WOOLNOUGH, Henry

1820 - 1862

Henry Woolnough was born at Grundisburgh, Suffolk on 5 September 1820, son of William Woolnough, a blacksmith, and his wife Elizabeth née Forsdick, who married at Grundisburgh on 22 February 1816. In 1838 apprenticed to Ipswich architect John Whiting (1776-1846) and taken into partnership in 1845, but Whiting died the following year when Henry was on his own account at 9 Great Colman Street, Ipswich and William Cotman Eade was one of his early pupils. Henry was on the committee of Suffolk Fine Art Society and contributed to their exhibitions. Probably Woolnough's most prestigious work was the former Ipswich Town Hall on the Cornhill which was built in 1850 which lasted until 1882 but he designed many Ipswich buildings. Henry married at Ipswich on 4 November 1846 Susan née Bonner (1816-25 January 1862) and in 1861, Henry was living at 4 Northgate Street, Ipswich with his 46-year-old wife Susan and their four daughters, Kate Emma McCosh Clark 13, Elizabeth Jane 10, Fanny Susan 9 and Emily Sarah 7, all born in Ipswich together with his mother-in-law 79-year-old widow Sarah Bonner. Henry Woolnough died, six months after his wife, at his father's home in Grundisburgh on 13 August 1862 and was buried in Ipswich Cemetery on 18 August 1862.