Hems, H. & Sons (1876-1914)
Hems, H. & Sons
The Ecclesiastical Art Works, Exeter, Devon; cabinet carvers & gilders, carved woodwork manufacturers, ecclesiastical & architectural carvers & sculptors (fl.1876-1914)
Henry Hems (known as Harry) was born on 12 June 1842 in Islington and trained under Arthur Hayball, carver & furniture maker in Sheffield. While working for Hayball (c.1862) he restored carvings in Ecclesfield Church [The Furniture Gazette, 17 February 1877].
From 1866 to 1868 he worked on the commission of the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter and this led to a permanent move to the town and the establishment of the Ecclesiastical Art Works. He was listed at 69 Paris Street, as a cabinet carver & gilder in 1876 & 1877 [The Furniture Gazette Directory ] and as a cabinet carver, gilder, church decorator and furniture manufacturer by 1886 [The Furniture Gazette Directory: Classified List of the Furniture, Upholstery and Allied Trades].
The 1881 census recorded Hems as the employer of twenty-three men and seven boys. With business prospering, in 1882-83 he built new workshops, studios, modelling rooms and offices on a two-acre site at 84 Longbrook Street and further extended the premises in 1884 to provide a street frontage of over 300 feet, a tramway to connect the various workshops and a telephone that linked to Hem’s home in Fair Park [The Furniture Gazette, 18 October 1884 & 1 January 1889]. He placed a plaque on his old premises in Paris Street, which stated ‘Grieve not my friends, nor shed a tear. I’m well and strong, and living near. Daily all honest folk I greet. At my domain in Longbrook Street. Read, learn, digest and hereby mark That place, by men, is called Fair Park. There, with a staff of artists skill’d. On Fortunes’ sturdy rock I build: Each one upon his part intent, To rear to Fame a Monument. Reader: The wide, wide world go tell: My motto still is I.X.L.’. The tablet also bore a facisimile of a horseshoe, the symbol of Mr Hems [The Furniture Gazette, 29 July & 19 August 1882].
The extended Longbrook Street work premises were opened by the Mayor and a procession through the streets was followed by an employees’ dinner hosted by 'Councillor' Hems, who had been elected a Town Councillor for St Sidwell’s Ward, Exeter on 10 November 1883 [The Furniture Gazette, 20 December 1884]. One of many acts of benevolence to his employees, and indeed often the townspeople of Exeter, were annual events to celebrate his arrival in Exeter on 4 December 1866. In 1880 he entertained over 311 poor and aged people [8 January 1881]; he entertained sixty to seventy employees and their wives on Christmas Day, 1883 [22 December 1883]; and on 4 December 1888, he hosted a dinner at his newly enlarged home for about sixty employees including the general manager, J. E. Harvey, who had acted as Chief Clerk of Works for Fair Park’s extensions [1 January 1889].
On 9 October 1886 Mr. Frank Dyer, senior employee, presented Councillor, Henry Hems, with a life size portrait of himself by James F. Long, on behalf of the firm’s sixty members of staff. Also given to Hems was an illuminated address on vellum, engrossed by H. H. Read, manager of the works [The Furniture Gazette, 1 November 1886].
Hems participated in various exhibitions:
- The Centennial International Exhibition, Philadelphia, 1876, where he won several medals, one for a carved oak chest which was also exhibited at the 1878 Paris Exhibition [The Furniture Gazette, 6 April 1878]
- Exposition Universelle, Paris, 1878, where he received an honourable mention for wood carving and sculpture
- The Yorkshire Exhibition, 1879 [The Furniture Gazette, 24 May 1879]
- The Sculpture, Architecture and Ornamental Art Exhibitions
- The Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Exhibition, 1884, 1885 & 1886 (silver medal at all)
- The Furniture Trades Exhibition 1885, Agricultural Hall, Islington
- Chicago World Fair, 1893 (prize winner)
- The Antwerp Exhibition, 1894 (prize winner
- The Ecclesiastical Art Exhibition, St. Andrew’s and Blackfriars’ Halls, Norwich [The Furniture Gazette, 1 July 1889]
He advertised for various staff vacancies in The Furniture Gazette, such as for ‘architectural, not cabinet carvers’ [5 February 1881] and for ‘a number of good wood carvers’ [2 August 1884]. He also published short commentaries on his various innovations, for example his method for fumigating oak with ammonia seen below.

