Francis Alfred Skidmore
Francis Alfred Skidmore (1817–1896) was a British metalworker best known for high profile commissions including the glass and metal roof of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History (1859), the Hereford Cathedral choir screen (1862) and the Albert Memorial (1866–1873) in London.
Skidmore was heavily influenced by Gothic Revival style, a movement characterised by its use of medieval designs and styles. He was a member of both the Oxford Architectural Society and the Ecclesiological Society, two organisations which endorsed the Gothic Revival style. Skidmore also worked closely with architect Sir George Gilbert Scott.
1817 Born in Birmingham, the son of Francis Skidmore, a jeweller.
c1822 The Skidmore family moved to Coventry possibly because it was an important watchmaking centre. Skidmore learned metalworking from his father and completed a seven-year apprenticeship with him.
In 1845, father and son registered as silversmiths under the name Francis Skidmore and Son. Their early work as silversmiths consisted primarily of church plate. The earliest known examples of Skidmore's work includes three silver chalices made for St John the Baptist's Church, Coventry (1845), St Giles, Exhall (1845) and St Alkmund's, Derbyshire (1846).
At the 1851 Great Exhibition he exhibited church plate, including a silver gilt and enamelled chalice now on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The recognition he received at the Exhibition helped to stimulate his business and he soon expanded, beginning to produce other church furnishings including items in iron, brass and wood.
In 1851, he also received commissions to produce gas lighting in St Michael's Church, Coventry. Skidmore's firm also installed gas lighting in St Mary's Guildhall and Holy Trinity Church, both also in Coventry. At Holy Trinity Church, some of his ironwork, wooden pews and gas lamp standards are still in situ.
It was also in the 1850s that Skidmore met Sir George Gilbert Scott, a prominent architect, designer and proponent of Gothic Revival. Although Skidmore produced works for a variety of people, it was his long lasting, working relationship with Scott which resulted in several notable commissions. Skidmore worked with Scott on the Lichfield, Hereford and Salisbury cathedral screens and the Albert Memorial in London.
During his lifetime, Francis Skidmore created works for 24 cathedrals, over 300 parish churches, 15 colleges and a number of public buildings.
Between 1855 and 1861 Sir George Gilbert Scott restored parts of Lichfield Cathedral. Francis Skidmore and John Birnie Philip produced the new Victorian metal screen designed by Scott. Of the three cathedral screens that Skidmore made, Lichfield's is the only one still in situ (as of 2011).
The Hereford Screen was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott and made by Francis Skidmore. It was made in a period of only four months. To complete such a large and complex structure in only four months, Skidmore took 'short cuts' and used mass production techniques. Skidmore displayed it at the 1862 London Exhibition where it won a medal for its superior design and craftsmanship.[7]
The screen was dismantled and removed from the cathedral in 1967. The Herbert Art Gallery & Museum in Coventry purchased the screen, but was unable to restore or display it, so in 1983 it was transferred to the Victoria and Albert Museum. Before conservation, the screen was in almost 14,000 individual pieces, many of which were in very poor condition. Conservation of the screen took thirteen months and cost over £800,000 which is, as of September 2011, the largest conservation project undertaken by the V&A. The Hereford Choir Screen is now on display at the V&A.
Sir George Gilbert Scott led the restoration of Salisbury Cathedral between 1863-1878. It was during this time that Skidmore created the cathedral's choir screen. In 1959, the screen was removed and most of it was destroyed. The chancel gates survived and are now in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum. As of September 2011, they are on display in the Ironwork gallery, room 114a.
Near the end of his life, Skidmore's eyesight began to deteriorate and he was disabled after being hit by a carriage in London. His final years were spent in poverty in Eagle Street, Coventry.
1896 November 13th. Skidmore died and was buried in London Road Cemetery, Coventry. He was survived by his widow, Emma, and their four children: Francis Sidney, Bernard, Evangeline and Kenneth.
In 2000, a memorial plaque was installed at the site of Skidmore's Alma Street factory in Hillfields.
From the Coventry Herald , 20 November 1896:-
'DEATH OF MR. F. SKIDMORE.
