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James Henry Sellers[a] (1 November 1861 – 30 January 1954) was a British architect and furniture designer.[1]

Biography[edit]

Former Midland Bank, Hexham (c. 1896)
Kirklinton Park Lodge (c. 1900)

Sellers was born in 1861 at Longholme, Hall Carr, Rawtenstall in Lancashire to Naomi (née Preston) and Thomas Sellers, who worked in a cotton mill.[1][2] He attended a local school in Oldham, after the Sellers had moved to that town,[2] and received no formal training in architecture.[1]

After leaving school at fourteen, he was employed by the architect Thomas Boyter in Oldham as an office boy, and later worked in practices in Liverpool, London and Birmingham, rising to assistant architect.[1][2] He then joined the practice of Walter Green Penty (1852–1902) in York, where he became particularly interested in Georgian and classical styles.[1][2][3] From around 1893 until 1899, he was employed by George Dale Oliver (1851–1928) in Carlisle (latterly within the practice of Oliver and Dodgshun); Oliver was Cumberland's county architect, and Sellers also served as the assistant county architect.[2][4]

He then briefly had a partnership with David Jones in Oldham,[2] before setting up in an office with Edgar Wood (1860–1935) in Manchester in around 1903 to 1905. The pair sometimes worked jointly but also undertook individual projects. This joint work tailed off after 1909, when Wood semi-retired from architectural work after his father's death, and particularly after the First World War, but did not cease completely until Wood moved to Italy in around 1922. Sellers retired in 1947 or 1948.[1][2]

Sellers was married to Sarah Mills, who died in 1933. They lived at Bollin Tower in Alderley Edge, Cheshire, where Sellers died on 30 January 1954.[1]

Architectural works[edit]

36 Mellalieu Street (1906), the earliest of Wood & Sellers' houses to have a flat concrete roof
Shops at 33–37 Middleton Gardens (1908)
War memorial in Heaton (1921)
War memorial in Skipton (1922)

The architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner, in a 1942 article, includes Sellers (as well as Wood) in a selection of nine progressive English designers of the early 20th century.[5] Historic England characterise him as "an important architect" responsible for "some significant Early Modern designs."[6] In an obituary, The Guardian describes him as often being "ahead of his time", and a "pioneer" of buildings with flat roofs.[7]

His early works include financial, educational and industrial buildings; he gained experience during this period at building with reinforced concrete.[1][2] An early residential work is Kirklinton Park Lodge in Hethersgill.[6] In the partnership with Jones he designed private houses, including a flat-roofed extension which used concrete.[1][2]

In the early 20th century, with Wood, he co-designed innovative houses, often with flat concrete roofs.[1][2] Other important joint works include two schools in Middleton, which are among the buildings highlighted by Pevsner in his 1942 article;[5] the architectural historian John H. G. Archer describes them as "remarkable in design, construction, and social provision" for that period.[1] Also in Middleton is a terrace of three shops, which Historic England describe as "extraordinary in its use of the tiled panels", as well as for the flat roof in reinforced concrete.[8] At Rose Hill, Huddersfield, the pair completed a partial interior redecoration, including supplying furniture and chimneypieces; Historic England compare the work with Josef Hoffmann's Palais Stoclet in Brussels (1905) and Adolf Loos's Kärntner Bar in Vienna (1907), describing it as "among the most adventurous in Europe" of its time.[9]

His individual work after joining Wood includes offices and industrial buildings;[1] the best known is an office for Dronsfield Brothers in Oldham, another of the buildings highlighted by Pevsner,[5] described by Archer as "masterly, classically simple"[1] and "show[ing] to the full the courage skill and sensibility of its architect".[2] The houses designed by him alone are mainly in a neo-Georgian style.[1]

Furniture[edit]

At the time of his death, The Guardian describes Sellers as being of "international repute" as a designer of furniture, commenting on the "intricate detail" of his designs.[7] Many of his pieces are kept by Manchester City Art Gallery.[3][7] Several of his furniture designs were included in The Studio Yearbook of Decorative Art, including a bedroom suite (1906) and fireplaces (1923 and 1924).[3] He also designed tiles for Pilkington's Lancastrian Pottery & Tiles, including a lustre tile used in a mantlepiece that was exhibited at the Franco-British Exhibition of 1908, and featured in the following year's Studio Yearbook.[3]

List of buildings[edit]

