page_title: Sharpe, Paley and Austin
section_title: Patrons
hierarchical_section_title: Sharpe, Paley and Austin / Patrons
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of Revd John William Whittaker (c.1790 - 1854)
context_page_description: Sharpe, Paley and Austin are the surnames of architects who practised in Lancaster, Lancashire, England, between 1835 and 1946, working either alone or in partnership. The full names of the principals in their practice, which went under various names during its life, are Edmund Sharpe; Edward Graham Paley, who practised as E. G. Paley; Hubert James Austin; Henry Anderson Paley, son of Edward, usually known as Harry Paley; and, for a very brief period, Geoffrey Langshaw Austin, son of Hubert. The firm's commissions were mainly for buildings in Lancashire and what is now Cumbria, but also in Yorkshire, Cheshire, the West Midlands, North Wales, and Hertfordshire.
  The practice specialised in work on churches; the design of new churches, restoring older churches, and making additions or alterations. They also designed country houses, and made alterations to existing houses. Almost all their churches were designed in Gothic Revival style, except for some of Sharpe's earliest churches and a few designed later by the practice. Within the Gothic Revival style, the practice initially used Early English and, particularly, Decorated features. E. G.
context_section_description: Sharpe's earliest commissions were promoted by his older cousin Revd J. W. Whitaker, vicar of Blackburn.  Whittaker had connections with major figures in the Church of England and members of the aristocracy.  Sharpe's work came to the notice of the Bishop of Chester, Rt Rev John Bird Sumner, whose diocese at that time included Lancashire as well as Cheshire.  He was a member of the Church Building Commission, and it is likely that he played a part in Sharpe's involvement in designing Commissioners' Churches.  Family connections led to an association with the Greenall family, brewers in Warrington, which possibly led to the commission for the series of churches along the Weaver Navigation.  Sharpe had hoped to gain commissions from the Earl of Derby, but was successful only in his design for St Mary, Knowsley.  The relationship the practice developed with the major entrepreneurs in Barrow-in-Furness, James Ramsden, and Henry Schneider, resulted in the many commissions for buildings in the town and for the Furness Railway.
caption: Revd John William Whittaker, Sharpe's early patron
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