Johanna Roethe, ‘William Ranger and his artificial stone at Ickworth’,The Georgian Group Journal, Vol. xxI, 2013, pp. 181–196
text © the authors 2013 WILLIAM RANGER AND HIS ARTIFICIAL STONE AT ICKWORTH
JOHANNA ROETHE
William Ranger, a prominent builder from Brighton, The first half of this article attempts to set is best known for his patent ‘artificial stone’, a type of Ranger’s work in context, while the second half lime-concrete which was used by architects such as Sir focuses on his works at Ickworth and Suffolk. Charles Barry and George Ledwell Taylor. However, its success was cut short when doubts were cast on its structural performance. Ranger’s alterations and additions to Ickworth Church and House for the first WILLIAM RANGER AT BRIGHTON Marquess of Bristol led to his working as architect for Ranger probably trained with his father, Richard two churches in Suffolk. This article situates Ranger’s Ranger ( – ), a surveyor and builder who work at Ickworth in the context of his varied career in briefly was surveyor to the Brighton Town the fields of building contracting, engineering and Commissioners from to . Richard was architecture. originally from Laughton, Sussex, but was living with his family in Ringmer, near Lewes, when illiam Ranger ( – ) had a varied career William was born. By the Ranger family had Win the fields of building contracting, concrete moved to Brighton, in time to benefit from the manufacturing, civil engineering, and architecture. building boom there in the early s. By about He started young in private practice and quickly rose father and son practised as ‘Ranger & son, to become one of the most important builders in builders’. Shortly afterwards, William seems to Brighton. Because of his versatility, his work has been have started his own private practice. In the early covered only in piecemeal fashion in specialist s, he completed drainage and coastal defence literature focusing on the different aspects of his works at Pevensey and Worthing, as well as building career. So far, no comprehensive account of his life the approaches to Brighton’s Royal Suspension and work has been written, and many of his works, Chain Pier ( c. , designed by Samuel Brown: especially those using concrete, remain unidentified demolished). He established himself as one of and underappreciated. Recently one hitherto Brighton’s most important builders by working for unknown work came to light: in the s Ranger the young Charles Barry. Their collaboration started designed and built significant additions and with the construction of St Peter’s church ( –), alterations to Ickworth Church, using his patented which led to several other projects including work to concrete blocks. This provides an important context Grand Parade for Mrs Dulaney ( –) and the for his later works in Suffolk under the patronage of Sussex County Hospital, Brighton ( –). Ranger the first Marquess of Bristol, including Ranger’s more also executed the first section of the Kemp Town famous church, St Mary, Westley, built entirely from esplanade ( – ) to designs by Henry Edward concrete. Kendall, junior; as well as additional buildings and
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XXI WILLIAM RANGER AND HIS ARTIFICIAL STONE AT ICKWORTH lodges for the Royal Pavilion ( –) under Joseph Cooper, with the assistance of the engineer John Henry Good. Wright and the contractor William Lambert. This is Even before the development of his patent lime- generally thought to be the inspiration for Ranger’s concrete, Ranger was an inventor seeking to improve own experiments with lime-concrete. In December on construction processes. In , the Brighton he announced in the local press that his Gazette published a description of his model for a experiments with artificial stone had been perfected novel form of scaffolding for building church towers. and that he planned to use it in his next building Instead of a complete scaffold, only a frame was built project. from which a smaller scaffold could be suspended and Among the first buildings to contain Ranger’s moved up and down as the tower was constructed. artificial stone was the Belvedere Tower (now known But Ranger also worked beyond Brighton. In as the Pepperpot), a dual-purpose structure designed , he made alterations to the church of St James by Barry in as part of a development for Thomas the Less in Lancing, Sussex, and in – he Attree (Fig. ). Built entirely of concrete apart from completed a suspension bridge (designed by William the octagonal pedestal, the tower apparently served Tierney Clark) over the river Adur at New Shoreham, as an engine-house and observatory. Elsewhere in Sussex. In –, Ranger designed and built a new Brighton (now Queen’s) Park – which also included stone bridge over the river Eden at Edenbridge, a villa by Barry – two gateways were built to Barry’s Kent (Fig. ). design using Ranger’s stone, of which the southern one was described by The Architectural Magazine as ‘one of the most beautiful of which the county can boast’. RANGER ’ S ARTIFICIAL STONE In , Ranger constructed a garden wall for But it was Ranger’s development of an artificial stone Lawrence Peel of Kemp Town, Brighton, using two- which started his career on a larger scale. In the foot-long concrete blocks (nine and a half inches by s a section of the sea wall at East Cliff, Brighton, eight inches), ‘formed on the spot’ and of ‘the precise had been built using concrete blocks by Thomas appearance and the durability of Portland stone’.
