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SHAREHOLDERS OF THE SOMERSETSHIRE COAL CANAL
Charles Spackman
Born: 1749 (some sources state 1748), Marlborough, Wiltshire.
Married: 1774 Anne Pritchard of Marlborough
Died: 1822
Family: One daughter,
 Victoria Art Gallery |
Charles Spackman was raised in Marlborough, Wiltshire, where he set up a coach manufactory serving the Great West Road, but in 1773, while still in his twenties, he expanded his operations into Bath, going into partnership with Edward Morton, a Bath coach-builder, to run a carriage works by the Bristol Road at Nos 21-23 Monmouth Street. This proved very successful and Spackman was soon admitted to the Bath Freemasons (Royal Cumberland Lodge, at The Bear Inn in Stall Street). By then Bath had become an important coaching centre, and it is probable that Spackman acquired good business connections with prominent coach operators such as Eleazer Pickwick*. In 1774 he Married Anne Pritchard of Marlborough, taking residence at 24 Kingsmead Street, adjoining his workshops. They had one daughter, Catherine. At that time Bath attracted many aspiring English artists (Gainsborough, Lawrence, Hoare, Beach, &c), and Spackman became a connoisseur of art, accumulating a respectable collection of Dutch and Flemish masters. About 1781 Benjamin Barker senior, living nearby in Cross Lane, had been taken on by Spackman as a coach painter and decorator, and it was in the following year that Spackman recognised the talent of Benjamin's son, Thomas Barker, then 15 years old. In 1785 he took over Thomas's education and his apprenticeship as a painter, probably under the tutelage of Joseph Sheldon**, a bookshop owner, local artist and drawing master who also lived in Kingsmead Street, and who later became well known for his construction of a scale model of Bath. In the late 1780s Spackman also started to branch out into property development and architecture, in partnership with banker and builder John Lowder of Monmouth Street, and the architect John Palmer who lived nearby in Charles Street - Spackman acting as 'projector' or agent for the supply of building materials. Their first works included Lansdown Crescent (initially known as 'Spackman's Buildings' or 'Lansdown Place'), together with All Saints Proprietary Chapel below. In July 1789, when the Bath Improvement Act was passed, Spackman and Palmer were appointed Improvement Commissioners, together with Dr. Henry Harington (Mayor) and other prominent citizens. It was during this year that Thomas Barker painted the portrait of Spackman with himself (see accompanying picture).
In 1790 Spackman opened a gallery to display Barker's work (probably the first in this country devoted to a single artist) at 23 Kingsmead Street, backing on to his own house, Thomas himself being sent off to Italy on the Grand Tour. Meanwhile Spackman entered into a joint undertaking with John Fielder, James Broom, Thomas King* and William and Richard Hewlett* to build St.James's Square (designed by Palmer) and to supply the upper part of the city with water. William and Richard Hewlett were prominent Bath builders and related to James Hewlett, a noted still-life painter and colleague of Thomas Barker.
In about 1791, after exhibiting Thomas's work at the Royal Academy, Spackman gave up his partnership in the coaching business to concentrate on his development projects and to set up a prosperous business as an Art and Property Appraiser and Auctioneer, his share in the carriage works being taken up instead by John Fuller, whose descendants continued to run the firm into the 20th century. |
With the completion of All Saints Chapel in 1792, Spackman moved residence to the adjoining Chapel House, where he took over the artistic education of Thomas Barker's two younger brothers, Benjamin jnr. and Joseph. Benjamin later became a noted landscape painter, and carried out restoration work for the Rev. John Skinner of Camerton. Also at this time Spackman was appointed to the Committee of the Bath Society of Guardians, and in 1793, after the Walcot Improvement Act was passed, again appointed Commissioner, along with his associates Fielder, King and Lowder and the City Architect Thos.Baldwin. By now Thomas Barker had returned from Italy and was carrying out much work for the Rev. Thomas WhalleyÝ of the Royal Crescent, while Spackman put on a second Barker exhibition at the Kingsmead Street Gallery.
Unfortunately, in 1795 (the year after the S.C.C. Act was passed) there was a severe building slump in Bath, and Spackman, having overstretched his resources like many others, was declared bankrupt. Thomas Barker opened a gallery in London, but conditions just then were not favourable for artists, and two years later he returned to Bath where he remained for the rest of his career. About 1800 Spackman also moved to London where he built up a new and relatively successful career as an Art Dealer, but always retained contact with Bath and the Barker family until his death in 1822. However, other members of his family stayed in Bath, particularly Henry Spackman who went on to found a firm of architects, surveyors and land agents which continued in business in Terrace Walk up to the 1950s.
The coach-building business also continued to flourish, although the carriage collection was eventually dispersed, as the firm, under S&A Fuller, evolved into motor builders and dealers from the early 1900s onwards. However, during the Bath 'Blitz' the Monmouth/Kingsmead Street area was so badly damaged that it was completely redeveloped in the 1960s, the coachworks site being occupied by the office block now known as Plymouth House. Although the firm found new premises in Circus Mews, it was finally taken over by Hartwell Motors in Newbridge Road in the 1980s. Nor did All Saints Chapel below Lansdown Crescent survive the 'Blitz'. Having been burned out by incendiaries, it too was subsequently demolished.
Mike Chapman
* SCC shareholders
** Probably related to SCC shareholder
Bibliography
1 'Thomas Barker of Bath; The Artist and his Circle' by Iain McCallum,
Millstream Books ISBN 0-948975-67-9.
The book is still available from Millstream Books at £20.
Contact Tim Graham 01225 425181 email: tmggraham@mac.com
2 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
entry for Thomas Barker contributed by
Susan Sloman.
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