Patrick Comerford
Edward Swinfen Harris (1841-1924), the Stony Stratford-born architect who died 100 years ago last year, on 28 May 2024, remains a towering figure striding across the landscape of the neighbouring counties of Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire.
I spoke about his life work earlier this year in Stony Stratford library (24 February), and there are invitations later this year to speak about his work: in the Swinfen Harris Hall in the library in Buckingham with the University of the Third Age Architecture Group (11 September); and in Stony Stratford (19 September) as part of the programme for Heritage Open Days, England’s largest festival of history and culture, and.
Edward Swinfen Harris worked mainly in the Arts and Crafts style, and his works include vicarages, houses, schools, church alterations and additions, church halls, almshouses, lynch gates and memorial crosses in the London Road cemetery. He seems to have been particularly adept at receiving commissions from local GPs, and his work can be seen in Stony Stratford, Bletchley, Buckingham, Calverton, Great Linford, Maids Morton, Newport Pagnell, Roade and Wolverton.
As I continue my research into the life and work of Edward Swinfen Harris, I visited Newport Pagnell earlier this month to see two more examples of his work: both Tickford Abbey, where he carried out come alterations in the late 19th century; and the former Bassett’s Bank, now the Post Office on High Street.
That afternoon, I also had another look at Queen Anne’s Almshouses, a Grade II listed set of buildings on Saint John Street, close to Tickford Street and the River Ouzel. The five almshouses were refurbished and rebuilt in 1891 to designs by the architect Ernest Taylor, a former assistant of Edward Swinfen Harris.
However, for some time now I have been searching for the grave of Swinfen Harris. He designed a number of windows in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church in Stony Stratford as memorials to members of his family, and he designed the lychgates at the London Road cemetery and the Calverton Road cemetery in Stony Stratford. But I was never quite sure where he was buried.
Some parishioners and neighbours had helpfully suggested the Calverton Road cemetery in Stony Stratford, others thought he might have been buried in the churchyard at All Saints’ Church in Calverton.
I had traipsed though both places, twice each, this month, in vain, and had failed to find his grave.
But three helpful parishioners and neighbours, Iris Day, Anne Emel and Marilyn Beazeley, pointed me in the direction of his grave and gravestone, and I found his grave late last week in a quiet corner in the Calverton Road cemetery in Stony Stratford.
The grave is slightly overgrown and could do with being tidied up. But the lettering is still clear, almost a century after his son, Edward Swinfen Harris (1873-1929) was buried there.
The gravestone reads:
In ever / grateful memory of / Emily Harriet / the beloved wife of / Edward Swinfen Harris / born 22 July 1840 : at rest 19 Sept 1918 / Also of / Edward Swinfen Harris / born 30 July 1841 : at rest 28 May 1924 / Also of their son / Edward Swinfen Harris / born 1st March 1873 : at rest 14th June 1929
I am grateful to Iris and Marilyn for their help and persistence. Meanwhile, my search for more of his work and photographing that work continues. It would be interesting to find out where his papers have filed away.
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