The Lockwoods - Builders
Over the centuries Woodbridge has benefited from the talents of those who abandoned the rural life to look for opportunities in their market town. One such was John Lockwood, the son of Robert Lockwood of Athelington near Eye. John left there in 1769 and established a building firm in Woodbridge. It was a good time to make the move because, from 1782, the economy was booming as a result of having a 4000 strong garrison near the town. John was joined by his 20 year old nephew William Lockwood in 1802.
William had been taught to read and write by his mother in Eye. After working for his father he went to London where he spent two years with various building contractors before joining his uncle, John Lockwood, at Woodbridge. Their partnership lasted until 1815 when John retired at the age of 66 and William became the owner of the company.
William Lockwood, his sons and a grandson were to have a significant impact upon the buildings and layout of Woodbridge. William also developed a new cement which was soon in widespread demand for decorative work across south east England. The moulds used to cast the decorative features were made by two artistic brothers James and Obadiah Pulham.
A few years before his nephew William joined him, John Lockwood employed James Pulham as an apprentice. He was the eldest of ten children of a poor family who lived on what is now Cumberland Street. Some time later William Lockwood also took on James’ younger brother Obadiah. The Pulham’s mastery of making decorative objects in cement was inherited by James’ son who progressed to creating picturesque rock gardens using artificial rocks made from cement. He and two further generations of the family had a national reputation for their landscape gardening and for their production of garden ornaments in artificial stone.
In about 1803 William Lockwood married Susanna Causton the orphan daughter of the Rev Samuel Causton, curate of Little Waldingfield, near Lavenham. Susanna's father died at the age of 29 and her mother at 25. She was subsequently brought up by her grandfather who was Master of Lavenham grammar school. William and Susanna joined the Quakers in 1816 and their eldest child, Susanna, was sent to Ackworth School, a Quaker foundation at Pontefract, Yorkshire.
William and Susan set up home near the corner of New Street and what is now St John's Hill. Sometime around 1806 William purchased a large piece of land adjoining the southern side of the road in order to build an imposing mansion. It was to provide a new home for his family while at the same time demonstrating the attributes of a type of cement for which he and his uncle had recently become agents. This cement, which was made by Parker & Wyatt from the mid 1790s, was called Roman because it was claimed to be equal to the cement of the Romans and, in some applications, was superior to it. The cement was said to be waterproof, and was thus suitable for cladding the outside of buildings. Although the cement was light brown it could be colour washed to make it appear like stone.
The walls and the flat roof of the mansion were completely clad in concrete and there were concrete mouldings around the windows. The addition of battlements and a turret in one corner resulted in the mansion being known as The Castle. The cement roof proved to be a step too far. Although the cement was a barrier to water it cracked because of movement of the underlying roof timbers and eventually slate had to be used.
The mansion was built at the end of a road which was called Millers' Lane because of the presence of four windmills on the ridge above it. The mansion stood out and by the 1830s Millers' Lane was being called Castle Street.
The Castle survived the Zeppelin raid in 1916 which damaged other houses in the area but, in 1963, it was served with a compulsory notice for demolition as part of a redevelopment of Castle Street.
Lockwood's mansion which became known as The Castle
Lockwood went on to build other houses along the northern side of Castle Street. Their common feature was stuccoing - the use of cement to clad brick buildings to make it appear that they were made of stone. Soon Lockwood was also using cement to make the porticos and entablatures which still decorate the doorways of some of the houses in the town. He also used cement to make decorative key stones. All these decorative features were cast in cement using moulds made by James and Obadiah Pulham. James had not received any formal education but he made up for this by attending evening classes and, as soon as his apprenticeship was finished, he was appointed foreman of the thirty strong workforce.
The building shown on the right is the only only remaining building on Castle Street which was built by William Lockwood. It was a gift to his parents and it became known as The Little Castle.
The Little Castle.
Initially the only way of making cement look like a real stone was to use a colour wash – a technique which was not very durable. So William set out to find a cement mixture which would look like Portland stone without being colour washed. In 1817, he toured the UK to find the most suitable form of limestone for his purpose. He eventually found what he wanted in South Wales and had it shipped from Swansea to the Lime Kiln Quay at Woodbridge. It was then carted up Sun Lane to his cement works near The Castle and it is here that he started to produce his ‘Portland Stone Cement’.
Although William developed a successful business based on using this cement he missed out on the main commercial opportunity. James Frost and Joseph Aspdin were also developing new forms of cement and they patented their ideas.
In 1824 Joseph Aspdin obtained a patent for ‘cement or artificial stone for stuccoing buildings, waterworks and cisterns’. He called it Portland Cement because it resembled Portland Stone. His son William improved the cement and by 1841 he was manufacturing it in London. The production of Portland Cement developed into an international business and in 1900 the company that William Aspdin started was taken over by Blue Circle Cement.
The locations of The Castle, The Little Castle and the cement
mill are highlighted on this extract from the 1838 tithe map.