An edited version of his paper on the carved stalls in Exeter Cathedral delivered to the Society of Architects on 1 December 1885 was published in The Furniture Gazette on 1 January 1886, and in the 15 June 1892 edition they published his letter on the virtues of chestnut versus oak.
After 1895 Hems reputedly employed over 100 craftsmen and also had staff in London, Oxford & Ireland.
Three of his sons joined the firm: Greville Chester (born 1869); Harry Turner (born 1873); and Wilfred Westenholm Preswell (born 1885), consequently the firm was often referred to as Harry Hems & Sons.
Harry Hems died on 5 January 1916, leaving an active workshop and a fine collection of medieval wood carvings, nearly 500 of which were bought by Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum. Harry and Wilfred continued the business after the 1st World War until their retirement in 1938.
The Furniture Gazette recorded his domestic commissions including:
- A sideboard for A. Beeching of Ferox Hall, Tunbridge, Kent; illus; [26 March 1881]. The design of the sideboard incorporated 5 ancient panels and the carvings included a lion and lioness on the top.
- Carved work at Everton House, near Lyminton, for Colonel Trevor Goff [13 November 1880]
- Ferox Hall, Tonbridge for T. A. Beeching [27 November 1880]
- Rousdon mansion for Sir H. Peek, Bart. [17 January 1882]
- The corbels of the roof of the Great Hall for Mr. A. Pendarves Vivian’s new mansion at Bosahan, near Falmouth, Devon.
- Desks and other fittings for the Board School, Killamarsh, near Chesterfield [17 July 1880].
- A carved clock case bearing the coronet and monogram of the Earl of Beaconsfield [1 May 1887]
Public commissions included:
- A life-sized medallion of the Queen in oak for the Working Men’s Conservative Club, Newbury [1 August 1887]
- A carved work, the new Town Hall, Launceston [1 December 1887]
- Carved work, Exeter Middle School for Girls [15 September 1889].
Hems fulfilled hundreds of ecclesiastical commissions 1876-1892. The Furniture Gazette published some of them:
- Reredos, pitch pine chancel screen, tracery panels & enrichments at Chudleigh Knighton Church, Devon [16 December 1876]
- Carving work at the new Presbyterian Church, Armagh and a carved oak pulpit for St George’s Church, Tiverton, both were completed by July 1876 [5 July 1879].
- A fine carved oak pulpit in Gothic style, designed by Henry Hall, Christ Church, Woburn Square, London [17 February 1877].
- Oak seats for St. Mary’s Church, Poltimore, Devon
- A carved oak screen for St. George’s Church, Monkleigh [1 February 1879]
- A carved oak lectern and pulpit, St. Swithin’s Church, Sandford [15 February 1879]; wood carving for St Martin’s Church, Jersey [12 April 1879]
- Wood carving for the new parish church, Shedfield, Hampshire [26 April 1879]
- A heavily carved reredos, All Saints Church, Monk, Okehampton, designed by R.M. Fulford. [4 October 1879]
- Carving restoration work for St. Heath’s Parish Church [1 November 1879]
- An organ case for St. Peter’s Church, Folkestone, Kent to the designs of Messrs Morris & Stallwood [29 November 1879]
- Carving restoration work for Yate Church, Gloucestershire [20 December 1879]
- A carved oak pulpit for the parish church of Stoke Gabriel, Devon [24 January 1880]
- Carving and decorative work, Stockbridge Parish Church [3 April 1880]
- Restoration of the old grained rood screen for St. Michael’s Church, Honiton [24 April 1880]
- Carving for Longstock Church, Stockbridge [5 June 1880]
- Carved work, the Wesleyan Chapel, Bude [3 July 1880]
- Carved work for St. Michael’s Church, Pinhoe [31 July 1880]
- Carved work for St. Andrew’s Church, Plymouth [21 August 1880]