  • Midland Bank Chambers, Hexham, Northumberland (c. 1896); at Oliver and Dodgshun, and credited in its listing to "G. C. Oliver"; a complex asymmetrical three-storey building featuring a domed turret, oriel window and sandstone frieze (grade II)[2][10]
  • Kirklinton Park Lodge, Kirklinton, Hethersgill, Cumbria (c. 1900); single-storey sandstone gatelodge (grade II)[6]
  • Two houses in Abbey Hills Road, Oldham, Lancashire (1901); with Jones[2]
  • Gates at Manor House, Roundthorn Road, Oldham, Lancashire (1901); gate piers finished with scrollwork and ball finials (grade II)[11]
  • 36 Mellalieu Street, Middleton, Lancashire (1906); the earliest of the Wood & Sellers' houses to have a flat concrete roof (grade II)[12]
  • Dronsfield Brothers office, King Street/Ashton Road, Oldham, Lancashire (1906–8); small two-storey office block faced in polished granite and brick with a green glaze, under a flat concrete roof (grade II)[1][2][13]
  • Dalny Veed (now Hill House), Bakers Lane, Barley, Hertfordshire (1907); with Wood; large house in Edwardian Free Style with a flat concrete roof (grade II*)[14]
  • Three shops, now at 33, 35 and 37 Middleton Gardens, Middleton, Lancashire (1908); with Wood (grade II)[8]
  • Durnford Street School, Middleton, Lancashire (1908–10); with Wood; school complex with a flat concrete roof; the infant school survives but the junior and senior school parts of the building were demolished in 2002 (grade II)[1][15]
  • Elm Street School, Middleton, Lancashire (1908–10); with Wood[1]
  • Rose Hill, Birkby Hall Road, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire (1909); with Wood; partial redecoration (grade II*)[9]
  • Lydgate Oliver Heywood Memorial Sunday School, New Mill, West Yorkshire (1910); with Wood; small hall in Arts and Crafts style (grade II)[16]
  • Royd House, 224 Hale Road, Hale, Cheshire (1914–16): Wood's own house; the outline plans were made by Sellers (grade I)[1][17]
  • Blackden Manor, Goostrey, Cheshire (1920); restoration and extension (grade II)[18]
  • War Memorial, Heaton Moor Road, Heaton, Stockport (1921); with the sculptor, John Cassidy; semicircular wall and plinth in Portland stone, on a base of sandstone flags, with a bronze statue (grade II)[19]
  • War Memorial, High Street, Skipton, North Yorkshire (1922); with the sculptor, John Cassidy; octagonal plinth and tall column in white stone with two bronze statues (grade II)[20]
  • Manley Knoll, Manley, Cheshire (1922); completion of a house left unfinished when the First World War broke out, as well as interiors (grade II)[21][22]
  • Birtles Hall, Over Alderley, Cheshire (1938); internal reconstruction after a major fire in a "good but restrained Classical style" (grade II)[23][24]

References and notes[edit]

  1. ^ Often credited as J. Henry Sellers or J. H. Sellers
  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r John H. G. Archer (2007) [2004]. Wood, Edgar. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/61675
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n J. Henry Sellers, Dictionary of Scottish Architects, Historic Environment Scotland (2016; accessed 4 January 2024)
  3. ^ a b c d Sellers, James Henry 1861 – 1954, Biographical Dictionary of British and Irish Architects 1800–1950, AHRnet (accessed 4 January 2024)
  4. ^ Oliver & Dodgshun, Dictionary of Scottish Architects, Historic Environment Scotland (2016; accessed 4 January 2024)
  5. ^ a b c Andrew Crompton (2007). The Destruction of Durnford School, Middleton. In: Making Manchester: Aspects of the History of Architecture in the City and Region since 1800: Essays in Honour of John H.G. Archer (Clare Hartwell, Terry Wyke; eds) (Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society) ISBN 9780900942013 (courtesy link)
  6. ^ a b c Kirklington Park Lodge, National Heritage List for England, Historic England (accessed 5 January 2024)
  7. ^ a b c Mr. J. H. Sellers. The Guardian, p. 5 (2 February 1954)
  8. ^ a b 33, 35 and 37 Middleton Gardens, National Heritage List for England, Historic England (accessed 4 January 2024)
  9. ^ a b Rose Hill, National Heritage List for England, Historic England (accessed 4 January 2024)
  10. ^ Midland Bank, National Heritage List for England, Historic England (accessed 5 January 2024)
  11. ^ Garden wall, gate piers and gates to Manor House, National Heritage List for England, Historic England (accessed 6 January 2024)
  12. ^ 36, Mellalieu Street, National Heritage List for England, Historic England (accessed 5 January 2024)
  13. ^ Offices of Dronsfield and Company, National Heritage List for England, Historic England (accessed 5 January 2024)
  14. ^ Hill House, National Heritage List for England, Historic England (accessed 4 January 2024)
  15. ^ Former infant school building and attached boundary walls and railings and gatepiers and arched entrance gateway at former Durnford High School, National Heritage List for England, Historic England (accessed 4 January 2024)
  16. ^ Lydgate Oliver Heywood Memorial Sunday School, National Heritage List for England, Historic England (accessed 4 January 2024)
  17. ^ Hartwell et al., pp. 386, plate 109
  18. ^ Hartwell et al., p. 373
  19. ^ Heaton Chapel and Heaton Moor War Memorial, National Heritage List for England, Historic England (accessed 6 January 2024)
  20. ^ War Memorial, National Heritage List for England, Historic England (accessed 6 January 2024)
  21. ^ Manley Knoll, National Heritage List for England, Historic England (accessed 5 January 2024)
  22. ^ Hartwell et al., p. 489
  23. ^ Birtles Hall, National Heritage List for England, Historic England (accessed 5 January 2024)
  24. ^ Hartwell et al., p. 162

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