William Butterfield

William Butterfield
Personal information
Name	William Butterfield
Nationality	British
Birth date	7 September 1814
Birth place
Date of death	23 February 1900
Work
Significant buildings	St Ninian's Cathedral, Perth in Scotland, St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne in Australia
Significant projects	Keble College, Oxford
Awards and prizes	RIBA Gold Medal

William Butterfield was a Gothic Revival architect and associated with the Oxford Movement (or Tractarian Movement).

Biography

William Butterfield was born in London in 1814. His parents were strict non-conformists and ran a chemist shop in the Strand. He was one of nine children and was educated at a local school. At the age of 16, he was apprenticed to a builder in Pimlico, Thomas Arber, who later became bankrupt. He studied architecture under E. L. Blackburne (1833–1836). From 1838 to 1839, he was an assistant to Harvey Eginton, an architect in Worcester, where he became articled. He established his own architectural practice at Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1840.

From 1842 Butterfield he was involved with the Cambridge Camden Society, later The Ecclesiological Society. He contributed designs to the Society's journal, The Ecclesiologist. His involvement influenced his architectural style. He also drew religious inspiration from the Oxford Movement and as such, he was very high church despite his non-conformist upbringing. He was a Gothic revival architect, and as such he reinterpreted the original Gothic style in Victorian terms. Many of his buildings were for religious use, although he also designed for colleges and schools.

Blue plaque in Bedford Square, London

Butterfield received the RIBA Gold Medal in 1884. He died in London in 1900. He is buried in a simple Gothic tomb in Tottenham Cemetery, Haringey, North London. The grave can be easily seen from the public path through the cemetery, close to the gate from Tottenham Churchyard. There is a blue plaque on his house in Bedford Square, London.

Works

Butterfield's buildings include:

• Highbury Congregational Church (now Cotham Church) Bristol (Butterfield's first work)
• St Augustine's College, Canterbury, Kent, 1845
• St. John the Baptist parish church, Hellidon, Northamptonshire: restoration, 1845-47^[1]
• Abbey Church of Saints Peter & Paul, Dorchester on Thames, Oxfordshire: restoration, 1846-53^[2]
• St Ninian's Cathedral, Perth, Scotland, 1850
• St. James & St. Anne parish church and vicarage, Alfington, Devon, 1850
• Wantage Cemetery, Berkshire (now Oxfordshire): chapel, 1850^[3]
• St. Mary's Church (Emmorton, Maryland): stained glass windows, 1851
• St. Mary's parish church, Marlston, Berkshire, 1855^[4]
• All Saints Church, Braishfield, Hampshire, 1855
• St. Mary's parish church, Milton, Oxfordshire, 1856^[5]
• Balliol College, Oxford Chapel, 1856–57^[6]
• St. James' church, school and village buildings, Baldersby St James, North Yorkshire, 1857
• All Saints, Margaret Street, London, 1859
• St. Nicholas' school, Newbury, Berkshire, 1859^[7]
• St. Giles' Church, Tadlow, Bedfordshire, 1860
• St. John the Baptist church, Bamford, Hope Valley, Derbyshire: restoration, 1861
• St. Michael's parish church, Letcombe Bassett, Berkshire (now Oxfordshire): nave and south aisle, 1861^[8]
• St. Margaret's parish church, Mapledurham, Oxfordshire: restoration, 1863^[9]
• St. Sebastian, Heathland, Wokingham, Berkshire, 1864^[10]
• Merton College, Oxford: Grove Building, 1864^[11]
• St. George's parish church, Wootton, Northamptonshire: restoration, 1865^[12]
• St. Anne's church, Dropmore, Littleworth, Buckinghamshire, 1866^[13]
• St. Barnabas' parish church, Horton-cum-Studley, Oxordshire, 1867^[14]
• St. Mary's parish church, Beech Hill, Berkshire, 1867^[15]
• Little Faringdon, Oxfordshire: Rectory, 1867^[16]
• St. Mary's parish, Lower Heyford, Oxfordshire: remodelling of Old Rectory, 1867 (now Tall Chimneys)^[9]
• The Royal Hampshire County Hospital, Winchester, Hampshire, 1868
• St. Paul's Church, Wooburn, Buckinghamshire: alterations, 1869
• St. Mary Brookfield, Dartmouth Park, London, 1869-75
• Saint Mary at Stoke parish church, Suffolk, 1872
• St. Michael and All Angels parish church & school, Poulton, Gloucestershire, 1873^[17]
• All Saints' parish church, Braunston, Northamptonshire: restoration, 1874^[18]
• St. Mary's School, Wantage, Berkshire (now Oxfordshire), 1874-75^[19]
• Rugby School, Warwickshire: Chapel and Quadrangle, 1875
• Shaw-cum-Donnington School, Shaw, Berkshire, 1875^[20]
• Keble College, Oxford 1876^[21]
• Ascot Priory, Ascot, Berkshire: chapel, 1877^[22]
• St. John the Evangelist church,^[23] Clevedon, Somerset, 1878
• St. Mary's parish church, Shaw, Berkshire: chancel, 1878^[24]
• St. Mary's Convent, Wantage, Berkshire (now Oxfordshire): Noviciate, 1878^[25]
• St. Mary's parish church, Dodford, Northamptonshire: restoration, 1878-80^[26]
• St. Columba's College Chapel, Whitechurch, County Dublin, Ireland, 1880
• St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne (except main tower and spire), Australia, 1880-1891
• St Mark's church, Dundela, east Belfast, 1899

• St. Saviour's, Coalpit Heath, Gloucestershire (Butterfield's first Church of England church)^[27]
• All Saints' church, Babbacombe, Devon
• The Cathedral of the Isles, Great Cumbrae, Scotland
• Holy Saviour church,^[28] Hitchin, Hertfordshire
• Ottery St. Mary parish church, Devon: south transept refurbishment and marble font
• The Rectory, (now Butterfield House), Hitchin Street, Baldock, Hertfordshire.
• St. Alban's church, Holborn, London
• St. Andrew's parish church,^[29], Rugby, Warwickshire
• St. Cross Church, Clayton, Manchester
• Exeter School, Exeter, Devon
• Holy Trinity with St. Edmund parish church, Horfield, Gloucestershire
• St. James' church, Christleton, Cheshire
• St. Mary and St. Melor parish church, Amesbury, Wiltshire: restoration
• St. Mary Magdalene church, West Lavington, West Sussex
• St. Mary Magdalene church,^[30] Enfield Chase, Middlesex
• St. Mawgan Old Rectory, Cornwall
• Sarum College, Salisbury, Wiltshire

Gallery

St. Mary's church, Brookfield

William Butterfield's original design for the new Anglican Cathedral (St. Paul's) in Melbourne, Australia

Chalice designed by William Butterfield, 1856-1857 (hallmarked) V&A Museum no. CIRC.521-1962

Sources

• Pevsner, Nikolaus (1966). The Buildings of England: Berkshire. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. 
• Pevsner, Nikolaus (1960). The Buildings of England: Buckinghamshire. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. 
• Pevsner, Nikolaus; Cherry, Bridget (1973). The Buildings of England: Northamptonshire. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. ISBN 0 14 071022 1. 
• Sherwood, Jennifer; Pevsner, Nikolaus (1974). The Buildings of England: Oxfordshire. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. ISBN 0 14 071045 0. 
• Verey, David (1970). The Buildings of England: Gloucestershire: The Cotswolds. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. ISBN 0 14 071040 X. 

External links

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Butterfield, William.

• Architecture.com portrait
• Cumbria information
• Spartacus entry

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: William Butterfield