Haycock was the grandson of William Haycock (1725–1802) of Shrewsbury and the son of John Hiram Haycock (1759–1830), who were architects and building contractors. Haycock joined the family business after 1810 and took control of it after his father's death in 1830. He stopped working as a building contractor around 1845 and was joined by his son Edward Haycock Junior (1829/30-1882), who continued the architectural practice until about 1880. He married Mary Hatton on 13 February 1827 at St Sepulchre-without-Newgate, London. By her he had three sons and four daughters.Leach, Peter. 'Haycock, Edward (bap. 1790, d. 1870)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004

Haycock also played an active part in the political life of Shrewsbury as a Conservative: he sat on the council for thirty-four years, rose to become an alderman, and served as mayor in 1842.Hobbs J L. 'The Haycocks', Shropshire Magazine, 11 (Feb 1960), 17–18 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.Haycock Way
at Shrewsbury Local History website. Retrieved 9 January 2020. The page includes a photograph of Edward Sr.

Architectural career

Haycock received professional training 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 a member of a group of architects which included 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, (a suburb of Whitchurch, Shropshire) 1836–7, which has an impressive Grecian revival facade.

Town of Aberaeron

Aberaeron was founded by the 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 (1833–35), 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

*Shrewsbury 1814–16: Lord Hill's Column at Shrewsbury (assisted by Thomas Harrison of Chester"Colvin" 3rd edition, 479
*Shrewsbury, The Butter Market, Pride Hill, 1819–20, demolished 1830 – New Butter Market
*Dolgellau, Merionethshire, The County Hall, 1823-5
*Coed-Cwnwr Almshouses, Monmouthshire, 1825
*Shire Hall, Presteigne 1826-9
*Shrewsbury, The Salop Infirmary, rebuild 1827–30
*Monmouth, Shire Hall extension, c. 1830
* Old Town Hall, Ellesmere, 1833
*Cardiff, The Market
*Neath Market, 1835-6
*Shrewsbury Savings Bank
*Shrewsbury The Music Hall, 1839–40
*Wrockwardine Almshouses
*Dowlais Market Hall
*Llandovery National School
*Llandeilo Bridge, 1848
*Shrewsbury Lancastrian School
*Shrewsbury St Chad's School, 1859
* Shropshire County Lunatic Asylum alterations"Colvin" 3rd edition, 480

A newspaper obituary states Haycock also "obtained first prizes for plans for the Birmingham and New Orleans Infirmaries"The latter being Touro Infirmary, founded 1852. but these are not mentioned by Colvin.

Churches

Shropshire
*Shrewsbury St George, Frankwell 1829–32
* Tilstock 1835
* Whitchurch, St Catherine, Doddington. 1836-7
*Cruckton 1840
*Cressage 1841
*Cound 1842-3
*Bayston Hill 1843
*Clun Chapel Lawn 1843
*Hope 1843
* Middleton-in-Chirbury 1843
* Dorrington 1843-5
*Newcastle 1848
*Church Pulverbatch

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