[T. H. Wyatt (1807-1880) was a member of the well-known
Wyatt dynasty. He was President
of the RIBA, 1870-73. Sir Charles Eastlake writes:]
It is ... as the designer of large country mansions, rather than as a church architect, that Mr. Wyatt is chiefly known. In dealing with them he has generally adhered to the late Tudor type of architecture, to which rural squires of the last generation gave a decided preference, and which certainly presents many advantages as to convenience of plan and distribution of window space.
Carlett Park in Cheshire, the residence of Mr. John Torr, is an example of this class, and was erected in 1860. In comparing this with one of Mr. Wyatt's first works, Malpass Court, Monmouthshire, built just twenty years earlier, one is struck with the remarkable advance which has been made during that period in the study of Domestic Gothic. The aim of the designer has apparently been the same in both cases; but the Gothic of 1840 has a thin cold look; the proportions are formal and the details uninteresting; while in Carlett Park, and still more in Mr. Duckworth's seat of Orchardleigh, Mr. Wyatt has shown of what artistic treatment the style is capable.
The quasi-Lombardic details of Capel Manor give it a character of its own, in which national traditions find no place. But the picturesque disposition of its masses, the rich quality and colour of the materials used in its construction, and the elaborate nature of the carved work, combine to render it a most effective structure. Its owner, Mr. F. Austen, has long been known as an architectural amateur, and it is probable that the general design is a reflex of his own taste no less than that of Mr. Wyatt himself. (302)
Works
- Orchardleigh
- Stables and coach-house block, Kingston Lacy, Dorset
- Sessions House, Maryport Street, Usk, Monmouthshire
- Prison, Usk, Monmouthshire
- Addition to St Mary's Priory Church, Usk, and Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt's tomb
Bibliography
Eastlake, Charles L. A History of the Gothic Revival. London: Longmans, Green; N.Y. Scribner, Welford, 1972. Open Library. Web. 8 February 2013.
Last modified 21 May 2021