Page 201 - Redditch People

Redditch People

Life and Times of J. M. Woodward

James Mills Woodward was a major figure in the cultural and artistic life of Victorian
Redditch.

His obituary in the 'Redditch Indicator' (9th September 1899) described him as having a
'retiring and unobtrusive disposition', but despite his quiet persona he achieved a high
degree of fame locally, and was well-respected for his wide-ranging artistic and literary
abilities.

His interests and skills were manifold, and he could be regarded as Redditch's answer to
the polymath William Morris in the way that his life encompassed so many facets.

He is justly renowned for 'The History of Bordesley Abbey' (1866), which he wrote and
illustrated from his own excavations and historical research, but as well as being an
historian and an artist, he was also a teacher, a poet, a newspaper contributor and
illustrator, an inventor of needle wrappers, an amateur dramatist and a researcher into
the life cycle of the silk worm.

He is also known to have been a competent classicist and linguist, a newspaper editor and
a compiler of ghost stories. He designed his own house, the splendid 'Castle' (1876) at
Crabbs Cross (mentioned in Pevsner), and there is even evidence that he designed a
tombstone for an old friend.

The eldest son of Josiah and Elizabeth Woodward, James was born in Lozells Road in
Aston, Birmingham on 19th September 1832. Josiah was a partner in Woodward, Midgely
and Richards, a firm of japanners and 'paper-mache manufacturers' based in George
Street, Birmingham.

James was educated at Mr. MacFarlane's school at Aston Villa, Birmingham - a stone's
throw from Aston Hall - and his obituary in The Redditch Indicator tells us that this private
education was supposed to be the first step to making a worthy successor to take on the
family business in due course. However, fashions in ornament and fancy goods change,
as do fashions in dress and artistic and high-class papier mache wares, such as those
made in George Street, passed wholly out of vogue.

James had to look for a new vocation, and found it in tuition.

In 1856, at the age of 24, James left home to teach at a school in Bridgend,
Glamorganshire, returning to the Birmingham area in 1858 to take up a position in
Redditch as a master at the Public Evening School.

Redditch was at this time a town that was transforming itself into an organised,
commercial town with a touch of the 'civic pride' to be seen increasingly in much larger
towns and cities throughout Victorian Britain. The industrious working men of Redditch
were encouraged to be both educated and spiritually enlightened.

James Mills Woodward is recorded as teaching boys as well as adults and he was also a
tutor to the sons of Robert Smith Bartleet, J.P., a position that was to lead to his
involvement in the excavation of Bordesley Abbey in 1863.

© RLHS 2015 Page: 201