Samuel Daukes

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Samuel Whitfield Daukes (sometimes Dawkes) was born in London in 1811, the son of Samuel Whitfield Daukes, a businessman with coal mining and brewery interests, who bought Diglis House, Worcester in 1827. He was articled about 1827 to James Pigott Pritchett of York, and had set himself up in practice in Gloucester by 1834. In 1836 he married Caroline Sarah White of Long Newnton (then Wilts, now Glos) and by 1840 they were apparently living at Barnwood, on the edge of Gloucester. A portrait of the Daukes and their five children by A. de Salomé was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1853. Daukes’ practice also extended to Cheltenham, as his name appears in a list of architects working there in 1841, the year he took into partnership John R. Hamilton. From 1839-42 Daukes was architect to the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway, designing clerks’ houses, engine sheds, brakesmen’s cottages and, in 1840, Lansdown station in Cheltenham. He was also architect to the London, Oxford and Cheltenham Railway Company. Between 1842 and 1848, when he started a London office at 14 Whitehall Place, he built up a very large practice in the English midlands. On starting the London office, a move probably prompted by his growing reputation and more specifically by winning the competition to design the Middlesex County Asylum at Colney Hatch, the Gloucester practice took into partnership James Medland (1808-94), who had been a fellow pupil of Daukes in Pritchett’s office in York, and changed its name to Hamilton & Medland. In about 1850, Hamilton emigrated to New York. Daukes’ pupils included Joseph James (before 1854) and Frederick Hyde Pownell. Daukes died at Beckenham (Kent) in 1880, and was buried in the family vault in Highgate Cemetery. Attached to his will was a list of all the architectural books in his office, an eclectic selection, including Weale’s Quarterly Papers in Architecture as well as all Pugin’s publications, and the transactions of the Cambridge Camden Society; but the charities to which he left money were all low church.

His early practice would appear to have been assisted by his family’s connections, and a link with his future patron, Lord Ward, is provided by his uncle, Richard Davies, who was Lord Ward’s mining agent. His family’s good financial standing no doubt also enabled him to purchase the Park estate in Cheltenham in 1839, and to develop it in the tradition of speculators such as Pearson Thompson and Joseph Pitt. Daukes was a convinced eclecticist, working in all the styles that were fashionable in his day. He was an admirer of Pugin and a long-term member of the Ecclesiological Society, although a low churchman and not wholly in sympathy with the ecclesiological movement, as he designed churches in the neo-Norman and Perpendicular styles. He was able to use these styles and also the Italianate of Abberley Hall, Witley Court and Colney Hatch, with considerable originality and dash, and he comes across as an architect full of self-confidence, with a secure command of the Picturesque elements of a composition. Daukes failed, however, to adapt to the changing stylistic climate of the High Victorian period, and in the 1860s his practice seems to have declined, although he was still building churches in the Midlands.

[edit] List of major works

CHELTENHAM (GLOS): THE PARK ESTATE, layout of estate and zoological gardens for Thomas Billings, 1833-34; Daukes purchased the estate in 1839 and began to design villas for erection on a speculative basis, mostly Greek Revival but including Tudor Lodge (dem. c.1966) and perhaps Cornerways, c.1865, Italianate

ABBERLEY HALL (WORCS): for J.L. Moilliet, 1837, Italianate; destroyed by fire, 1845, and reconstructed to a modified design, 1846-49 for Mrs. Moilliet; altered c.1883

GLOUCESTER DOCKS (GLOS): warehouses, 1838-40, Classical

THORNBURY (GLOS): REGISTER OFFICE, 1839, Greek Revival

CHELTENHAM (GLOS): LANSDOWN RAILWAY STATION, for Birmingham & Gloucester Railway Company, 1840, Italianate; portico removed, 1960s

WEST BROMWICH (STAFFS): HOLY TRINITY CHURCH, 1840-41, Gothic

TIBBERTON COURT (GLOS), alterations (perhaps unexecuted), for W.P. Price, 1842

CLEVEDON (SOMERSET): MOUNT ELDON, for Dowager Lady Elton, 1844, Tudor

WEDNESBURY (STAFFS): ST JOHN’S CHURCH, 1844-46, Gothic

LONDON: ST ANDREW’S CHURCH, WELLS STREET, 1844-47, Gothic, taken down and rebuilt at Kingsbury (Middx) by W.A. Forsyth, 1934

