Thomas Fulljames

{{for|the land surveyor|Thomas Fulljames (surveyor)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox architect | name = Thomas Fulljames <small>FRIBA</small> | image = | image_size =  | alt = | caption = | birth_name =  | birth_date = 4 March 1808 | birth_place = Walworth, Surrey, England | death_date = 24 April {{death year and age|1874|1808}} | death_place = Ashleworth, Gloucestershire, England | other_names = | alma_mater = | spouse = Catherine | partner = | children = | parents = | awards = | practice = Fulljames & Waller | significant_buildings = Gloucester Court of Probate, 1858. | significant_projects = | significant_design = Severn Barrage, 1849. | signature = | website =  | embedded =  }} [[File:Albion House, Gloucester 01.jpg|thumb|Albion House, Southgate Street, Gloucester, 1831. Formerly the Albion Hotel.<ref name=albion/> With later grade II listed K6 telephone kiosk.<ref name=kiosk>{{National Heritage List for England|num=1271770|desc=K6 Telephone Kiosk|access-date=12 November 2019}}</ref>]] thumb|Church of St Lawrence, Sandhurst. Rebuilt by Fulljames, 1857–58.<ref name=Pevsglos/> [[File:St. Mary and Corpus Christi church, Down Hatherley - geograph.org.uk - 2049008.jpg|thumb|Church of St Mary & Corpus Christi, Down Hatherley. Rebuilt by Fulljames, 1859–60.<ref name=Pevsglos/>]] [[File:ThomasFulljamesSevernBarrage01.jpg|thumb|Fulljames's unbuilt design for a Severn Barrage, 1849<ref>[http://www.cleanriverstrust.co.uk/severn-barrage-the-phoenix-and-a-flawed-scheme/ Severn Barrage; the phoenix and a flawed scheme?] Clean Rivers Trust, 6 January 2014. Retrieved 28 March 2019.</ref>]] [[File:Gloucester Court of Probate 2 April 2016.JPG|thumb|Gloucester Court of Probate, 1858<ref name=prob>{{NHLE|num=1245683 |desc=3 & 4, Pitt Street|accessdate= 28 March 2019}}</ref><ref name="Jord">{{cite book|author=Jordan, Christine.|title=Secret Gloucester|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tuYgCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT38|year=2015|publisher=Amberley Publishing|location=Stroud|isbn=978-1-4456-4689-3|pages=38–39}}</ref>]] [[File:Foscombe House - geograph.org.uk - 1418013.jpg|thumb|Foscombe, designed c.1860 by Fulljames for his own use<ref name=Fos/>]] '''Thomas Fulljames''' FRIBA (4 March 1808 – 24 April 1874) was an architect active in Gloucestershire, England, in the first half of the nineteenth century. As diocesan surveyor from 1832 until 1870, latterly in partnership with Frederick Sandham Waller, he designed, reconstructed or extended a number of churches in Gloucestershire.

He is known for designing the former psychiatric asylum at Denbighshire (1842-1844) in Jacobean style and the Gloucester Court of Probate (1858) in the Gothic style. He also designed a barrage across the River Severn, which was never built. He built Foscombe house for his own use in Ashleworth, Gloucestershire, which has been classified as a grade II* heritage building.

==Early life and family== Thomas Fulljames was born in Walworth,<ref name=1851census>[https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:SGBQ-3JH Thomas Fulljames England and Wales Census, 1851.] Family Search. Retrieved 27 March 2019. {{subscription required}}</ref> Surrey, now in Greater London, on 4 March 1808,<ref name=carne/> to Trophimus Fulljames (died 1864), a land surveyor, and Margaret Fulljames. He was baptised at Hasfield, Gloucestershire, on 15 September 1808.<ref>[https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JMZM-J43 :Thomas Fulljames, England Births and Christenings, 1538–1975,"] Family Search. Retrieved 27 March 2019. {{subscription required}}</ref> He had an older brother, also Trophimus, born around 1805.<ref name=carne/>

== Career == Fulljames studied with his uncle, the surveyor Thomas Fulljames (died 1847), who had established a practice in Gloucestershire by the 1790s,<ref name=carne/> and from 1821 was apprenticed to the architect Thomas Rickman, a position arranged by Fulljames's uncle Thomas.<ref name=carne/>

He first practised in his own name from around 1830 when he opened an office at 1 Barton Street. He was appointed county surveyor in 1831. In 1838 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects.<ref name=carne/> In 1846 the firm became Fulljames & Waller after he formed a partnership in that year with Frederick Sandham Waller (1822–1895) who had been articled to him in 1839.<ref name=Pevsglos>{{cite book|author=David Verey & Alan Brooks.|title=The Buildings of England Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and the Forest of Dean|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m9W2XH11-9EC&pg=PA105|year=2002|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven|edition=3rd|isbn=9780300097337|page=105}}</ref> He also taught the architect James Piers St Aubyn.<ref name="Brodie">{{cite book|author=Brodie, Antonia, et al (Eds.)|title=Directory of British Architects, 1834–1914: Vol. 2 (L–Z)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GkThQYLb3ZUC&pg=PA525|year=2001|publisher=Continuum|location=London|isbn=978-0-8264-5514-7|page=525}}</ref> In 1847 the office moved to College Green.<ref name=carne/>

