Eric Francis (architect)

Eric Carwardine Francis (30 August 1887 – 26 January 1976)[1] was a British architect and painter who designed a number of notable buildings, particularly in Monmouthshire, Gloucestershire and Somerset, in the early and mid-twentieth century, many in the Arts and Crafts style.

Eric Carwardine Francis
Born30 August 1887
Chepstow, Monmouthshire, Wales
Died26 January 1976
West Monkton, Somerset, England
NationalityBritish
OccupationArchitect

Life and career

He was the son of George Carwardine Francis, a solicitor of Chepstow.[lower-alpha 1] He was articled in 1909 as an architect under Sir Guy Dawber, before becoming an assistant to another leading member of the profession, Detmar Blow.[3]

He then began working with the writer and architectural historian Henry Avray Tipping.[lower-alpha 2] Inheriting a family fortune in 1911, Tipping then bought land at Mounton near Chepstow on which he built a new home. While Tipping described himself as the designer of Mounton House, Francis was responsible for its details and materials.[7] He also worked with Tipping on houses for the Rhiwbina Garden Village estate in the suburbs of Cardiff.[lower-alpha 3][9] Francis subsequently undertook reconstruction work at Pencoed Castle for Lord Rhondda and built a new house on the site for Lady Rhondda after her husband’s death.[10]

In 1921, Francis designed the "unusual, neo-Baroque"[11] War Memorial in Beaufort Square at Chepstow, unveiled in January 1922. In the same year, he began work for another private client in the area, Charles Clay, of the family that owned the nearby Piercefield estate. For Clay, Francis built Wyndcliffe Court at St Arvans, a large house completed in 1922. The architectural historian John Newman describes Wyndcliffe as in the "Cotswold Tudor style, relaxed and sophisticated".[12] In 1922/23 he undertook work at Chepstow Castle for its owner, W. R. Lysaght, including refacing some of the walls in red sandstone.[13] He also worked again with Avray Tipping on the design and construction of Tipping's retirement home, High Glanau near Trellech. The house is built in the Arts and Crafts style, and sits in formal gardens.[14] In 1925, Francis designed and built his own house, East Cliff, situated above the River Wye at Tutshill near Chepstow.[15][lower-alpha 4]

In 1926 Francis married Lady Elizabeth Annesley, a cousin of Earl Annesley.[17] Thereafter, he moved to Somerset, and joined H.S.W. Stone in the Taunton architectural practice of Stone and Lloyd, later known as Stone and Partners.[18][19] Among the houses he built in Somerset was his own, Long Meadow at West Monkton, started in 1929.[9] He was later responsible for much restoration work, and for the design of the Roman Catholic Church of St Teresa of Lisieux in Taunton, his only church building.[18] Completed in 1959, the church is described as "airy, light and beautiful, fitting happily into the modern housing around it".[20]

Francis was an accomplished hockey player, participating in the Wales international game against Ireland in 1920.[9] He became a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1923. He was also a member of the Society of Antiquaries.[18] He died in West Monkton, Somerset, in 1976 at the age of 88.

Notes
  1. George Francis bought the Mathern Palace estate in 1889 and sold it to Henry Avray Tipping in 1894.[2]
  2. Cadw records Francis' first work for Tipping being at Mathern Palace. [4] However, Francis was a child when Tipping restored the house in the 1890s. Neither John Newman, in his Monmouthshire/Gwent volume of the Pevsner Buildings of Wales,[5] nor Helena Gerrish, in her life of Tipping, Edwardian Country Life: The Story of H. Avray Tipping, record Francis as being involved at Mathern.[6]
  3. Newman, in his Glamorgan volume of the Pevsner Buildings of Wales, records the attribution to Tipping but notes "probably ghosted by Eric Francis".[8]
  4. As at Autumn 2022, East Cliff is for sale.[16]

References
  1. Eric Carwardine Francis at archINFORM. Retrieved 24 April 2012.
  2. Bradney, Joseph Alfred (1994) [1929]. The Hundred of Caldicot, first part. Cardiff, Wales: Merton Priory Press. p. 64. ISBN 978-1-873-36116-0.
  3. Gerrish, Helena (2011). Edwardian Country Life: The Story of H. Avray Tipping. Francis Lincoln. p. 101. ISBN 978-0-7112-3223-5.
  4. Cadw. "Mathern Palace (Grade I) (2007)". National Historic Assets of Wales. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  5. Newman 2000, pp. 384–386.
  6. Gerrish, Helena (2011). Edwardian Country Life: The Story of H. Avray Tipping. Francis Lincoln. pp. 84–101. ISBN 978-0-7112-3223-5.
  7. Newman, John (2000). The Buildings of Wales: Gwent/Monmouthshire. Penguin Books. pp. 67–68. ISBN 0-14-071053-1.
  8. Newman, John (1995). Glamorgan. The Buildings of Wales. Penguin Books. p. 296. ISBN 0-14-071056-6.
  9. Gerrish, Helena (2011). Edwardian Country Life: The Story of H. Avray Tipping. Frances Lincoln Ltd. pp. 101, 126. ISBN 978-0-7112-3223-5.
  10. "Pencoed Castle (543)". Coflein. RCAHMW. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  11. Newman 2000, p.187
  12. Newman 2000, p.520
  13. Rick Turner and Andy Johnson (eds.), Chepstow Castle - its history and buildings, 2006, p.265, ISBN 1-904396-52-6
  14. Newman 2000, p.208
  15. David Verey, Alan Brooks, The Buildings of England: Gloucestershire: The Vale and the Forest of Dean, Yale University Press, 2002, ISBN 0300097336, p.121
  16. "East Cliff, Tutshill". Rightmove. Retrieved 26 September 2022.
  17. Earldom of Annesley Archived 24 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Accessed 24 April 2012
  18. RIBA Journal, vol.83, 1976
  19. Stone & Partners, Taunton. Accessed 25 April 2012
  20. Taunton Catholic Church: St. Teresa of Lisieux
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