George Fellowes Prynne was an English ecclesiastic architect and part of the High Church school of Gothic Revival Architecture. Over the course of a 50-year career, he built, decorated, restored and/or reconstructed dozens of English churches, most of which are now Listed buildings. He was also well known for designing superb decorative elements, particularly windows and screens.
George Fellowes Prynne (2 April 1853 – 7 May 1927) was an English ecclesiastic architect and part of the High Church school of Gothic Revival Architecture. Over the course of a 50-year career, he built, decorated, restored and/or reconstructed dozens of English churches, most of which are now Listed buildings. He was also well known for designing superb decorative elements, particularly windows and screens.
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Early life and education
George Halford Fellowes Prynne was born on 2 April 1853 at Wyndham Square, Plymouth, Devon. He was the second son of the Rev. George Rundle Prynne and Emily Fellowes, daughter of Rear Admiral Sir Thomas Fellowes. He was raised High Anglican; his father was the perpetual curate of St. Peter and The Holy Apostles church in Plymouth. His elder brother was the painter Edward Arthur Fellowes Prynne. George studied at St Mary's College, Harlow and St Andrew's Academy in Chardstock then, after briefly studying to enter the Church, went instead to Eastman’s Royal Naval Academy at Southsea.
Career
Prynne's family was not wealthy and found his education to be expensive. In 1871, aged 18, Prynne sailed America to work with a cousin who had taken land, and spent two years farming in the western states of America. Here, he learned about building log houses, barns and a brick and wooden house. But finding the work "trying and severe", he travelled to Toronto and was appointed to the role of Junior Assistant in the office of architect Richard Cunningham Windeyer. Windeyer helped Prynne further his studies and, by 1875, he had gained a senior position.
Also in 1875, Prynne received an offer of employment from the architect George Edmund Street, an English ecclesiastical architect who had begun his career thanks to Prynne's father. Prynne returned to England and, after a year at Street's firm, went back to school, studying at the Royal Academy of Arts for two years. After graduating in 1878, he went to work for Edward Swinfen Harris, Robert Jewell Withers, Alfred Waterhouse, and at the London School Board offices. He commenced independent practice in 1879. Prynne became Architect to the Diocese of Oxford from 1913.
Prynne collaborated extensively with his brother Edward Arthur Fellowes Prynne who provided artwork for a number of the architect's churches. This includes St Peter’s Church Staines, which possesses Edward Arthur Fellowes Prynne windows of remarkable quality and beauty. Other examples include altar panels at Holy Trinity, Roehampton, and St Mary, East Grinstead, and a reredos at St Mary the Virgin Church, Hayes, where both brothers Prynne are now buried.
Personal life and death
Prynne married Bertha Geraldine Bradbury in June 1882 in Wandsworth, London. They lived at Bloomsbury, then Kensington and, finally, Ealing. They had two daughters and five sons, two of whom were officers killed in action in World War I.
Their son Harold Fellowes Prynne, ARIBA, (1892–1984) spent several years working as a commercial illustrator in Madras before becoming an architect. He worked as the architect for the Church of Ireland diocese of Tuam from 1942 to c 1963.
After moving to Ealing, Prynne was very involved in the life of its parish. He designed St Saviour's Church, new buildings for St Saviour's Infant School (1927), and the Clergy House. St Saviour's Church was demolished in 1940 following bomb damage; the Clergy House survives.
Prynne's last project was an extension to Ealing Town Hall, including a new octagonal towered entrance.
He had completed the design when, in 1927, he died suddenly; the work was completed by his assistant in 1931.
Works
St John's Church, Penzance, Cornwall, 1881. Reredos, rood screen and altar. Listed Grade II
Church of All Saints, Budleigh Salterton, Devon, 1888. Pulpit.
Church of St Matthias, Plymouth, Devon, 1891. Reredos. Listed Grade II
The Grange, Private Residence, Hadlow Down, East Sussex, 1893
Church of St Peter, Budleigh Salterton, Devon, 1893. Listed Grade II
Church of St Peter, Draycott, Rodney Stoke, 1894. Rood Screen (attrib.)
St James the Great, Antony, Cornwall, 1895. Window
St Winwaloe's Church, Poundstock, Cornwall, 1896. Restoration, expansion, reredos. Listed Grade I
Holy Cross Church, Newton Ferrers, Devon, 1886. Reconstruction. Listed Grade I
St Peter's Church, Streatham, London, 1888. Expansion. Listed Grade II*
Church of St Mary, Payhembury, Devon, 1889. Listed Grade I
All Saints Church, West Dulwich, London, 1891. Listed Grade I
Church of St Peter, Spelthorne, Surrey, 1893. Listed Grade II
Priory of St Nicholas, Arundel, West Sussex, 1893. Nave roof.
All Hallows Church of Saint Kea, Kea, Cornwall, 1894. Listed Grade II*
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St Stephen-in-Brannel, St Austell, Cornwall, 1894
St Peter's Church, Staines-upon-Thames, Surrey, 1894
Bar Lodge, Private Residence, Porthleven, Cornwall, 1895. Listed Grade II
Church of All Saints, Elland, West Yorkshire, 1896. Listed Grade II*