- Carved work for Erlestoke Church, Devizes [4 September 1880]
- Reredos, Knapton Church, near Malton [4 September 1880]
- Restoration of the rood screen, Walkern Parish Church [30 October 1880]
- Rood screen at St. Nicholas, Rodmersham, designed by S. Slingsby Stallwood [1 January 1881]
- Carved pulpit and prayer desk in wainscot oak for St. Michael’s Parish Church, Macclesfield [1 January 1881]
- Oak stalls in the chancel, open benches in the nave & aisles and other woodwork for the newly restored Parish Church of Irthlingborough [19 March 1881]
- Carved work for the new Secular Hall, Leicester [26 March 1881]
- Reredos for St. Mary’s Church, Bickleigh, near Tiverton [23 April 1881]
- Fine carved chancel screen, St. Matthew, Butterleigh [23 April 1881]
- A fine pulpit and carved oak lectern, St. Michael’s, Bristol [23 April 1881]
- Wood carving in connection with the restoration for Standlake Parish Church, Oxfordshire [7 May 1881]
- A beautiful carved oak eagle lectern, designed by William White F.S.A., for the Parish Church of Broughton, near Newport Pagnell [14 & 21 May 1881]
- Carving in connection with the restoration, of the Parish Church of St. Giles, Chideock [21 May 1881]
- Restoration and lengthening the old rood screen for the Parish Church of St. Ewe, near Mevagissy, Cornwall [4 June 1881]
- An elaborately carved Bishop’s throne and richly carved doors for St. Andrews Church, Fortwilliam, the Highlands [18 June 1881]
- Carved oak fittings, St. Peter the Pious Fisherman Church, Revelstoke, funded by the banker, E. C. Baring [8 October 1881]

Drawing of the upper portion of a carved oak pulpit in the Church of St Peter the Pious Fisherman, Revelstoke, Devon, 1881. The Furniture Gazette, 1 November 1887, p. 340.
- Restoration and enlargement of a rood screen for St. Eva (Ewe) Church, Cornwall [29 October 1881]
- Carved angels in the roof of the nave, St. James’s Church, Exeter [3 December 1881] and reredos and retable, East Wonford church [17 December 1881]
- Oak altar table, new Wesleyan Chapel, New Brompton [4 February 1882]
- Carving and sculptural work for Noss Church, Mayo
- Carved bench ends etc. in connection with restoration of St. Gregory’s Church, Venn Ottery [4 March 1882]
- A triptych for St. John Baptist Church, Bath [8 April 1882]
- Restoration of carved work, St. Paul’s Church, Staverton, Totnes [15 April 1882]
- Oak stalls, lectern and credence table, St. Pinnock parish church [22 April 1882]
- Pulpit and canopy, St. Mary’s R. C. Cathedral, Aberdeen [13 May 1882]
- Tower screen St. Mary Parish Church, Wolborough, near Newton Abbot [20 May 1882]
- Oak carving & carved screen for Staverton Parish Church [22 July & 19 August 1882]
- A marble, lined with teak, pulpit and font, St. George’s Church, Stonehouse [21 October 1882]
- Restoration work and some new altar rails and a sedilia of carved oak to the designs of architect, J. O. Scott, Parish Church, Barnstable [4 November 1882]
- Reredos for St Cuby’s Church, Duloe [ 11 November 1882]
- Pulpit, prayer desk and credence of wainscot oak, Parish Church, Oakford [18 & 25 November 1882]
- The pulpit, St. Mary’s Church, Weymouth [18 & 25 November 1882]
- Restoration of the ancient oak rood screen, St. Mary’s Church, Walkern, Hertfordshire [9 December 1882]
- The chancel screen for St. Peter’s Church, Noss Mayo, Plympton [16 December 1882]
- Carved woodwork at St Andrews Church, Kenn, Exeter [16 December 1882]
- Reredos for St. John’s Church, North Bovey [20 January 1883]
- Reredos for Parish Church, Duloe, near Liskeard [3 February 1883]
- A parclose screen and another screen for St. Peter’s Church, Plymouth [3 March 1883]
- Reredos for St. Giles’ Church, Northampton [10 March and 6 & 13 October 1883]
