Robert Beall (sculptor)

Although Beall made his name as a sculptor in Newcastle upon Tyne, his family background was in Lincolnshire and Rutland. His grandmother Elizabeth Beall née Frisby was born in Oakham, Rutland. was also born in Oakham, Robert Beall was born in Stamford, Lincolnshire, around 1836. He had four younger brothers, all born in Stamford. The 1851 census finds him at age 15 living in North Street, Stamford, with his parents and younger brothers. In 1871 the family was living at 51 Elswick Road, Westgate, Newcastle, with five of their children. By 1881, the family had moved to 13 Portland Terrace, Jesmond, Newcastle. By 1891, Beall was a widower living with his two unmarried daughters at 13 Portland Terrace, Jesmond, Newcastle. Beall died on 9 January 1892 at 13 Portland Terrace, Newcastle upon Tyne. He was interred in Elswick Cemetery on 13 January 1892. His will was proved at Newcastle upon Tyne on 15 October 1907. By 2013 the cemetery was in poor condition, but it received a grant for a conservation project in 2023. ==Career==

''Ward's Directory'' indicates that Beall's business originated as Walker & Emley, a firm of masons, smiths and ironfounders, which operated at 42–44 Westgate Road, Newcastle, and at the Neville Steam Marble and Granite Works at Gateshead. Beall joined them in the 1860s, as Walker, Emley & Beall, and that partnership continued into the 1870s. The business was registered at 9 Cottenham Street, then Elswick Row, in Newcastle between 1861 and the 1870s. From the 1880s, Beall ran the business as a sole trader, from 13 Portland Terrace, Newcastle. Another source suggests that ironmonger and ironfounder Henry Walker joined with Emley and Beall by 1876, and left the partnership in 1885. In the 1880s, the company was also known as Emley & Co., and Beall's sculptural work was sometimes credited under that company name. who was employed by the firm for fifty-five years, and executed the twenty-five stone heads on Worswick Chambers, Newcastle, in 1891. ==Selected works==

