Arthur Albert John Marshman

FRIBA The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...

FRSA The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, commonly known as the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), is a learned society that champions innovation and progress across a multitude of sectors by fostering creativity, s ...

(19 February 1929 – 15 July 1997) was an English

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

. He was a Fellow of both the

Royal Institute of British Architects The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...

and the

Royal Society of Arts The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, commonly known as the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), is a learned society that champions innovation and progress across a multitude of sectors by fostering creativity, s ...

. Marshman was born in

Northampton Northampton ( ) is a town and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is the county town of Northamptonshire and the administrative centre of the Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority of West Northamptonshire. The town is sit ...

, the only son of Arthur (a sub-postmaster) and Evelyn Marshman (née Smith), both of Northampton. He was educated at

Northampton Grammar School Northampton School for Boys (NSB) is an 11–18 boys secondary school in Northampton, England. It was founded as Northampton Grammar School in 1541 by Thomas Chipsey, Mayor of Northampton. Years 7 to 11 are boys-only, while sixth form classes ar ...

. He married twice and had four children. Marshman was founder of Marshman Warren Taylor architects. He died in Northampton. Before beginning his professional life he completed his

National Service National service is a system of compulsory or voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act ...

in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

Practice

According to English Heritage: Marshman also designed the sympathetic and award-winning

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government of a parish in England, Wales and some English colony, English colonies. At their height, the vestries were the only form of local government in many places and spen ...

extension to the Church at

Weston Favell Weston Favell is an area and former civil parish near the eastern end of Northampton, now in the parish of Northampton, in the West Northamptonshire district, in the ceremonial county of Northamptonshire, England. Location Since the Industrial ...

, Northampton, which was described by Pevsner as "Excellent".Pevsner ''Northamptonshire'' (1961; 1973) (rev. Bridget Cherry)

Horton Rounds: the house on a circle

He is probably best known for the design of Horton Rounds, an unusual curved house on stilts incorporating the shapes of a comma and a full stop in the village of

Horton Horton may refer to: Places Antarctica * Horton Glacier, Adelaide Island, Antarctica * Horton Ledge, Queen Elizabeth Land, Antarctica Australia * Horton, Queensland, a town and locality in the Bundaberg Region * Horton River (Australia), ...

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...

. The house was built as a family home, and the family lived there until 1982. The house has an unusual

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is unsupported at one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a cantilev ...

ed balcony and cedar roof shingles. After being sold by the family, the house was for some years under the ownership of

Roy Clarke Royston Clarke (born 28 January 1930) is an English comedy writer, best known for creating the sitcoms ''Last of the Summer Wine'', ''Keeping Up Appearances'', ''Open All Hours'' and its sequel series, ''Still Open All Hours''. Early life Cla ...

the writer of ''

Last of the Summer Wine ''Last of the Summer Wine'' is a British sitcom set in Yorkshire created and written by Roy Clarke and originally broadcast by the BBC from 1973 to 2010. It premiered as an episode of ''Comedy Playhouse'' on 4 January 1973, and the first seri ...

''. Of the house, Pevsner says:

"A striking house. The dominant features are the broad curving eaves of the shingled roofs and the taller circular service cores and chimney of local yellow stone. In plan the house is a comma, with a full stop linked by a bridge. The tail of the comma, open on the ground floor with bedrooms above, shelters a paved garden. The broad end has service rooms and entrances below and a circular living area above which has views in all directions".

In August 2012

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...

designated the house as

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

. In the designation it was stated that "Along with Peter Lambert Gibbs's own house of 1965, Fernhill in Ashdown Forest, and Robert Harvey's houses in Warwickshire, Horton Rounds is one of the best in the country of a small group of post-war houses clearly influenced by the work of

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright Sr. (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed List of Frank Lloyd Wright works, more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key ...

."English Heritage designation # 1407987

Examples of Marshman's work

Image:CheeseHouse.JPG, "Cheese house",

, Northamptonshire Image:WFCVestry.JPG, St Peter's vestry –

The Marshman family

The Marshman family originated in

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

and moved to

in the 18th century. Other members of the Marshman family include: *

Hannah Marshman Hannah Marshman (13 May 1767 – 5 March 1847) was an English missionary who founded a school at Serampore, India. She was the daughter of John Shepherd, a farmer, and his wife Rachel, and the granddaughter of John Clark, pastor of the Baptist ...

John Clark Marshman John Clark Marshman (18 August 1794 – 8 July 1877) was an English journalist and historian. He was editor and publisher of the Calcutta-based ''Friend of India'', and was involved with several other Indian publications. Early life Marshman w ...

Joshua Marshman Joshua Marshman (20 April 1768 – 6 December 1837) was a Baptist missionary in Bengal, India from 1799 until his death. He was a member of the Serampore trio with William Carey (missionary), William Carey and William Ward (missionary), William ...

External sources

English Heritage Listing

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marshman, Arthur AJ 1929 births 1997 deaths 20th-century English architects People from Northampton Royal Air Force airmen Architects from Northamptonshire Fellows of the Royal Institute of British Architects Deaths from cancer in England 20th-century Royal Air Force personnel People educated at Northampton School for Boys Military personnel from Northampton