Raging inferno: the 1867 fire at Croydon Parish Church destroyed hundreds of years of records, tombs and artwork. The fire was famously captured in this painting by Joseph Nash
Manor House School stood in Croydon, 200 years ago, at No38 North End, next to the Rising Sun public house. It’s more or less where JD Sports is today. An advertisement in the Morning Herald in 1820 informed its readers that Manor House was a school for “young gentlemen”.
Prospective parents would have needed to have a good income if their son was to attend this establishment. The annual fee for boys under 12 years of age was 40 guineas, at a time when a labourer might be fortunate if they earned £10 in a year.
Victorian gentleman: Joseph Nash was a noted artist of the mid-1800s
At Manor House School, the fees increased to 45 guineas for boys over 12 – or more than £5,000 by today’s values.
The curriculum as advertised appeared quite limited. It “embraced The Classics and various branches of useful and ornamental literature”. There were extra charges if you required your son to study French, dancing, drawing or music.
The advert went on to say: “Manor House is spacious and commodious, and the situation peculiarly healthy and pleasant. Suitable accommodations for parlour boarders. References of the highest respectability will be given.”
The school was run by Rev Okey Nash AM. Today, the initials after his name would be reversed and be recognised as a Master of Arts degree, which Nash had gained from Magdalen College, Oxford. Joseph Nash, his son, attended the school and who showed an aptitude for drawing.
Joseph, the eldest son of Okey and Elizabeth Nash, was born in Great Marlow, Buckinghamshire, on December 17, 1809. His father, from Chesham, had achieved his MA in 1803 when he was 24. He wasn’t ordained a priest in the Church of England, though, for another 11 years. He was appointed a stipendary curate in Calverton in November 1816 but he left this position four years later, exchanging the pulpit for the schoolmaster’s rostrum.
The only story which existed about young Joseph’s time at Manor House was that he covered his exercise books with sketches and drawings, revealing his artistic talents.
Around 1827, Joseph Nash joined the architect’s office of Augustus Charles Pugin in Great Russell Street in Bloomsbury to learn architectural drawing.
In 1829, he and his fellow apprentices accompanied Pugin on a trip to France to produce drawings for a publication entitled Paris and its Environs, which was published in 1830.
Penny publication: Nash’s works were used widely to illustrate popular weekly magazines
Nash proved himself to be a capable artist. He showed great interest in lithography, too, and the skills he developed in this area meant that he prepared some of Pugin’s drawings for a subsequent publication, Views Illustrative of the Examples of Gothic Architecture.
The 1830s was an important decade for Nash. He married Rebecca Elwin in 1831 and his professional career took off.
He gained a reputation for illustrating the work of poets and novelists. Some of these were engraved for The Keepsake and similar popular annuals, to increase his income.
As a lithographer, he became an expert in stump-style technique which allowed watercolour effects to be reproduced from the lithographic stone.
Nash continued with his painting and in 1834 was elected as an associate of the Society of Painters in Water Colours, becoming a full member in 1842.
It was the combination of his creative painting skills, combined with his architectural drawing which made Nash’s name in the artistic world and beyond. In a book entitled Architecture of the Middle Ages, Nash not only drew 25 French and English ecclesiastical buildings of the Renaissance period but he also “peopled them with picturesque tableaux”.
His plan to show off the buildings as they might have been used really took off. Nash then undertook some long trips around England to visit many stately homes built between the 15th and 17th centuries. He sketched both the interiors and exteriors of them. Using the writings of the antiquarian Joseph Strutt for his research, Nash created 100 lithographs which were the centrepieces for his four-volume work, The Mansions of England in the Olden Time. One of the scenes he created was of Beddington Hall. Another building which he visited and drew was Ightham Mote, now a Natural Trust property in Kent.
These lithographs proved to be very influential. They were officially reprinted in the Saturday Magazine, a weekly publication costing one penny in 1840. They also found their way into many unauthorised periodicals, too. The plates were studied by architects and affected the popularity of certain tourist sites, even appearing on advertising placards.
Snappy title: Nash worked on several books that captured ancient buildings
Nash received several commissions as a result of this work. He was asked to turn the drawings of David Wilkie into lithographs. Wilkie, a Scottish painter who died in 1841 in Malta, had travelled extensively in the Middle East. One book of Nash’s lithographs of Wilkie’s work, published in 1843 was of Wilkies’ Sketches in Turkey, Syria and Egypt.
A Royal Commission followed, with Queen Victoria asking him to produce drawings and watercolours of court life in Windsor. This he did successfully, producing Views of the Interior and Exterior of Windsor Castle in 1848 together with various painted scenes.
One of those included Queen Victoria driving out in a carriage with Louis-Phillippe, the King of France, while he was on an official visit in 1844. Nash also painted the opening of Parliament in 1847.
Nash continued to paint and exhibit his work regularly until an illness in 1854, described as “brain fever”, affected him severely and he sold the contents of his studio at the end of that year. He did continue to paint, though, but not in such a prolific way.
It was a strange decision, if this was the case, to ask him to paint the Croydon Parish Church fire in 1867. By then Nash was well past his best in terms of what he could produce. Maybe it was his own decision to illustrate the disaster in a town he knew well from his school days. The fire was in a Medieval building, too, a subject in which he specialised. Nash enjoyed his success reproducing romanticised versions of historical buildings, but could he capture an historic moment using eyewitnesses and newspaper accounts?
The London Illustrated News included extensive coverage of Croydon’s fire in January 1867, together with a sketch of the church in the aftermath of the inferno. Looking at the sketch printed by the paper, it would not be beyond reasonable imagination that this was the outline on which Nash based his painting.
Illustrated news: this drawing of the fire at Croydon Parish Church for the ILN in January 1867 may have been the basis for Nash’s painting
Nash died in December 1878 in Hereford Road, Bayswater, where he had lived for the final years of his life. He had been awarded an annual Civil Service pension of £100 just a few months before his death, but he never lived to enjoy it. His son, also called Joseph, became an artist like his father. Young Joseph, who was taught to draw by his father, became known as a draughtsman on wood and a painter of marine subjects.
What became of Manor House School? Rev Okey Nash left in 1846 to become the vicar of Throwley in Kent. His successor at the school was Frederick Rodbard. His name appeared in the 1851 Croydon Directory, although his time as proprietor was short. Rodbard was declared bankrupt later that year. He was described in the paperwork as a schoolmaster and lodging housekeeper.
By 1855, 38 North End was occupied by H Webb. The school for young gentlemen had a new lease of life. A joint occupant of Manor House at that time was George Webb, a teacher of “pianoforte, concertina, violin and singing”.
The school appeared to have closed down by 1859, because the occupant of Manor House in that year was George John Till, a solicitor. Till was still in residence in 1866.
I wonder how many residents of Croydon purchased one of Nash’s prints of the church fire? Could one be lurking in your loft?
The lad who grew up and went to school in Croydon did well for himself.
- David Morgan is a former Croydon headteacher, now the volunteer education officer at Croydon Minster, who offers tours or illustrated talks on the history around the Minster for local community groups
If you would like a group tour of Croydon Minster or want to book a school visit, then ring the Minster Office on 020 688 8104 or go to the website on www.croydonminster.org and use the contact page
Some previous articles by David Morgan:
- If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, or want to publicise your residents’ association or business, or if you have a local event to promote, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com