The ending of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 heralded a period of growth and William’s business expanded as a result. The building trade was much improved and the introduction of cement as a decorative feature on the front of buildings became fashionable. William soon had teams of men working on a number of sites outside Woodbridge.
Sometime between 1819 and 1822 he opened an office at Spitalfields, not far from Liverpool Street Station. James Pulham was installed as manager and his brother Obadiah as assistant.
William’s New Portland Stone Cement proved to be popular and his workmen were soon engaged upon ‘the new Portland cement stuccoing work’ in London and in other parts of the country. One of William’s tours of the building sites included Saffron Walden, Bishops Storford, Hoddeston, Brighton, Biggleswade, Ware, Hitching and Hertford.
The Pulhams were kept busy on ornamental work such as porticos as well as entablatures, pediments and other features of the classical architecture then in vogue. They were also producing garden vases, fountains, chimney pots, coats of arms and animal figures.
William’s eldest son, William Jnr., was beginning to get involved in his fathers business and, in 1824, William Jnr. and his sister Susanna took up residence at the office in Spitalfields.
In 1827 William Snr. acquired new and larger premises at Tottenham and moved there with his family. The cement works at Woodbridge being left in the hands of Henry Botwright. The arrangement appears not to have been a success because a year later William Jnr. returned to Woodbridge and took charge of the cement works. His father remained in London where he was now being assisted by his second son Alfred who, by then, had finished school.
By 1829 William Jnr. had started to run a disused brewing plant that was near to the grounds of The Castle. Within two years the business expanded so much that a brewing plant was set up in The Castle. The main outlets were the Mariners’ Arms adjacent to the Brewery and another on the Market Hill.
William Martin, the writer of children’s books under the pseudonym Peter Parley, spent much of his life at Woodbridge and was a friend of the Lockwoods. He suggested to William Jnr. that they should form a local literary and scientific society. This lead to the foundation of Woodbridge Literary and Mechanical Institute in 1838. William Jnr. was its first secretary.
Two examples in Woodbridge of decorative cement work produced by William Lockwood's company.
Lockwood’s London Office Closes
In 1834 William Snr. closed his branch at Tottenham and returned to Woodbridge where he and his son Alfred, who had had some training as an architect in London, continued their business as builders and cement manufacturers. It seems likely that he left because of the competition from other builders, who by then had access to cement that was as good, or better, than theirs. A year later William Snr. retired and was appointed the town’s surveyor. About three years later he and his wife joined the Plymouth Brethren and soon after they went to live in Ipswich where regular meetings of the sect took place.
In 1839 the parish church of St Mary’s was ‘being filled to overflowing’ and it was decided to build a second church, St John's, on some grazing land by The Castle. Once the money had been raised, there was a competition to find the best design, and in 1842 it was won by Alfred Lockwood. He was also awarded the contract to build the church which was consecrated in 1846.
The site of the church was adjacent to the land owned by the Lockwoods. This probably made Alfred work harder to win the competition to design the church and then to be awarded the contract to build it. Unfortunately the venture was not a financial success. Some of his subcontractors failed to keep to their estimates and he had to make up the difference. Further losses came because he speculated by buying land, and laying out the roads, around the church. The demand for housing along them was not as great as he had anticipated and Alfred was soon in financial difficulties and had to close the company down.
St John's Church, Woodbridge, which was
designed and built by Alfred Lockwood.
After the Woodbridge Business Closed
Alfred accepted a position with the Chester to Holyhead Railway and left his brothers William Jnr. and Phillip to sort out his affairs. After they had done so William carried on with his brewing business. It prospered and when William retired in 1876 it was sold to Ernest Cobbold of Ufford.
William then went to live Bristol to be near two of his daughters and he recorded his reminiscences in ‘Woodbridge in the Olden Times’. His brother Philip eventually obtained a position with William Burn of Piccadilly, then one of the countries principle architects. He later became surveyor to the estates of the Duke of Norfolk before being appointed surveyor and engineer to Brighton where he remained for 46 years.
Twenty years after their Woodbridge building company failed another Lockwood building company was formed. In 1872, at the age of 58 Alfred moved to Westgate-on-Sea, near Margate, and established a building company there with his sons Alfred Goodwin and William Henry who were both architects. Until the late 1860s the area consisted of a farm and a few cottages but then businessmen started to develop the area into a seaside resort for the middle classes. The opening of a railway station in 1871 heralded a period of further expansion on which the Lockwoods capitalized. The building company they started was in business until 2002 but the families' involvement ended in 1922.
That is not quite the end of the Lockwood story. In 1877 the Trustees of the Seckford Foundation held a competition to design a public pump or drinking fountain for the ‘convenience of the poor inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood’. The competition was won by William Henry Lockwood, one of Alfred’s sons, who submitted the design for the pump which now adorns the Market Hill. He called the design ‘Victoria’ because it resembled the headdresses worn by the Queen.
The public pump and drinking fountain on Market Hill
which was designed by William Henry Lockwood.
Woodbridge in the Olden Times, William Lockwood.
Last edited 19 Aug 23