The death occurred Friday night at his residence in Eagle Street, Coventry, of Mr. Franck Alfred Skidmore, who achieved wide celebrity as an art metal worker. Mr. Skidmore was born in 1816, and was therefore in his 81st year. When a boy, he was apprenticed to his father, a gold and silversmith from London who settled in Coventry, taking premises in Cross-cheaping. The study and practise of art formed a leading feature in his subsequent career. To this added close study of ancient metal work and architecture home and abroad. He commenced business as an art metal worker on his own account in 1850, acquiring premises in West-orchard. For a few years he had not a very extensive connection, but gradually the excellence of his work became so widely known that a company was formed, and extensive buildings erected in Raglan and Alma-streets — afterwards acquired by the Singer Cycle Company — from which were sent out from time to time, to all parts of the United Kingdom and to other countries, some of the finest and most elaborate productions in metal work. In the Great International Exhibition of 1862, a medal was awarded to "Skidmore’s Art Manufactures Company (manufacturers in metal, brass, and copper) for progress, elegance of design, and for excellent workmanship." Of his ecclesiastical productions may be mentioned handsome works consisting of chancel screens, altar rails, lecterns, gas coronets, standards, pulpits, pendants, memorial brasses, communion plate (after ancient designs), etc., for twenty-four cathedrals, including Canterbury, York Minster, St. Paul's (London), Westminster Abbey, Durham. Hereford — a screen with bronze figures, wrought metal work, mosaic, onyx, and other stones — Lichfield - the chancel screens enriched with bronze figures, which were designed by Sir Gilbert Scott, and Chester, the Archiepiscopal Palace at Lambeth, St. Giles's (Edinburgh), St. Mungo's (Glasgow), Calcutta, Graham's Town, Sooth Africa ; also in St. George's Chapel, Windsor ; St. Nicholas, Antwerp; St. James's, Philadelphia; a church in Valparaiso ; St. George’s, Demerara, &c. His works are also to be found in 300 or more parish churches, all over the country; fifteen colleges, including no fewer than eight in Oxford and six in Cambridge, King’s College, London, and the University of Glasgow. Of his numerous secular works in sixteen town and other public halls, Government offices, twenty-one castles, courts, and mansions, may be mentioned those in the Royal Exchange, Liverpool: the Colston Hall, Bristol; the Peel Park gates, Manchester; the Imperial Hotel, Malvern; the India Museum, London, the Errol Park gates, Dundee; a fountain at Greenock; the magnificent wrought-iron entrance gates to Eaton Park, the Cheshire seat of the Duke Westminster, &c.
The most conspicuous work executed Mr. Skidmore was the metal Gothic canopy which forms part of the Albert Memorial in Hyde Park. Designed by Sir Gilbert Scott, and enriched with enamels and stones, it is the largest and most elaborately enriched monument extent. In autobiography the designer says: For the execution of the metal work (comprising more than half the monument) the only man in the world to my knowledge to carry out my ideas was Mr. Skidmore, Coventry, and he has done so." The canopy was completely made and built at Mr. Skidmore's Alma-street works prior to its erection over the statue. The Skidmore Art Metal Company was ultimately amalgamated with Winfields (Limited), Birmingham. About 20 years ago Mr. Skidmore removed from Coventry and restarted business at Meriden. For some years he had establishment 24, Hunter’s-road, Birmingham, and after he left Meriden settled in that town, residing until few years ago 155, Sycamore-road, Cape-hill, when returned to Coventry, and the time of his death was living in Eagle-street.
A successful and interesting career was interrupted by years of illness, which prostrated and left Mr. Skidmore partially blind. He recovered and was called to London by the County Council to make additions to the embankment railings, which were his work. Owing to partial blindness he met with serious accident by being run over by a carriage. The result of these combined disasters was to render him unable to undertake the active journeying indispensable to his vocation, and eventually to lose much of his connection. He concerned himself little with the commercial side of business, and to this neglect may part be attributed the straightened circumstances which attended his old age. In 1894 the Mayor of Coventry (Alderman Singer) Sir Henry Acland, and several clergy and gentlemen, met with Mr. W. Stone Booth, as hon. sec., formed themselves into a committee to mark their interest in Mr. Skidmore with a view to aid his declining years, and it is pleasant to be able to record that sufficient money was subscribed together with the weekly sum he received under the freemen’s seniority scheme, make comfortable the remaining years of his life.
Mr. Skidmore leaves a widow and three sons, two of whom are in Australia — and one daughter.'