===Church architecture=== Fulljames was diocesan surveyor in Gloucestershire from 1832 until 1870, as Fulljames & Waller from 1846, and in that time they completed a great deal of church architecture in the county.<ref name=Pevsglos/> Among his designs was the Church of St Luke, High Orchard (1841),<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=4mI3AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA644 "Domestic Occurrences"], ''The Gentleman's Magazine'', 1841, p. 644.</ref><ref>[http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/glos/vol4/pp311-317#h3-0010 St. Luke, High Orchard], ''British History Online''. Retrieved 26 August 2017.</ref> St Matthew's Parish Church, Twigworth (1841–42),<ref>[https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/glos/vol4/pp311-317#anchorn118 Gloucester: Modern parish churches.] British History Online. Retrieved 31 March 2019.</ref> adding a north aisle to Hasfield (1849–50), and the reconstruction of the Church of St Lawrence, Sandhurst (1857–58), and the Church of St Mary & Corpus Christi, Down Hatherley (1859–60). After Frederick William Waller became a partner in 1868 the firm was renamed Waller & Son.<ref name=Pevsglos/>

===Severn Barrage=== In 1849, Fulljames proposed a barrage across the River Severn from Beachley to Aust (now the site of the first Severn Bridge), a span of just over {{convert|1|mi|km|1}}. Since this was before commercial electricity production, the first proposals were based on the desire for a large shipping harbour in the Severn Estuary, road and railway transport, and flood protection.<ref name=carne>Carne, Brian. [http://www2.glos.ac.uk/bgas/tbgas/v113/bg113007.pdf "Thomas Fulljames, 1808–74: Surveyor, Architect, and Civil Engineer"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111004201836/http://www2.glos.ac.uk/bgas/tbgas/v113/bg113007.pdf |date=4 October 2011 }}, ''Transactions of the Bristol & Gloucestershire Archaeological Society'', Volume 113, 1995, pp. 7–20.</ref>

===Other architecture=== Other projects by Fulljames in Gloucester include the Albion Hotel (1831) in Southgate Street, later known as Albion House;<ref name=albion>{{National Heritage List for England|num=1271769|desc=Albion House|access-date=30 March 2019}}</ref> Norfolk Buildings (1836) in Bristol Road;<ref name=NHL>{{National Heritage List for England|num=1245993|desc=Norfolk Buildings|access-date=27 March 2019}}</ref> and the "picturesque Gothic" Gloucester Court of Probate (1858) on the corner of Pitt Street and Park Street,<ref name=prob/> probably as a result of the Court of Probate Act 1857 which removed probate proceedings from the ecclesiastical to the civil courts.<ref name="Jord"/>

Around 1860 he built Foscombe, a country house in the Gothic Revival style in Ashleworth for his own use. It is now a grade II* listed building.<ref name=Fos>{{National Heritage List for England|num=1340298|desc=Foscombe|access-date=31 March 2019}}</ref>

Plans relating to the Gloucestershire Royal Infirmary and Second County Asylum are held by Gloucestershire Archives.<ref>[https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/N13767580 Architect plans by Thomas Fulljames.] National Archives. Retrieved 28 March 2019.</ref>

==Personal life== In 1840, Fulljames married Catherine Kirkes at Lancaster. This led to him designing the Custom House Arcade at Liverpool. At first they lived at Maisemore, Gloucestershire<ref name=carne/> but from 1847 to 1863, he was living with his wife at Hasfield Court in Gloucestershire and was described as an "Architect & Landed Proprietor" in the 1851 census. Three relatives were living with them and the family employed seven servants.<ref name=1851census/> In the 1861 census, they were described as employing six servants.<ref>[https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M7P8-WDN Thomas Fulljames England and Wales Census, 1861.] Family Search. Retrieved 27 March 2019. {{subscription required}}</ref>

==Death and legacy== Fulljames died on 24 April 1874 at Foscombe in Ashleworth. His will was proved by his wife Catherine and the executors John Jackson Myers of Huyton, and James Wintle of Newnham. He left less than £12,000.<ref>[https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/Calendar/GetImgSrc?filePath=%2F1874%2FF%2F001715_fuller_1874.Png 1874 Probate Calendar], p. 161.</ref> There is a monument to him in the churchyard of the Church of St Mary, Hasfield.<ref name=NHL2>{{National Heritage List for England|num=1304042|desc=Monument to Thomas Fulljames|access-date=27 March 2019}}</ref>

In 1970 and 1987, records relating to Fulljames were among those deposited in the Gloucestershire Archives by the Astam Design Partnership where they had been stored in the attic of the firm's former offices in College Green.<ref name=carne/>

== References == {{Reflist}}

== Further reading == * Carne, Brian and Martin J. Crossley Evans. [https://www.hslc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/152-8-Carne-and-Crossley-Evans.pdf ''Thomas Fulljames: An almost-forgotten Gloucestershire architect, and his work in Lancashire and Cheshire'']. ''Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire & Cheshir''e, 152 (2003), pp. 133–152. [https://web.archive.org/web/20180218032224/https://www.hslc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/152-8-Carne-and-Crossley-Evans.pdf Archive] *

== External links == {{commons category inline|Thomas Fulljames}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fulljames, Thomas}} Category:1808 births Category:1874 deaths Category:People from Walworth Category:Architects from Gloucestershire Category:Ecclesiastical architects Category:Fellows of the Royal Institute of British Architects