Details of Sculptor

Surname

Woodley

Alternative Surname

First Name

John, of Torquay

Initial of Surname

W

Year of Birth/Baptism

Flourished

Year of Death

1862

Biographical Details

He not only made monuments in his yard by St Mary Church, near Torquay, but also carried on a flourishing business in local marbles, manufacturing ‘columns, vases, chimney-pieces and a variety of other ornamental articles’ (AJ, 1856, 4). Under the heading ‘British Industries - Devonshire Marbles’ was the announcement ‘At the Marble Works of Mr Woodley, at St. Mary Church, near Petit Tor, and Babbacombe may be inspected every variety of these limestones - worked into columns, chimneypieces, and a variety of other ornamental articles’. He signed a number of minor monuments and tablets. The most important, to Mary Bloxsome, has a relief of a woman leaning on a broken column, with its Corinthian capital lying at her feet (4).
Woodley died on 27 February 1862 and was buried in St Mary’s parish churchyard, where his wife Elizabeth joined him on 10 May 1872. He was probably a son of Daniel Woodley, a marble merchant with premises near Babbacombe Road.
Literary References: Gunnis 1968, 442
Archival References: GPC