John Chessell Buckler

Career

In 1811, 18-year-old John Chessell Buckler achieved the distinction of exhibiting at the Royal Academy of Arts. His exhibited work, entry 790, was a watercolour titled 'Interior of Penmon Priory Church, Anglesey' (22.5 × 17 cm), demonstrated a level of technical precision and architectural sensitivity well beyond his years. This rare early watercolour is now preserved within the Ives Collection (UK), forming part of its British Romantic and Architectural lineage

Buckler received art lessons from the painter Francis Nicholson. From 1810 onwards he worked with his father. His younger brother, George, later joined them and reported that the three worked "in perfect harmony". In 1830 his father handed over his architectural practice to him, and he worked in partnership with George until 1842.

In 1825 Buckler began rebuilding Costessey Hall, Norfolk, for Lord Stafford. His work there was described by Charles Locke Eastlake, writing in 1872, as "one of the most important and successful instances of the [Gothic] Revival in Domestic Architecture". It was in a "Tudor" style, in red and white brick, with stone dressings. The new buildings formed an irregular picturesque group, with stepped gables, angle turrets and richly moulded chimney-shafts, exhibiting, according to Eastlake "a knowledge of detail and proportion far in advance of contemporary work".

Buckler did a lot of work in Oxford, carrying out repairs and additions to St Mary's Church, and Oriel, Brasenose, Magdalen, and Jesus colleges. He also restored Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk, and Hengrave Hall, Suffolk, and designed Dunston Hall, Norfolk, and Butleigh Court in Somerset.

In 1836 he came second, behind Charles Barry, in the competition to rebuild the Palace of Westminster following its destruction by fire.

Buckler's writings included the text accompanying his father's engravings of Views of the Cathedral Churches of England and Wales (1822). In 1823 he published Observations on the Original Architecture of St. Mary Magdalen College, Oxford, in which he expressed his hostility towards changes in the quadrangle of Magdalen College. Some of his later writings, such as A History of the Architecture of the Abbey Church of St Alban (1847), were in collaboration with his own son, Charles Alban Buckler.

He died, aged 100, on 10 January 1894.

List of works

Gloucestershire

• St. Mary the Virgin Church, Lower Swell (rebuilt nave, 1852)

Norfolk

• Costessey Hall, Costessey (1826)
• Dunston Hall, Dunston (1859)
• Oxburgh Hall, Oxborough

Oxfordshire

• St. Mary's Church, Adderbury (restoration of chancel, 1831-34)
• Schoolroom at Magdalen College, Oxford (now a library, 1849-51)
• University Church of St Mary the Virgin, Oxford (restoration)
• St. Mary's Church, Pyrton (rebuilding, 1856)
• St. Mary's Church, Steeple Barton (rebuilding, 1850)

Somerset

• Butleigh Court, Butleigh (1845)
• Church of St. Leonard, Butleigh

West Sussex

• St. Nicolas Church, Shoreham-by-Sea (restoration of chancel, 1839–40)

Unbuilt proposals

Kilronan Castle, Keadue, Co. Roscommon, Ireland.

References

Sources

References

1. Tyack, 2004
2. [https://www.oxonblueplaques.org.uk/plaques/buckler.html Plaque for John Chessell Buckler], Oxfordshire Blue Plaque Scheme website
3. Joshua Mardell (2018) '"Fidelis ad Mortem": John Chessell Buckler, an Oxford College Architect', ''Oxoniensia'', '''83''', pp. 73–92.
4. (1872). "A History of the Gothic Revival". Longmans, Green & Co.
5. (1836). "Miscellaneous Notices respecting the new competition designs for the New Houses of Parliament". Architectural Magazine.
6. He wrote a further polemical work, ''A Description And Defense Of The Restorations Of The Exterior Of Lincoln Cathedral'' (1866), a scathing response to accusations that, in capacity as honorary architect to Lincoln Cathedral, he had overseen a damaging restoration involving the 'scraping' of the cathedral fabric.Joshua Mardell (2020) 'Getting into a Scrape: The Buckler Dynasty, Lincoln Cathedral and Mid-Victorian Architectural Politics', ''Architectural History'', '''63''', pp. 191–218
7. Verey, 1970, page 442
8. "Dunston-Hall - Norfolk Heritage Explorer".
9. Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, pages 413–414
10. Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, page 155
11. Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, page 283 and footnote
12. Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, page 732
13. Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, page 788
14. {{NHLE
15. Nairn, 1965, page 287