Fig. . Elevation of the new bridge at Edenbridge, Kent, by William Ranger, . (Kent History & Library Centre, Maidstone, Ch. P/)
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The wall reportedly attracted the interest of ‘several eminent architects from London’. Ranger registered a patent for his ‘artificial stone’ on December . According to the patent specification, the composition consisted of aggregates such as ‘river or sea sand, skreened [ sic ] shingle [...] or broken flints, freestone, copper slag’, powdered lime (‘stone lime as contains a portion of iron’, such as Dorking or Reigate stone, greystone, blue or yellow lias) and heated or boiled water. The proportions were thirty pounds of aggregates, three pounds of lime, and one pound and twelve ounces of water. The hot mixture was poured into a mould from which it could be removed after about ten minutes. After a fortnight of drying and hardening, the blocks were ready to use. While the patent was illustrated with a diagram depicting a simple rectangular mould, Ranger emphasised that ‘the moulds will of course vary in their forms and manner of framing them according to the shapes intended to be given to the masses or blocks of artificial stone; as, for instance whether they are to be plain or moulded in flutings or otherwise ornamented or decorated, or whether to be square, circular, or of any other shapes’. Exactly two years later, Ranger registered Fig. . Photo of the Pepperpot, Brighton. another patent which improved on the (Photo: author, ) specification, drawing on his experience and better understanding of the chemical processes and century, when concrete increasingly came to be used qualities of the materials involved. Notably, in in architecture, both for foundations and above- addition to the hot water he recommended heating ground structures. Previously, concrete had been the aggregate as well, because ‘the said crystallizing used predominantly in small-scale underwater or concreting action is very materially expedited’. engineering works in both France and Britain. Furthermore, the lime used should be in its most Increasingly, however, it came to be used for non- caustic state. The other improvements concerned the engineering structures and general building, design and construction of the mould, which now ornamental use, as stucco render, and in also had a top, secured firmly with screws and superstructures. One of the most widely used weighed down. The illustrations of the patent not mixtures was James Parker’s ‘Roman cement’ or only depicted the improved design of a plain box stucco, a ‘natural’ cement made from powdered mould but also showed a mould for the capital of a stones from the Isle of Sheppey. When Parker’s fluted Doric column. patent of lapsed in , rival processes quickly Ranger’s artificial stone was part of a general multiplied. This was followed by attempts to find ‘concrete renaissance’ in the early nineteenth alternative artificial mixtures, so-called ‘artificial
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XXI WILLIAM RANGER AND HIS ARTIFICIAL STONE AT ICKWORTH stones’, which were mostly lime-concretes rather early s with a chance encounter with George than the later cement-concretes. The most significant Ledwell Taylor ( – ). Taylor, civil architect to invention was Joseph Aspdin’s ‘Portland cement’ the Naval Works department ( – ), recounted (patented in ), which was initially promoted as the anecdote later in his autobiography. He was on stucco but later became the basis of most modern his way to consult the contractor Samuel Baker cement and concrete mixes. Ranger’s product about repairs to Deptford Dockyard. At Stangate, achieved a certain measure of success and publicity, Taylor met Charles Barry and Ranger, notably by its application in works by Barry and ‘… examining what appeared to me to be a large block George Ledwell Taylor, and published reviews of Portland stone, carved and moulded into a noble repeatedly emphasised its suitability as a cheap Corinthian cornice. I ran up to say “How do you do?” substitute for stone. An article in The Architectural &c., and remarked “What a fine block of stone you Magazine even hailed it as a ‘truly national have there!” at which they both laughed. Mr Barry invention’. However, the era of abundant inventions said “Let me introduce to you Mr Ranger; this block of stone as you think it, is composed of his patent and patents came to an end in when Colonel concrete”.’ (later Sir) Charles William Pasley ( – ) published the first edition of his Observations on After learning of the composition and properties of Limes, Calcareous Cements, Mortars, Stuccos and Ranger’s artificial stone, Taylor recommended its use Concrete . Pasley was the founder of the Royal at Deptford to the Navy Board. This also led to Engineers Establishment school at Chatham, where Ranger’s use of his concrete, under Taylor’s direction, he systematically tested a range of concrete mixes, for the underpinning of a storehouse at Chatham including Ranger’s, for their suitability for Dockyard, the rebuilding of a section of the river wall engineering works. His book strongly advised at Woolwich and the building of a dry dock at against the use of concrete in superstructures – a Woolwich Dockyard (all ). Initially hailed as view shared by other engineers and architects – and pioneering applications of a money-saving material, led to a (temporary) loss in confidence in the new all three projects developed problems: the Chatham material and consequently a sharp reduction in the storehouse soon required further underpinning; the British market for cement and concrete products, river wall had to be redesigned by James Walker and, other than for use as small-scale features or after spalling in the winter of , had to be refaced ornaments. in brick; and the dry dock, which had been deepened after construction had started, was destroyed by the ingress of ground water. The Board of Ordnance also showed interest in RANGER IN LONDON the capabilities of Ranger’s artificial stone. In order The building boom in Brighton came to an end in to ascertain its suitability for casemate arches, a the mid- s, causing the exodus of many architects model vault was constructed in February and March and builders. In around William Ranger on the Woolwich Marshes. Ranger constructed moved to London, both to find work and to promote the arch under the superintendence of Lieutenant- his newly patented artificial stone. Initially, he had Colonel Sir George Judd Harding. It had a span of an office in Dean’s Yard, Westminster, and seventeen feet and a rise of nine feet, and contained a manufactured his concrete in Stangate, Lambeth. total of cubic feet of concrete. Despite the fact His career as engineering contractor using his that the arch had already cracked because of patented artificial stone on a larger scale began in the inadequate foundations and although the structure’s