Clock tower and drinking fountain, Tynemouth, 1861 Beall executed the carvings on the Venetian Gothic clock tower and drinking fountain, Newspapers credited the design to architects Oliver & Lamb of Newcastle upon Tyne, and was calling for builders to tender for the work in January 1861. However, some newspapers said that the premium for the original design competition for the drinking fountain was awarded to the young architect Septimus Hird of Darlington, who drowned in the sea in July 1861, aged 17, before the building was completed. The clock tower was funded by Tynemouth-born William Scott at a cost of up to £500 (), and inaugurated on 2 September 1861. The Newcastle Guardian and Tyne Mercury said, "Around the erection, and giving it an artistic effect, is a variety of carving, consisting chiefly of natural foliage, the work of Mr Beale (sic) of Newcastle". The clock tower was described by the Newcastle Journal as follows: The inauguration of the clock tower began with a procession from the Bath Hotel. It featured Tynemouth's mayor and corporation, a company of the First Northumberland Artillery Corps, the North Shields Rifle Corps (NCRC) band, and Reverend T. Featherstone, who was the primary instigator of the building of the clock. Having mentioned in his speech that the fountain water of the clock tower was better than that drawn at home by the town's population, the mayor declared the clock tower open. Along with his corporation, the mayor celebrated the occasion by drinking some of the water from a silver cup, while a 21-gun salute was fired from the Castle Yard by the Northumberland Artillery Corps, after which the NSRC band played the National Anthem. Clock tower and drinking fountain, Tynemouth, 1861.jpg|Clock tower, Tynemouth, in 1861 Scott Clock and Fountain - geograph.org.uk - 2818422.jpg|Clock tower, Tynemouth, in 2012 Scott Clock Fountain Tynemouth 05.jpg|Clock tower, Tynemouth, in 2019 St Mary's Church, Nun Monkton, 1869–1873 This is a Grade I listed building, founded in the 12th or 13th century. Costing £4,400 (), and re-opened and consecrated by the Bishop of Ripon, on 16 October 1873, after three hundred years of neglect. The reredos is of five compartments. That in the centre is of large size, and has a cinquefoiled head. The two compartments on each side are of smaller size, with trefoil heads [they were not yet filled with statuary]. The compartments are divided from each other by serpentine marble shafts.The canopy is of Caen stone, and elaborately carved. The heads at the intersection of the pediment are surmounted with finials of the Early English Period, carved in a very rich manner. The central pediment rises above the clerestory string course [its niche and side panels were not yet filled with the intended crucifixion and saint figures] ... The pulpit is remarkably beautiful, and is of various coloured marbles and Caen stone. Beall, for Walker, Emley and Beall, constructed the Shakespeare Fountain in Leicester Square, Westminster, London, in 1874. It is a water fountain with trough and pump, made of Sicilian marble, and funded by the financier Albert Grant. Shakespeare statue (cropped).jpg|Shakespeare fountain, Leicester Square, 1874 Statue of William Shakespeare at the centre of Leicester Square Gardens, London (4039170693).jpg|Shakespeare fountain, detail LeicesterSquareGardens.jpg|Shakespeare fountain, the trough Pulpit and reredos in St Nicholas' Cathedral, Newcastle, 1882 This is a Grade I listed building. In 1882, St Nicholas Parish Church became Newcastle Cathedral. Around that time, Beall carved the Uttoxeter marble pulpit with its alabaster figures, designed by architect Robert James Johnson for the cathedral. At some point between 1873 and 1887, Beall carved the decorative framework and smaller figures of the reredos in Uttoxeter marble and alabaster, in the same building. Newcastle Anglican Cathedral on 21 April 2023 (90a).JPG|Pulpit by Beall, Newcastle Cathedral, 1882 Newcastle Anglican Cathedral on 21 April 2023 (71).JPG|Alabaster figure by Beall on pulpit, Newcastle Cathedral, 1882 Newcastle Anglican Cathedral on 21 April 2023 (50a).JPG|Reredos by Beall, with Westmacott's 16 figures, Newcastle Cathedral, 1873–1887 Newcastle Anglican Cathedral on 21 April 2023 (34).JPG|Angel by Beall, on reredos framework, Newcastle Catedral, 1873–1887 Stone cross, St Mary's Abbey churchyard, Blanchland, 1882 Beall erected a "beautifully polished grey granite" memorial cross for a young man in the churchyard of Blanchland Abbey Church, in 1882. Farmers Robert Snowball and his father, and their servant Jane Barron aged 27, lived in a lonely farmhouse on the moor at Belmount. After Robert Snowball told Barron at dinner that he "knew about her lad", he was found dead the next morning in the farm loft on 1 January 1880, his skull battered from behind with a stone-breaking hammer. At the inquest, Barron was found not guilty. No stranger had been observed near the farmhouse around the time of the murder. However, by May 1880, Barron had been incarcerated in an asylum on the grounds of increasing violence and "ravings". St George's Church, Jesmond, 1888 This is a Grade I listed building. The whole was funded by Charles Mitchell of Jesmond Towers. Beall carved the "very tall" baptistry screen "filled with Caen stone carved in crocketed tracery and niches" at the west end of the church, around the same year. Beall also carved the Pavonazzo marble font, reredos and altar, under his company name of Emley & Co. of Newcastle. The combined reredos and altar unit includes mosaics by C. Mitchel (son of the church's benefactor), of Archangel Gabriel, Jesus and Archangel St Michael, and was exhibited at the Newcastle Jubilee Exhibition of 1887. Of the reredos and font, the Newcastle Chronicle said: ==Legacy==

After Beall died in 1892, his company continued until at least the 1930s. The workshop was inherited by Beall's son Robert Eusebius Beall, who continued to work under the name of Robert Beall until 1909. The business became a limited company in 1933. Under Robert Eusebius Beall, the company reconstructed the Acca’s Cross in St. Andrew’s cemetery in Hexham and, in 1896, repaired the Grace Darling memorial in Bamburgh. An 1899–1902 Second Boer War monument was erected in St Mary's Cathedral, Newcastle upon Tyne. A portion of this memorial is in Fenham Barracks, Newcastle. It was possibly moved to St John's Cemetery, Elswick. Another such memorial is at St George's churchyard, Cullercoats, Northumberland, There is a First World War plaque war memorial for church and school at Whitehall Road United Methodist Church, Gateshead, and an outdoor memorial at Jarrow Cemetery. There is also a 1914–1918 monument to members, at the Newcastle Commercial Exchange, Newcastle. Another outdoor First World War memorial is in St Anthony of Egypt churchyard at Walker, Newcastle. at Corbridge Cemetery, Northumberland, at Haltwhistle, Northumberland, and in St Mary the Virgin churchyard, at Ovingham, Northumberland. War memorial Castle Eden geograph-6610039-by-Ian-S.jpg|Castle Eden war memorial Monument morts Cullercoats North Tyneside 1.jpg|Cullercoats war memorial War memorial, Corbridge Cemetery geograph-7259200-by-Robert-Graham.jpg|Corbridge war memorial Fatfield War Memorial (1a).jpg|Fatfield war memorial Cross of Sacrifice in Jarrow - geograph.org.uk - 1599388.jpg|Jarrow Cemetery war memroal Commercial Exchange memorial 1920 (4b).jpg|Newcastle Commercial Exchange war memorial (demolished) ==Notes==