Faith Craft Stations of the Cross
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The wooden Faith Craft stations of the cross in the narthex of the church were designed by Ian Howgate. Harold Ian Charles Howgate (1910-1989) studied at the Wolverhampton Municipal School of Art & Crafts, London’s Central School of Arts & Crafts, and the St Albans School of Art. Initially intending to become a commercial artist, and latterly employed by Marconi, St Albans, Howgate worked for Faith Craft as a designer and craftsman from 1928 to 1939.
His best-known work for the firm is the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin which he painted on the ceiling of the apse of the Anglican Shrine Church at Walsingham in 1938, but his stations of the cross may be regarded as his most striking achievement. At least a dozen plaster sets – usually richly decorated – were supplied to Anglo-Catholic churches. It seems, however, that the first plaster set went to a Roman Catholic church: the award-winning St Augustine of Canterbury, Leeds, completed in 1935. Just 15 x 12 inches framed – half the size of the plaster stations – and serving as prototypes, the Howgate-designed panels at St George’s were carved by William Wheeler.
At the age of fourteen William Wheeler (1895-1984) came first in a London County Council competition for a three-year scholarship to study at the School of Art Wood-carving, South Kensington; he also attended classes at the Central School of Arts & Crafts, the Carpenters’ Company School, and the Sir John Cass Institute. After the Great War he was a full-time student at the Royal College of Art, gaining his ARCA in 1924. Wheeler’s connection with Faith Craft appears to have begun in 1928. He was Art Director of the firm from 1932-1939, during which time he was also a tutor at the St Albans School of Art. In 1946 he set up a new course at the City & Guilds of London Art School to train craftsmen in the restoration and replacement of bomb-damaged architecture and monuments. The School today awards the William Wheeler Woodcarving Prize for outstanding work.
His best-known work for the firm is the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin which he painted on the ceiling of the apse of the Anglican Shrine Church at Walsingham in 1938, but his stations of the cross may be regarded as his most striking achievement. At least a dozen plaster sets – usually richly decorated – were supplied to Anglo-Catholic churches. It seems, however, that the first plaster set went to a Roman Catholic church: the award-winning St Augustine of Canterbury, Leeds, completed in 1935. Just 15 x 12 inches framed – half the size of the plaster stations – and serving as prototypes, the Howgate-designed panels at St George’s were carved by William Wheeler.
At the age of fourteen William Wheeler (1895-1984) came first in a London County Council competition for a three-year scholarship to study at the School of Art Wood-carving, South Kensington; he also attended classes at the Central School of Arts & Crafts, the Carpenters’ Company School, and the Sir John Cass Institute. After the Great War he was a full-time student at the Royal College of Art, gaining his ARCA in 1924. Wheeler’s connection with Faith Craft appears to have begun in 1928. He was Art Director of the firm from 1932-1939, during which time he was also a tutor at the St Albans School of Art. In 1946 he set up a new course at the City & Guilds of London Art School to train craftsmen in the restoration and replacement of bomb-damaged architecture and monuments. The School today awards the William Wheeler Woodcarving Prize for outstanding work.