Details of Sculptor

Surname

Wolstenholme

Alternative Surname

First Name

John, of York

Initial of Surname

W

Year of Birth/Baptism

Flourished

1793-1843

Year of Death

Biographical Details

He was the son of Francis Wolstenholme, a carver and gilder of York, who died on 13 April 1833 (Yorkshire Gazette, 20 April 1833). In 1793 John provided the decorative woodwork for the organ at Sledmere for Sir Christopher Sykes (3). His statue of Minerva on High Petergate is painted and gilded (1).
He was employed on repair work at York Minster after the fire of 1829; among payments to him is one of £411 in 1843 for carvied bosses in American yellow pine for the ceiling of the nave ‘chiefly from the drawings of Mr. J Brown’(2) (GPC, ref untraced). His name appears in the lease records for a house in Petergate in August 1843, when he paid £14 11s 3d in rent (York Minster Library, Dean and Chapter Archives, E4e). A Mr Wolstenholme, perhaps the same man, received £505 in 1811 for work at Eaton Hall, Cheshire (Grosvenor Archives).
Archival References: GPC