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demonstrated the decorative possibilities of Ranger’s artificial stone. In fact, the Corinthian cornice admired by Taylor at his first meeting with Ranger was destined for this building. And in –, Barry remodelled the façade of the Royal College of Surgeons at Lincoln’s Inn Fields, again using moulded blocks of Ranger’s stone. Despite the problems experienced with the concrete at the dockyards, Taylor continued to work with Ranger and his stone. In , Taylor built the New Proprietary School at Blackheath, Kent, using concrete blocks composed of local gravel. The same year, he proposed using Ranger’s patent stone for the nave columns of Holy Trinity, Sheerness. However, this was rejected by Joseph Henry Good, surveyor to the Commissioners for Building New Churches, on the grounds that ‘although much recommended and getting into general use’ it had not been sufficiently been tested by time; Ranger acted as contractor for the eventually brick-built church. Other architects were also using Ranger’s lime- concrete as demonstrated by Edward Blore’s Fig. . – Pall Mall in . (City of London, London Metropolitan Archives, SC/PHL/ / - ) proposal of to build Holy Trinity church at Barkingside, Essex, using this material. In , Ranger signed four contracts with the core was still soft, the model stood up well under Great Western Railway (GWR), three at the Bristol bombardment and Harding recommended the end of the line and one in the area of Reading. He material’s use for small magazines and casemates was unable to fulfil them, however, partly due to due to its strength and economy. However, there is financial difficulties on his part. In , the GWR no evidence for the implementation of these seized his machinery and tools and decided to re-let recommendations. the contracts. This was followed by a lengthy series Ranger’s other applications of his concrete of court cases, which were only resolved in . during the mid- s included an ‘Early English’ In , Ranger had also taken out a contract with building at Regent’s Park for Sir H. Taylor; the the Bristol & Exeter Railway, from which he was, guardhouses in front of the Wellington Barracks; and by mutual release, relieved a few months later. a section of the Brighton sea wall. His collaboration The beginning of the chancery proceedings with Barry continued in this period and together coincided with the publication of Pasley’s book, in they used Ranger’s concrete for the façade of Nos. which he stated that Ranger’s artificial stone was – Pall Mall, a building with shops on the ground inferior ‘not only to all the natural building stones in floor and living accommodation above ( –: common use in this country but even to sound well- demolished ) (Fig. ). Its classical façade with a burned bricks’. These two events combined to bring rusticated base, heavy cornice and balustrade clearly an end to Ranger’s career in concrete construction.
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WILLIAM RANGER , CIVIL ENGINEER and the operation of the local boards of health. Ranger When Pasley published the results of his tests, he was appointed as one of the five superintending expressed his hope that Ranger’s career as ‘builder inspectors, apparently selected by the Board’s of skill and reputation’ would continue, even if his commissioner Edwin Chadwick ‘by virtue of their career in concrete should end. However, Ranger heterodoxy’. The role of the superintending only continued to work for a few more years as a inspectors included the conducting of detailed building contractor and architect on a much public inquiries before a local board could be set up, diminished scale and was soon looking for alternative and the approving of plans prepared for the local employment. board. If these were found insufficient, a By , he was working as ‘Lecturer on superintending inspector would instead prepare a Architecture and General Construction’ at the suitable design. While this put an enormous College for Civil Engineering at Putney. Two years workload on the shoulders of the superintending later, he published a Syllabus of Lectures on Civil inspectors, it also gave them a monopoly on sanitary Engineering for use by his students. At the same engineering. time, he was also lecturing at the Royal Engineers’ During his time at the General Board of Health, Establishment at Chatham. Ranger thus designed a number of engineering Following this interlude in teaching, Ranger projects as part of his inspector duties, including found employment with the newly formed General waterworks at Croydon ( ), at the neighbouring Board of Health. Established by the Public Health Yorkshire towns of Dewsbury, Heckmondwike and Act of , the Board was to improve the sanitary Batley ( ), and at Shipley in Yorkshire ( ). conditions of towns after various cholera epidemics. In the General Board of Health was abolished The Board supervised the implementation of the Act and replaced by the Local Government Act Office
Fig. . Tithe Map of Ickworth, , showing the location of Ickworth House (in red) and the church. ( Suffolk Record Office, Bury St Edmunds, SRO:B/T /, with kind permission of the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich )
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Ranger’s main centres of activity in the s and s were Sussex, Kent and London. In addition, there is a small group of buildings in Suffolk, in the vicinity of Bury St Edmunds, designed and built by Ranger. His church at Westley has perhaps attracted most notice, as an early surviving example of a building erected entirely in concrete. Until recently, these works appeared isolated in Ranger’s oeuvre , without any indication of how they fitted into his wider career. But recent research has identified his involvement in another church which predates that at Westley and which might have been instrumental in bringing Ranger to Suffolk in the first place. Fig. . Ickworth Church from the southeast in a watercolour of by Thomas Lyus. (Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service ) WILLIAM RANGER AT within the Home Office which administered the ICKWORTH CHURCH local boards. Ranger continued to work there until St Mary’s church originally served the village and shortly before his death. By the time he died, he estate at Ickworth. During the eighteenth and had conducted well over seventy inquiries for the nineteenth centuries, however, it increasingly took on General Board of Health and its successor. the role of family church to the Hervey family, the William Ranger died on September at his earls and (since ) marquesses of Bristol, who house, No. St George’s Square, Pimlico. His had owned the Ickworth estate from the mid- daughter, Mary Ann Scott, administered his effects fifteenth century. The church dates in part from the of under £ . Ranger seems to have had no formal thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, with significant education as a civil engineer and was never a alterations and additions of , the s and member of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Yet, –. Originally situated near the medieval manor he increasingly called himself a civil engineer, taught house and serving a small village, the context of the the subject and practised as such. His obituaries church had changed radically by the early nineteenth focus mainly on the impressive number of inquiries century. The medieval village vanished at some and reports he prepared for the General Board of point, leaving only some farms which were removed Health. His earlier pioneering work with his in the early s, around the time when the rectory patented artificial stone is only mentioned briefly in burnt down and the manor house was demolished. ambiguous terms: while its application in prominent Between and , John Hervey, first Earl of works such as the Royal College of Surgeons and Bristol, turned the agricultural land at Ickworth into Wellington Barracks had stood the test of time, the a landscape park, with the church as a picturesque obituary writers point out that particularly in feature (Fig. ). Very little is known about the ornamental applications its durability was not history and development of the church before the sufficient. Interestingly, the fault of the concrete here eighteenth century and the earliest known depiction is thought to lie in its ornamental, rather than dates from (Fig. ). In , the earliest structural, application, which Pasley had criticised. documented restoration was undertaken by the third
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Fig. (above). Plan of the church after the alterations. (Gage, History and Antiquities, p. , with kind permission of Suffolk Record Office, Bury St Edmunds ) Fig. (left). South aisle with family pew, looking west. (Photo: author, )
Earl. The church was ‘beautified’, the steeple rebuilt, Rev. Lord Arthur Charles Hervey, made further ‘flat marbles’ (i.e. ledger slabs) carved ‘for the most alterations and additions to the church. The upper early ancestors’, and a ‘Family Burying Place built’. stages of the tower were rebuilt (omitting the spire), The latter was a family vault of brick whose west and north porches were added, and a south aisle battlemented entrance abutted the east end of the built which contained the family pew and a small church (Fig. ). This marked the beginning of the vestry, with a brick-built family vault underneath church’s predominant role as a mausoleum for the (Fig. ). The roof may also have been altered or at Hervey family. least repaired. Inside, lath and plaster partitions In the early s, the first Marquess of Bristol, below the west gallery formed a stairwell at the north together with the rector of Ickworth, his fourth son, and a small lobby at the south which led to the stairs
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Fig. . Ickworth Church from the southwest in c.. (Suffolk Record Office, Bury St Edmunds, SRO:B/K /, with kind permission of the Bishop of Bath and Wells )
up to the family pew in the south aisle (Fig. ). A completed by . But works apparently single plaster arch framed the view from the family continued on a smaller scale throughout the s pew into the nave. and early s. According to the churchwardens’ Until now, the architect of the s work has not accounts of – , repairs to the building and its been known, but recent research has shown that windows were carried out almost annually during William Ranger was responsible. Concrete blocks that period. Sums higher than normal were spent on were used in some of the buttresses, the above- work to the windows in (£ s d) and ground portion of the south aisle, and porches at the (£ s d) by the glazier, Mr Frewer. Samuel Fenton west and north. The upper stage of the tower also executed the regular repairs to the church, including has concrete sills. As the work does not appear in the some re-slating in . He was also responsible for churchwardens’ account books for the period, it is ‘coloring [ sic ] the church’ in and whitewashing likely that the first Marquess of Bristol paid for the it in . works as his successor did in –. Unfortunately, Perhaps not surprisingly, none of the early no accounts relating to Ranger’s work at the church nineteenth-century antiquarian accounts comments have been found among his papers. But Ranger’s on the use of the novel artificial stone. In fact, the involvement is confirmed by the fact that he returned first mention of the lime-concrete occurs in Lady a few years later to execute some small repairs. In Bristol’s account of the alterations in –, where July , the churchwardens paid ‘Mr Ranger’ £ s she describes the blocks and render as ‘Brighton d for repairs to the church and £ s d for repairs cement’. The concrete blocks, which have a to the chancel. relatively coarse structure, would certainly have been It is possible that the institution of Rev. Lord rendered in the interior with possibly a thinner Arthur Charles Hervey as Rector in November render on the outside. In a photo of about , the at Ickworth provided an impetus for the works. The concrete blocks of the south aisle and its west lobby major works to the tower and south aisle were are clearly visible (Fig. ). The blocks may have
