Page 202 - Redditch People

Redditch People

As well as these formal, academic lectures, Woodward was also involved in the 'Saturday
Evening Entertainments' which took place in the Wesleyan Schoolroom at Headless Cross
and were organised by William Avery as part of a programme of facilities for a Working
Man's Room in the village.

The commission to excavate and subsequently write the illustrated history of the
Cistercian Bordesley Abbey came from Bartleet, who himself dedicated the work to the
Right Honourable Baroness Windsor of Hewell Grange.

The resultant book, published in 1866 and entitled 'The History of Bordesley Abbey, in the
Valley of the Arrow', is a thorough, well-researched and scholarly volume which is still
regarded as definitive 150 years after it was written.

The illustrations are both imaginative (of monks, and the legendary Black Dog) and
draughtsman-like (an accurate record of architectural features, tiles and other
archaeological finds).

Woodward's reputation as an enquiring intellectual who could get the job done led to
another challenge in the following year, when he undertook a mission to Murcia in
south-east Spain to investigate the culture of the silkworm with the ultimate aim of
assessing an application to use silk in the fishing-tackle industry.

On his return to England, Woodward lived in and around London and during this time he
married Emma Barrow, a school mistress twelve years his junior, and although Emma
was originally from Redditch the wedding, on 9th September 1872, took place in
Berkhampstead, Hertfordshire.

Their first son, Holtham Mills Woodward, was born in Northchurch, Hertfordshire in 1874,
but by the time their second son, Northwood Fellow Woodward was born the year after,
the family was back in Redditch and about to move into their newly built 'Castle' at Crabbs
Cross. Charles Oldhan Woodward was born on 4th September 1877, and the last child,
Horace James Woodward was born in 1882.

Now firmly ensconced in Crabbs Cross Woodward regularly contributed articles of local
historical interest to the 'Redditch Indicator'.

Although he was increasingly known for his writing, he always described himself as 'Artist'
or, more specifically, 'Artist in oil and water colour'. His paintings were almost exclusively
of local, recognisable scenes - buildings with maybe an incidental figure or a dog.

One of his pictures, an untitled genre painting, was good enough to be exhibited at the
Royal Birmingham Society of Artists in 1878. Woodward also produced many black-and-
white line drawings, as illustrations and also, in an age before newspapers could
reproduce photographs, as 'reportage'.

James Mills Woodward died in Smallwood Hospital, Redditch, on 31st August 1899, aged
66 and was buried in Ipsley churchyard. In his will he left to his eldest son Holtham Mills
Woodward a total of £209, which was not an insignificant sum at that time.

Page: 202 © RLHS 2015