Family Archive on Edgar Wood’s Arkholme Saved

2016-02-23 10-51-28_0065A collection of documents and photographs about Edgar Wood’s Arkholme, 1 Towncroft Avenue formerly belonging to the Taylor family is to go to the Edgar Wood Middleton archive, thanks to historian Geoff Wellens.

The collection is a crucial source of information on what is Edgar Wood’s very first flat roofed design. It was erected in 1901 a year or two before he met J. Henry Sellers, with whom he was to pioneer art deco design.

No 1 Towncroft Ave_2The material includes photographs of the house as it was in the days of its first occupant, Edgar Wood’s friend Charles Jackson, brother of painter Fredrick Jackson, before it was (sensitively) altered in the 1950s by the Taylor family. It also has images of Towncroft Avenue being widened, letters and invoices from tradespeople who worked on the house.

The Edgar Wood archive is managed by the Society curator Nick Baker.

Archer, John letter to Nan Taylor