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XXI WILLIAM RANGER AND HIS ARTIFICIAL STONE AT ICKWORTH been prefabricated in Lambeth and transported to nineteenth-century cement render was removed the Suffolk, though it would have been cheaper to make whole exterior was faced in flint (with the exception the blocks on site, using local materials. Ranger is of the rendered brick tower), hiding again the rubble known to have formed the blocks for the garden wall construction of the medieval walls and the concrete at Kemp Town on site, as had Taylor with the blocks blocks of the south aisle. for the school in Blackheath. Internally, the vestry steps were altered and the One of the most important furnishings in the plaster arch to the south aisle was replaced by a church today is a group of sixteenth- and seventeenth- double stone arch on a cluster pillar (Fig. ). The century stained glass roundels from the Netherlands, partitions under the west gallery were removed and Flanders and Germany. Their provenance is the gallery supported on an iron girder. The east unknown and they are not mentioned in any of the vault was removed and all the burials transferred to antiquarian accounts of the church. Their the south vault, making it the principal family vault installation may relate to the higher expenditure on in the church. the windows in and . When Lady Bristol researched the glass in , Rev. Sydenham Henry Arthur Hervey ( – ), a son of the Right Rev. Lord Arthur Charles Hervey, recalled that it may RANGER AT ICKWORTH HOUSE have been installed by his father’s predecessor, Rev. Shortly after the completion of the main alterations Henry Hasted, who was the incumbent at Ickworth to the church in , Ranger began working at between and . The roundels may have Ickworth House. Between and he been provided by a local connoisseur and collector undertook work to the value of over £ , , mostly such as Colonel Robert Rushbrooke ( – ) alterations to the recently completed wings and who is known to have procured continental corridors, though none of them is known to have European furnishings and stained glass for several included the use of lime-concrete, and the material is churches. There have been attempts to link the not mentioned in the surviving estimates, accounts roundels to Horace Walpole, who famously installed and bills. In the Earl-Bishop had started the historic stained glass at Strawberry Hill. Walpole building of the new mansion, Ickworth House, one was a family friend who, for example, wrote an of England’s most unusual country houses; it was epitaph for Mary Lady Hervey (died ), which is essentially a central rotunda linked to pavilions by inscribed on a large ledger in the church. curved corridors (Fig. ). He had commissioned As part of a comprehensive campaign of designs from Mario Asprucci the Younger, based on restoration and alterations in – by Arthur Ballyscullion, his mansion in Co. Londonderry Conran Blomfield ( – ), some of the s which had been designed by Michael Shanahan work was removed or obscured. Apparently the (begun ). But in the end, Asprucci’s plans were concrete had ‘perished to a depth of a couple of simplified and executed by the architect Francis inches from the surface’ and many concrete details Sandys. The Earl-Bishop planned to use the central were replaced in stone, such as the tops of buttresses Rotunda as his living quarters, with galleries for his and the tower pinnacles. The north porch was art collection in the wings to the east and west. replaced by a new half-timbered one and the west A few years after his death in , building work porch was removed. Ranger’s decayed stone stopped. From , work was resumed by his son, pinnacles on the tower were replaced by newly the fifth Earl (later the first Marquess), initially on the carved ones. Most noticeably, once the late Rotunda – which was now to house the family’s art
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XXI WILLIAM RANGER AND HIS ARTIFICIAL STONE AT ICKWORTH collection, as well as reception rooms – and then on the East Wing, which became the family’s living accommodation. The fifth Earl employed the London builder John Field, who had built the Bristols’ London house at No. St James’s Square in – . At Ickworth, Field acted as supervisory architect executing Sandys’s plans and overseeing several main contractors. The East Wing was built between and , following which work started on the corridors and the West Wing. In , just as the east wing corridor was being completed, Ranger was paid £ , for ‘raising’ the east corridor and creating additional rooms over its entrance, as well as for coal vaults and smaller works. As part of the same programme of works, a section of the north front of the west corridor was also raised. Further work in relation to ‘raising part of the west corridor’ in order to ‘[help] us to form the ground north of [the] portico’ was covered in a separate receipt for £ . Curiously, ten years after the completion of the East Wing, Ranger raised its roof by two feet six inches ( – ). It is possible that several drawings by Ranger of showing details of columns on a first-floor landing relate to this piece of work as well. Smaller jobs by Ranger at Ickworth include the building of two new waterclosets at the west side of the Rotunda Fig. . Westley church with its original spire in c. . ( –), the construction of stables, a summerhouse (Suffolk Record Office, Bury St Edmunds, and alterations to the Flower Garden wall ( ). SRO:B/ K / /)
