William Worrall
William Edwin Worrall (1877-1940) was a Staffordshire-born designer of fabric, pottery, glass and stoneware. He was the brother of Thomas Frederick Worrall and shared similar artistic ability.
Early life
William was the middle of three sons born to blacksmith Thomas Worrall senior and Susannah Worrall, in Wednesbury, Staffordshire.[1] The family moved to Church, Lancashire, near Accrington in Lancashire and after leaving school, William became a cotton print designer.[2] Whereas his elder brother, Thomas, became a blacksmith and painted watercolours as a side interest, William made creativity his paid employment.
Later life
The 1891 census shows William living with his mother and siblings in Church, Lancashire, working as an office boy in a cotton mill. [3] By 1901 he was still working in the mill but was a designer of cotton prints. [4] The firm for which he worked was probably F. Steiner & Company, and some pattern books from the period are at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, showing the sort of designs he was creating.[5] William later moved to Cheshire, still designing fabric prints.[6] The England and Wales Register for 1939 shows that during the First World War, William worked in the Ministry of Munitions,[7] but nothing of his work there is known. Information about his life during the 1920s is similarly lacking, but in 1932, aged 54, he was chief craftsman at the famous Chalice Well Crafts Guild in Glastonbury, Somerset, which had been founded in 1912 by Alice Buckton.[8][9] [10] William was living at that time in the nearby newly-built house, 'Stone Down', along with historical writer, Thomas N. Wild and his wife.[11]
William’s years in Glastonbury were productive, and he demonstrated a move away from fabric design. He trained in pottery making under the renowned Bernard Leach, and Leach later named him as one of his principal students.[12] Worrall also became skilled in tile-making and bronze-work and was an early member of the Somerset Guild of Craftsmen which still exists to this day.[13] He was invited by the Board of Trade to exhibit items at the 1937 Paris Exhibition[14] and became further known when he was commissioned to make a memorial of bronze set in stone to the famous Somerset author Walter Raymond, which was placed, and still is, in Yeovil Library.[15] He also notably designed the renovations of St Margaret's almshouses in Taunton, [16] and played a significant role in life at Chalice Well in Glastonbury, being a member of that group’s dramatic circle which performed plays, and he created the required stage scenery (see footnote 8).
William Worrall died in the Mary Hewetson Hospital in 1940 while on a painting holiday in the Lake District, his death certificate showing that he was suffering from myocardial degeneration (lost function of the heart muscle). He is buried in St Kentigern's churchyard in Crosthwaite, which is on the outskirts of Keswick. The grave is in the northwest corner of the old churchyard, and is unmarked but there is a plaque to William in St John's Church in Glastonbury on which the dedication reads: William Worrall Designer and craftsman of Stone Down Near Glastonbury Died November 9th 1940. RIP. The plaque consists of two of Worrall's handmade tiles and shows St. Christopher carrying the child Jesus. William's elder brother, Thomas, visited the grave in Keswick in 1947 and took the opportunity of painting nearby scenes. His depiction of Derwentwater is available as a postcard from St Kentigern's church and St James's church in Keswick.
List of works in public collections:
Two ceramic tiles- St John's Church, Glastonbury.
Image cast in bronze- Plaque to Walter Raymond, Yeovil Public Library, Somerset.
St Margaret's Almhouses in Taunton, Somerset (a subsequent renovation took place in the early 2000s carried out by Somerset Historic Building Preservation Trust).
References
- ^ 1881 England census: Staffordshire, Durlaston, District 2: piece 2871, folio 28
- ^ See occupation details for William Worrall in the 1901 census for Church, Lancashire ref: RG13/3917
- ^ 1891 census of England and Wales, sheet RG12/3409
- ^ Census of England and Wales, sheet RG13/3917
- ^ https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O90126/furnishing-fabric-steiner-co/
- ^ Census of England and Wales, sheet 231
- ^ For more information see Adams, R. J. Q. Arms and the Wizard: Lloyd George and the Ministry of Munitions, 1915–1916 (London: Cassell, 1978) OCLC 471710656
- ^ 'Cradle song' in Wells Journal, 1 January 1932
- ^ See also William E Worrall's details on England and Wales Register (1939) for Glastonbury, Somerset
- ^ See 'Cultural and social activities': https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/som/vol9/pp16-43
- ^ For information about Alice Buckton see 'S. Mathivet, Alice Buckton (1867–1944): The Legacy of a Froebelian in the Landscape of Glastonbury' in History of Education, 01 March 2006, Vol.35(2), p.263-281
- ^ Item 12013-12014: Additional papers of Bernard Leach, Crafts Study Centre, Surrey Institute of Art and Design, UK.
- ^ ‘Skilled rural craftsmen’ in Taunton Courier, 5 June 1935
- ^ Letters from Worrall to Bernard Leach (1937): Bernard Leach archive, Craft Study Centre, Surrey Institute of Art and Design, UK,
- ^ ‘Walter Raymond memorial’ in Western Gazette, 9 February 1940, and ‘Memorial to Walter Raymond: Mrs J. B. Clark unveils plaque’ in Taunton Courier, 2 August 1947
- ^ 'Great son of Somerset' in Taunton Courier, 15 July 1939
- ^ Death certificate of William Edwin Worrall, died 9 November 1940