Farmer and Brindley

Other names: Farmer and Brindley Ltd. (from 1905)

Active: 1851 - 1929

Function: Sculptor, marble merchant, stone mason, marble quarries, architectural modeller, marble decorator, marble importer, wood carver

Policy: (1900) quarry proprietors of ancient Egyptian Porphyry, antique Greek, Cipollino and Rosso Antico; merchants in statuary of Pentelicus and Crestola, Verde Antico, Pavonazzetto, Giallo Antico, rare Breccia's, St. Ambrozio Verona and Istrian; oriental and English Alabaster, Lapis Lazuli, Jasper etc.

History or description: The company was established by William Farmer who employed William Brindley as a stone carver. By 1868 they became partners. Their first documented work was on George Gilbert Scott’s parish church at Woolland, Dorset, consecrated in 1856. They went on to work extensively for Scott, including the decorative sculpture on the Albert Memorial. Other architects with whom they collaborated frequently were Lockwood and Mawson; Bodley and Garner; and Alfred Waterhouse. For the latter they produced stone figures and reliefs for Manchester Town Hall, and the models for the terracotta decoration on the Natural History Museum, South Kensington. In all, they collaborated with Waterhouse on over one hundred buildings.

Amongst their commissions for other architects was an extensive scheme for All Saints, Clive, Shropshire, architect Charles J. Ferguson of Carlisle. In 1885 John Jenkinson Bibby, a Liverpool shipping magnate living at Hardwicke Grange and Thomas Meares, a tea plantation owner living at Clive Hall joined together to contribute £6,000 to "improve" the internal appearance of the church including raising the roof. An article concerning the dedication service of 1894 attributes all of the decorative work on the church to Farmer and Brindley. After Farmer’s death, the firm increased its turnover of marble, an activity in which it benefited from Brindley’s extensive geological knowledge. Amongst the foreign sculptors known to have worked for the firm are: Léon Joseph Chavalliaud, Guillemin (presumed to be Auguste Guillemin or his son Emile), and the Piccirilli brothers.

In 1905 the business became a private limited joint stock company and was run by William Brindley's nephew, Ernest Robert Brindley and his son-in-law, Henry Wheeler Barnes. Early twentieth century commissions included: the Victoria and Albert Museum (1909), the National Gallery (1911) and Westminster Cathedral (1921-9), R. Knott’s County Hall and Glasgow's City Council Chambers (1922-3). Some of their works met with a hostile reception, notably the reredos for St Paul’s, which the firm carried out to designs by Bodley and Garner. This met with hostile criticism, and has since been dismantled. In the 1920s, Farmer and Brindley gradually declined and was formally wound up in July 1929 at an Extraordinary Meeting of the company. Part of the business may possibly have amalgamated with another firm and so continued after this date.

The information about All Saints, Clive, Shropshire was submitted by Bruce Crawcour. Details of the church and its decorations will be posted online in late 2014 or 2015.

Citing this record

'Farmer and Brindley', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/organization.php?id=msib1_1246101417, accessed 04 Oct 2023]

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