emphasis which was lost when it was replaced by a pyramidal roof in about . The Marquess of LORD BRISTOL ’ S PATRONAGE Bristol gave the land for the new church, as well as While the works at Ickworth continued, Ranger was £ towards its construction, by far the largest commissioned to construct a new church at nearby donation. It is likely that he also suggested William Westley ( –), replacing a medieval church on a Ranger as architect. new site (Fig. ). St Mary’s church, Westley, and the The Marquess’s involvement in the founding of contemporary Protestant church at Corbarieu, another church seems to have provided Ranger with France, ( ) by F.-M. Lebrun, are the earliest his last known commission in private practice, again surviving European churches built with concrete acting as the architect. Ranger won a competition to walls. The spire at Westley, with its flying design the church of St John in Bury St Edmunds, buttresses, gave the church a strong vertical beating Mr Thomas and Mr Kendall into second and
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Fig. . St John’s church, Bury St Edmunds, with the former school in the foreground (later extended). The original spire was replaced in after the previous one had been struck by lightning. (Photo: author, ) third place respectively. St John’s church was built CONCLUSION in –, using white Woolpit bricks (Fig. ). William Ranger career was highly versatile, which The Marquess gave £ as well as an endowment of may explain why so little is known about him. His £ per annum, while the Marchioness donated the oeuvre included contracts for the Naval Works communion plate. In , Ranger also designed Department, for Sir Charles Barry, public health and built the adjoining infant school (now the hall). inquiries and engineering works for the Board of It seems likely that Ranger came to the Health and its local boards. To these three main Marquess’s attention in Brighton, where Lord groups can now be added a number of buildings in Bristol was a major landowner and benefactor to Suffolk which were erected or altered by Ranger charitable projects. Ranger visited the Marquess in under the patronage of the first Marquess of Bristol. Brighton in in order to discuss the construction Although Lord Bristol employed numerous of stables at Ickworth. Neither Ranger nor his architects and builders on his various building father, however, seem to have been involved in any of projects in Brighton, London and Suffolk, he clearly the Marquess’s building projects at Brighton. appreciated Ranger’s design and engineering skills
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XXI WILLIAM RANGER AND HIS ARTIFICIAL STONE AT ICKWORTH and put him forward for local church projects, ESRO, parish records for Laughton, Westham, following his work at Ickworth Church and House. Ringmer, and St Nicholas, Brighton. More research remains to be done to discover and T.H. Boore, Brighton Annual Directory and Fashionable Guide (Brighton, ). identify further works by Ranger, which will add to Metropolitan Sanitary Commission, First Report: our knowledge of the use of his artificial stone and Minutes of Evidence Taken Before the Commissioners Ranger’s place in the history of early nineteenth- [...] (London, ), p. ; M. Chrimes, ‘Ranger, century construction and architecture. William’ in A.W. Skempton et al. (eds.), A Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers in Great Britain and Ireland: vol. , – (London, ), pp. –. A. Saint, Architect and Engineer: A Study in Sibling ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Rivalry (New Haven and London, ), p. , I would like to thank Sue Berry, Neil Burton, note ; N. Tyson, ‘Ranger’s Artificial Stone’, The Andrew Derrick, Frank Kelsall and Andrew Saint Georgian , ( ), p. ; S. Berry, ‘The Construction with whom I discussed aspects of Ranger’s work. of St Peter’s Church, Brighton, c. – ’, Sussex Archaeological Collections , ( ); ESRO, This article is based on research for a Conservation AMS / –, AMS / –, AMS / , Management Plan (CMP) for Ickworth Church. The AMS / – ; H. Gaston, Brighton’s County help and assistance of the following people in the Hospital, – (Newhaven, East Sussex, preparation of the CMP are gratefully acknowledged: ), p. . Lord Bristol, Karen Knight, Anna Forrest, Kate Yates, A. Dale, Fashionable Brighton, – (London, Henry Freeland and Anne Griffiths. While every nd edition , reprinted ), pp. –; H.D. Roberts, A History of the Royal Pavilion, Brighton effort has been made to obtain permission from the (London, ), pp. –. copyright holders of the illustrations, it has not been Brighton Gazette , January , p. . possible to trace the copyright holder of Fig. . Chrimes, ‘Ranger’, in Skempton et al. (eds.), Biographical Dictionary , pp. –; D. Smith, ‘Clark, William Tierney’, in Skempton et al. (eds.), Biographical Dictionary , p. . NOTES Kent History & Library Centre, Ch. /P /–; Research into the family history of William Ranger R. Knight, ‘The Great Stone Bridge’ in Aspects of has shown that Howard Colvin erroneously Edenbridge , (n.d.), pp. –; H.L. Somers-Cocks deduced from a subscription list in Horsfield’s and V.F. Boyson, Edenbridge (Edenbridge, ), History of Sussex ( ) that William was the son of pp. –. William Ranger senior. Richard’s second son was J.M. Crook, ‘Sir Robert Smirke: a pioneer of George Thomas Ranger (baptised ) who later concrete construction’, in F. Newby (ed.), Early worked in Brighton as builder and coal merchant. Reinforced Concrete (Studies in the History of Civil In , William nominated Richard and George as Engineering, vol. ) (Aldershot, ), p. ; sureties for his contracts with the Great Western Chrimes, ‘Ranger, William’, in Skempton et al. Railway: H. Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of (eds.), Biographical Dictionary , p. . British Architects, – (New Haven and Brighton Gazette , December , p. . London, ), p. ; East Sussex Record Office The Architectural Magazine , (February ), p. . (ESRO), East Sussex Baptismal Index and parish Brighton Gazette , October , p. ; G.L. records for St Nicholas, Brighton; A. Dale, Brighton Symes, ‘On the Uses of Concrete applied as Town and Brighton People (London and Chichester, Artificial Stone’, The Architectural Magazine , ), pp. , ; Brighton street directories, (February ), p. . – ; The National Archives (TNA), British Library, patent number . RAIL / , RAIL / . British Library, patent number .
