(Henry) Harold Hughes

Not to be confused with the Scottish Architect T Harold Hughes

• Birth date           20 January 1864 at Edge Hill, Liverpool 
• Christening         16 March 1864 
• Married               16 April 1896 to Charlotte Elizabeth, only child of Arthur Baker, at Ealing Dean 
• Death date          7 January 1940 at “Yr Aelwyd", Bangor, Gwynedd 
• Burial                  St Tysilo churchyard, Church Island, Menai Bridge, Anglesey

Born in Liverpool on 20 January 1864, Harold Hughes was the son of the Rev. Richard Hughes, Vicar of St. Catherine's Church, Edge Hill, and his wife Agnes Matilda (née Hermon). His grandfather was the Venerable John Hughes, Vicar of Llanbadarn Fawr, and Archdeacon of Cardigan, who was noted as an able preacher, and as an organizer of an important parish, for Llanbadarn Fawr then included the growing town of Aberystwyth. The Archdeacon in his early life was for several years Curate of Deddington, near Oxford, where tradition records that the Rev. J. H. Newman, afterwards Cardinal Newman, was an admirer of the Curate's sermons and frequently attended Deddington Church. 

Harold Hughes received his education at the Liverpool College before being articled to Arthur Baker, of London, (1842-1897) in August 1880 for four years and remained as his assistant for a further one year. He then supervised the erection of Appleton Church & Vicarage, Cheshire for Edmund Kirby (1838-1920), and St Paul's Church, Kensington for Arthur Baker, completed November 1888. During this period he also travelled in Germany. He passed the qualifying examination and became an Associate of the RIBA on 16 June 1890: proposed by A Baker, T M Lockwood, and E Kirby. Notwithstanding reports in the Welsh press and especially in publications by the Royal Cambrian Academy he was never elected a Fellow of the RIBA.

Between March 1891 and June 1892 Harold Hughes moved from London to Bangor where he commenced independent practice in partnership with Alfred Baker. Initially commissions were few as he sought to establish his practice in the town. In 1892 a water-colour of his ' The Bar Gate, Southampton,' was exhibited at the Royal Academy. By 1896 he had obtained work with the Bangor School Board as well as supervising the construction of a new and Picture gallery for Royal Cambrian Academy, Plas Mawr, Conway together with the Stanley Chapel, St Cybi Church, Holyhead, Anglesey. Arthur Baker died in 1897 after which Harold Hughes worked alone until 1919.

His philosophy was always that buildings should be simple but strong, utilising wherever possible the native materials, and in keeping, so far as contemporary requirements permitted, with local surroundings and traditions. In an ancient building, more particularly, his aim was always to sympathetically restore and preserve the history of the building, as shown in the structure and the fittings.

Keenly interested in archaeology, he became a member of the Cambrian Archaeological Association in 1892, soon becoming an authority on the structural history of the old Welsh churches and their fittings.

In March 1901 he was appointed Bangor diocesan surveyor and architect, a post he held until his death in 1940. Increasingly his commissions were for the repair and restoration of old churches the majority in Anglesey and Caernarvonshire. Although he maintained a London office until 1925 only one English work has been found – a new mission church at Chilwell, Nottinghamshire, the designs for which were hung at the RCA exhibitions of 1901 and 1902.

Several memorial crosses were designed by him, based on the pre-Norman crosses in the region. These included :  

• 1900                       Design for Cross at Llandegfan to the memory of Richard Reynolds Rathbone 
• 1902                       Memorial Cross Llansadwrn Anglesey to the memory of H. S. McCorquodale, Gadlys 
• 1902                       Islaw Memorial Cross, Glanadda Cemetery, Bangor 
• 1908                       Memorial cross at Glanadda Cemetery, Bangor, to the memory of Cadwaladr Davies 
• 1910                       Memorial Cross to the Morris Brothers standing in a field alongside the A5025 road 
• 1912                       Memorial Cross, Llanddulas marking the burial plot of the Dundonalds of Gwrych 
• 1921                       War Memorial Cross, Church Island, Menai Bridge
• 1925                      War Memorial Cross, Ruthin 

Harold Hughes was fifty years old when the First World War began and was thus too old for military service. Nonetheless in July 1916 he volunteered with the Red Cross to work in a military hospital in the converted chateau at Arc-en-Barrois. Run entirely by British volunteers the hospital treated French casualties wounded at Verdun. He remained in France until January 1918.

From 1894 his contributions to the Archaeologia Cambrensis included (1896) Cochwillan (Bangor) (1898) Old houses at Llansilin (1901) Ynys Seiriol (1904) Aberystwyth Castle (1905) Criccieth Castle (1906) Penygaer and Pen-y-corddyn (1907) Treceiri; (1908) Merddyn Gwyn Barrow (1913) Harlech Castle (1913) (1915) (1922) Prehistoric remains, Penmaenmawr (1917) (1919) Deeds relating to property at Llanfihangel Geneu'r-Glyn (1919) Collection of Antiquities belonging to the Reverend W. Wynn Williams (1919) (1920) (1921) (1922) Early Christian Art in Anglesey; (1924) Berain; (1925) Pre-Norman Cross in Diserth Church; (1926) Carving on Maen Achwyfan (1926) Lead Coffin at Rhyddgaer (1930) ; Llanerfyl, Reliquary and Reredos (1938) The Edwardian Castle and Town Defences of Conway.

FSA. RCA. Bangor diocesan surveyor and architect, (March 1901-1940). Hon Architect for the Royal Cambrian Academy. President Cambrian Archaeological, Society 1930. SPAB member. Member, Royal Commission on Ancient Monuments (Wales), 1935. Hon MA University of Wales (1928), President North Wales Architectural Society 1933.

 On 6 April 1896 Harold Hughes married Charlotte Elisabeth Baker (1868-1946) the only child of his partner, Arthur Baker of Ealing at St John's Church, Ealing Dean. The ceremony was officiated by the Rev. Richard Hughes M.A.  Vicar of St. Mattew's Southampton, the father of the bridegroom, assisted by the Rev. Robert Barker M.A. Rector of Fishbourne, uncle of the bride. The couple had one child, Dorothy Hermon Hughes.

Partnerships
1891-1897      Arthur Baker
1919-             William Griffith Williams

Publications 
1908              The old cottages of Snowdonia (with Herbert Luck North)
1924              The old churches of Snowdonia (with H L North)

Address
1890               21 Lower Phillimore Place, Kensington, London W,
1895-1908      Arvonia Buildings, Bangor
1909-1936      Diocesan Offices, Bangor Gwynedd, Wales
1904-1924      Effingham House, Arundel Street Strand London WC

Residence
1864             Wavertree Road, Liverpool
1890             13 Drayton Green Road, Ealing Dean, London W
1891             Twyford Abbey Ealing, Middlesex (Census 1891) 
1892             1 Frondiron Terrace, Bangor (North Wales Chronicle 17 Dec 1892 page 5)
1893             London and Bangor
1901-1940    Yr Aelwyd, Bangor