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St. Matthew's Church Blackmoor & Whitehill

The Architect

Alfred Waterhouse.

Born: 19th July 1830 at Aigburth, Liverpool, Lancashire.

Died: 22nd August 1905 at Yattendon Court, Berkshire.

He was one of the best known of the mid-19th Century architects, engaged at the time he designed Blackmoor Church in designs for the Natural History Museum, colleges in Oxford, Cambridge, and Manchester Universities, and Eaton Hall in Cheshire.

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He also designed St. John's, Brooklands, in Cheshire (1864), Brasted Church in Kent (1865), St. Mary, Twyford, Hampshire (1876), St. Elizabeth in Reddish, Stockport, Manchester (1880).

Educated as a Quaker, he later became an Anglican. His work at the time was characterised by a simplified geometric Gothic, spacious and calm, with a definite emphasis on the intricate values of the various building materials, often using the vernacular building stone, and with a definite French influence.