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XXI WILLIAM RANGER AND HIS ARTIFICIAL STONE AT ICKWORTH
C. Manners, ‘Queries and Answers’, The The Civil Engineer and Architect’s Journal , Architectural Magazine , (December ), p. . (October ), p. ; obituary, The Builder , C.W. Pasley, Observations on Limes, Calcareous ( September ), p. . Cements, Mortars, Stuccos and Concrete [...] Taylor, Autobiography , p. . (London, ), p. ; Saint, Architect and Good as quoted in M.H. Port, New Churches Engineer , pp. – ; J. Summerson, Architecture in (Reading, ), pp. , , . Britain, – (th ed., New Haven and London, The proposal was rejected by the Incorporated ), p. ; P. Collins, Concrete: The Vision of a Church Building Society because the walls were too New Architecture (London & Montreal, , nd thin and the roof objectionable. Port, New edition), pp. –; J. Weiler, ‘Army Architects: The Churches , p. . Royal Engineers and the development of building Chrimes, ‘Ranger’, in Skempton et al. (eds.), technology in the nineteenth century’ (PhD Biographical Dictionary , p. ; The Civil Engineer Dissertation, University of York, ), pp. – . and Architect’s Journal , ( ), pp. –; TNA, S. Berry, ‘Thomas Read Kemp and the Shaping of RAIL / , RAIL / , RAIL / –, Regency Brighton, c. – ’, Georgian Group C / /, C / /, C / /, C / / , Journal , ( ), pp. , –. C / / . According to the Brighton poll books, he retained TNA, RAIL / – . freehold property in Brighton until at least . Pasley, Observations on Limes , p. . Suffolk Record Office, Bury St Edmunds (SROB), Eight years after condemning the use of concrete in / / , / / . the Woolwich river wall, Lieutenant (later Sir) Baker was Robert Smirke’s preferred contractor and William Thomas Denison changed his opinion. In had worked with him on the concrete foundations , he testified to a government commission that of the Millbank Penitentiary in –. Crook, ‘Sir the refacing of the wall may have been premature as Robert Smirke’, pp. , ; Saint, Architect and the concrete blocks had recently been tested and Engineer , p. . found sound. Sadly, it did not repair the reputation G.L. Taylor, The Autobiography of an Octogenarian of Ranger’s artificial stone. Weiler, ‘Army Architects’, Architect (London, ), , p. . p. . Weiler, ‘Army Architects’, p. ; Symes, ‘On the Pasley, Observations on Limes , p. , footnote. Uses of Concrete’, Architectural Magazine , Founded in , the Putney College was one of the (February ), pp. –; P. Guillery (ed.), Survey few teaching establishments for engineering not of London, vol. : Woolwich (New Haven and based at a university. However, it was not a financial London, ), p. ; Taylor, Autobiography , success and closed in : College for Civil pp. – , . Engineers and of General Practical and Scientific Guillery (ed.), Survey of London, vol. : Woolwich , Education. Putney, Surrey (London, ), pp. , p. ; Chrimes, ‘Ranger, William’, in Skempton et –; D. Smith (ed.), London and the Thames Valley al. (eds.), Biographical Dictionary , p. . (Civil Engineering Heritage) (London, ), Weiler, ‘Army Architects’, pp. ‒; J. Weiler, p. ; A.M. Muir Wood, Civil Engineering in ‘Chapter : Military’, in J. Sutherland, D. Humm Context (London, ), p. . and M. Chrimes (eds.), Historic Concrete: W. Ranger, Syllabus of Lectures on Civil Engineering background to appraisal (London, ), pp. –. for the Use of the Students at Putney College The Architectural Magazine , (December ), (London, ). p. ; obituary, Gentleman’s Magazine , Metropolitan Sanitary Commission, First Report: (December ), p. ; Crook, ‘Sir Robert Minutes , p. . Smirke’, p. , note ; Atchley’s Price Book for Ranger may have come to Chadwick’s notice the Architects, Engineers, Contractors, Builders &c. year before when he gave evidence to the (London, ), p. . Metropolitan Sanitary Commission, of which F.H.W. Sheppard (ed.), Survey of London, vol. : Chadwick was a member: S.E. Finer, The Life and The Parish of St James, Westminster, part : South Times of Sir Edwin Chadwick (London, ), quoted of Piccadilly (London, ), p. ; Taylor, in D. Burfield, Edward Cresy, – : Architect Autobiography , p. . and Civil Engineer (Donington, ), p. .