CHELTENHAM (GLOS): 1-19 MONTPELLIER STREET, houses and shops, c.1844-51

CIRENCESTER (GLOS): ROYAL AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, 1845-48, Tudor, selected as winning design in architectural competition

TETBURY (GLOS): ST SAVIOUR’S CHURCH, 1845-48, Gothic; the clergy house (27-29 Church St.) is also attributed to Daukes

CHELTENHAM (GLOS): ST PETER’S CHURCH, 1846-49, Neo-Norman

CHELTENHAM (GLOS): LYPIATT TERRACE, 1847, Italianate

COLNEY HATCH (MIDDX): MIDDLESEX COUNTY PAUPER LUNATIC ASYLUM, now converted to housing, 1847-51, Italianate, selected as winning design in an architectural competition

BROMPTON (KENT): HOLY TRINITY CHURCH, 1848, Gothic, demolished 1956

BRICKLEHAMPTON HALL (WORCS), for Francis Woodward, 1848, Italianate

GREAT MALVERN (WORCS): THE ABBEY HOTEL, 1848-49, Jacobean

CHELTENHAM (GLOS): ST PAUL’S COLLEGE, for the Church of England Training Institution, 1848-50, Gothic

HIGHGATE HILL (MIDDX): SMALLPOX & VACCINATION HOSPITAL, 1848-50, Italianate

GRAVESEND (KENT): ST JAMES’ CHURCH, 1848-52, Gothic

BRACEBRIDGE HEATH (LINCS): LINCOLN COUNTY PAUPER LUNATIC ASYLUM, 1849, Italianate

GREAT MALVERN (WORCS): HOLY TRINITY CHURCH, LINK TOP, 1850-51, Gothic, enlarged 1872

HORSTED PLACE (SUSSEX) for Francis Barchard, 1850-52, Tudor

ODDINGTON (GLOS): HOLY ASCENSION CHURCH, 1850-52, Gothic

HAMPSTEAD (MIDDX): CHRIST CHURCH, 1851-52

CROYDON (SURREY): AGED FREEMASONS’ ASYLUM, now Davidson Lodge, 1852, Jacobean

NEWPORT (ISLE OF WIGHT): ST THOMAS’ CHURCH, 1854-56, Gothic

WESTMINSTER (MIDDX): DUDLEY HOUSE, PARK LANE, new ballroom and picture gallery for Lord Ward, 1855; damaged in WW2 but restored by Sir Basil Spence, 1969-70

GREAT WITLEY (WORCS): CHURCH, refacing in ashlar and new furnishings for Lord Ward, c.1855

EASTWOOD PARK, FALFIELD (GLOS) attributed, new house for Sir G.S. Jenkinson, c.1858-62, Italianate

FALFIELD (GLOS): ST GEORGE’S CHURCH, 1859-60, Gothic

WITLEY COURT (WORCS), alterations and refronting for Lord Ward, 1859-61, Italianate; burnt out 1937 but now restored as a shell

HARESCOMBE GRANGE (GLOS), for W.C. Lucy, a Gloucester corn merchant, 1861-64, Tudor; addition of north front, c.1875, is also attributed to Daukes

GUITING GRANGE (GLOS): attributed, additions and refronting for John Waddington, c.1862, Italianate

EDGE (GLOS): ST JOHN THE BAPTIST’S CHURCH, 1865, Gothic

CHESTER (CHESHIRE): ALL SAINTS CHURCH, HOOLE ROAD, 1867, Gothic

KENSINGTON (MIDDX): 25 KENSINGTON GORE (for E.L. Samuel) and 200 QUEEN’S GATE, designs for five houses on a site bounded by Kensington Gore and Queen’s Gate, 1873

SALFORD (LANCS): UPPER PARK ROAD CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, 1874-75, Gothic

LEYBOURNE GRANGE (KENT), 1850s, Italianate

NEW BECKENHAM (KENT): ST PAUL’S CHURCH, date unknown

[edit] References

The Builder, 20 Mar. 1880, p.366 and 22 May 1880, p.650

Country Life, 6-13 Dec. 1973

N.W. Kingsley & M. Hill, The country houses of Gloucestershire: volume 3, 1830-2000, 2001

D. Verey & A. Brooks, The buildings of England: Gloucestershire 2 - the Vale and the Forest of Dean, 2002