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XXI WILLIAM RANGER AND HIS ARTIFICIAL STONE AT ICKWORTH
Burfield, Cresy , pp. –. An investigation of the roof prior to its complete The Builder , ( December ), p. ; replacement in – showed that it had been ( January ), p. ; West Yorkshire Archive repaired using deal, possibly in the s. Lady A.F. Service, QE // /, QE // /. Bristol, ‘An Account of the Restoration of Ickworth Kelly’s Post Office Directory , . Church by the Marchioness of Bristol’, unpublished The British Library holds seventy-seven reports by typescript, SROB, microfilm J , p. . Ranger relating to inquiries for the General Board Lady Bristol, ‘An Account’, p. . of Health. SROB, FL //. Kelly’s Post Office Directory , ; National Probate Lady Bristol, ‘An Account’, p. . Calendar , ( ), p. ; obituary, The Builder , No application for a faculty has been found in the ( September ), p. ; obituary, Gentleman’s faculty books for the Diocese of Norwich. Magazine , (December ), pp. –. SROB, FL //, FL //. Information from Carol Morgan, Institution of Civil Gage, History and Antiquities , p. . The same date Engineers. The only institutional membership he can be found on the tower clock by Thwaites and held was that of the Royal Society of Arts (from Reed of Clerkenwell. Lady Bristol, ‘An Account’, p. . ), which is incorrectly rendered as ‘Royal SROB, FL //, FL //. Society’ in the obituary in The Builder . Information The render, possibly apart from that on the tower, from Eve Watson, Royal Society of Arts, and Joanna dated in fact to the late nineteenth century. Lady Corden, Royal Society. Bristol, ‘An Account’, p. . Obituary, The Builder , ( September ), At some point during the later nineteenth century p. ; obituary, Gentleman’s Magazine , the entire church was rendered. SROB, K / /. (December ), pp. –. SROB, / / a. The church was made redundant in and is C. Tracy, ‘Colonel Robert Rushbrooke, MP, JP currently being repaired by the Ickworth Church ( – ): Grand Tourist, Connoisseur, Collector, Conservation Trust, with the help of a grant from Amateur Architect and Wood Carver’, PSIANH , the Heritage Lottery Fund. Ickworth Park and ()( ), pp. – . House have been in the ownership of the National A handwritten note inserted between the pages of Trust since . Lady Bristol’s typescript suggested a connection M. Hesse, ‘The Early Parish and Estate of Ickworth, with Horace Walpole. There is no other evidence West Suffolk’, Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of for such a connection. Lady Bristol, ‘An Account’. Archaeology and Natural History (PSIANH), () Lady Bristol, ‘An Account’, p. . ( ), pp. –; Norfolk Record Office, DN/FCB , The old s pinnacles were moved to the p. r; W. Filmer-Sankey, ‘The Excavations on the gateposts of the Horringer gate to the Park. Lady Site of Ickworth Manor’, PSIANH , () ( ), p. ; Bristol, ‘An Account’, p. . C. Pusey, Ickworth, Suffolk (Swindon, ), p. . There are two smaller vaults below the nave floor, Sir J. Cullum, ‘Notes on Ickworth Church, Suffolk’, comprising two coffins each. Other family members SROB, E / / ., p. . were buried in the churchyard. In , Rev. Lord Arthur Charles Hervey was SROB, / / – , / / –, / / –. consecrated Bishop of Bath and Wells: W. Hunt, N. Strachey, Ickworth, Suffolk (Swindon, , ‘Hervey, Lord Arthur Charles ( – )’, rev. E. reprinted ), pp. –. Clewlow, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , National Trust, East of England Regional Office, J. online edition, , accessed May . Maddison, ‘Ickworth Conservation Plan’ ( ), J. Gage, The History and Antiquities of Suffolk. p. ; Pusey, Ickworth , p. . Thingoe Hundred (Bury St Edmunds, ), p. . National Trust, East of England Regional Office, N. It is not clear if there was a west porch before the Strachey, ‘Supplementary Proof of Evidence of s. None of Gage’s illustrations show the east Nino Strachey (Replacement for Sections .. and vault, although it continues to appear in outline .), Ickworth House, Horringer, Bury St Edmunds’, (without the semi-circular entrance) on maps as late unpaginated. as . It seems likely that the above-ground SROB, / / , / / ; National Trust, East of portion was removed in the s. England Regional Office, D. Adshead, ‘The East
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XXI WILLIAM RANGER AND HIS ARTIFICIAL STONE AT ICKWORTH
Wing, Ickworth, Suffolk: An Outline Building The builders were Messrs Bell & Co, Cambridge. History’ ( ), pp. , . SROB, FL // . SROB, / / , / / –. SROB, FL // ; FL // ; Timmins, Suffolk SROB, / / , / / –. Returns , p. ; plaque in the church. A. Saint, ‘Frank Lloyd Wright and Paul Mueller: the Ranger’s commission for the church and school was Architect and his Builder of Choice’, arq: £ s. The school was later extended. SROB, architectural research quarterly , () ( ), p. , FL // ; Colvin, Dictionary , p. ; statutory note . Ranger seems to have built an even earlier list descriptions. concrete church on the Duke of Northumberland’s He donated land and money to the Sussex County estates which is yet to be identified. Kentish Hospital, the Extra Mural Cemetery, St Mary’s Hall Chronicle , January , p. . school and St John the Evangelist’s church ( ) SROB, FL //. and initiated and funded the building of St Mark’s SROB, FL //; T.C.B. Timmins, Suffolk church ( c. – ): Dale, Brighton Town and Returns from the Census of Religious Worship of Brighton People , p. ; A. Dale, Brighton Churches (Suffolk Records Society, vol. , Woodbridge, (London, ), pp. , , –. ), p. . SROB, / / . Mr Kendall may be Henry Edward Kendall who built Nos. – Sussex Square, the Marquess’s house in Brighton. SROB, FL // .
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XXI