- A pulpit, St Michael Church, Knill, Radnorshire [24 March 1883]
- Carved bench ends for Affpuddle Church, Dorchester [31 March 1883]
- Reredos for Micheldever Church, Hants [7 April 1883]
- Reredos, litany desk and lectern, Cockington Church, Devon [14 April 1883]
- Reredos, Barnstable Parish Church [21 April 1883]
- Sedilia, bishop’s seat and altar rails for St. Peter & St. Paul Church, Barnstable [2 June 1883]
- Oak stalls and altar table for Seapatrick Parish Church, Banbridge, Co. Down [23 June 1883]
- Pulpit and other stone and wood carving, Parish Church of St. Peter, Washford Pyne, Devon [30 June 1883]
- Stalls for St. Bartholomew’s Church, Lostwithiel, and a set of canopied choir stall [30 June 1883]
- The Byzantine church, Hoarwithy, near Ross [30 June 1883]
- Marble pulpit, St Marks Church, Tollington, London [7 July 1883]
- Carving on 2 handsome, memorial sanctuary armchairs, made of seasoned oak, in the Parish Church of All Saints, Botley, first used on 8 July 1883 [14 July 1883]
- Magnificent oak crucifix 6ft high, with a plate inscribed ‘Pray for the Sculptor who gave this to the Little Sisters of the Poor 1883, presented for the private chapel, The Little Sisters of the Poor, St. Mary Street, Stonehouse [4 August 1883]
- Stalls for St. Bartholomew’s Church, Lostwithiel [11 August 1883]
- Handsome reredos of Caen stone for Emmanuel Church, Mannamead, as a memorial to the late Thomas Rendell [18 August 1883]
- 12ft high screen for the chancel, 10ft high screens for the bays, stalls and chancel fittings for St. Andrew’s Church, Ashburton [18 August & 8 December 1883]
- Reredos for St. John’s Episcopal Church, Aberdeen
- A carved oak pulpit for St. Michael & All Angels, Exeter and memorial carved oak lectern for Gorey Parish Church [8 December 1883]
- The major commission, worth £12,000, of the restoration of the intricate high altar screen, St. Alban’s Abbey, which took 8 years to complete [2 February & 20 August 1884; 1 August 1889]
- Carving work for fittings and furniture for the Congregational Church, Long Causeway, Dewsbury [9 February 1884]
- Handsome English oak benches for Christ Church, Bradford upon Avon [23 February 1884]
- Carved lectern, Parish Church of St. Ive, St Ives, Cornwall [ 8 March 1884]
- Pulpit and prayer and litany desks, St George’s Church, Sheffield, woodwork carving for the renovation of The Abbot’s Tower, the ancient Abbey of Buckfast [22 March 1884]
- Oak pulpit, in Early English style for St. Michael & All Angels, Exeter, designed by architect, Arthur W. Blomfield, and a gift from the widow of the late Mr. Gibbs of Tyntesfield, who paid for the church [5 April 1884]
- A font for Shirehampton Church [3 May 1884]
- Reredos in the eastern end of St. Andrew’s Church, Aberdeen [31 May 1884]
- Restoration work to the rood and parclose screens in Littleham Church [7 June 1884]
- Reredos, font and pulpit for the newly rebuilt Essenden Parish Church [14 June 1884]
- Seating and carving, Christ Church, Bradford-on-Avon [26 July 1884]
- 180 English oak benches, Old Parish Church, Bishop’s Canning, near Devizes [18 October 1884]
- Carving of the oak cross on the top of the screen between nave and chancel, St. James’ Church, Kew, near Wadebridge [1 November 1884]
- Carving on the roof of the new south aisle and a series of sculptured oak angels, St. George, Chipping Orton, Essex [6 December 1884]
- Carving work for St. Laurence’s Church, Winslow, Buckinghamshire [17 January 1885]
- Pulpit for Holy Trinity Church, Westward Ho. [1 April 1885]
- Alteration of the Jacobean pulpit of elaborately carved oak, formerly in the chapel New College, Oxford, which was then placed in the nave of Winchester Cathedral [8 May 1885]
- Carved oak lectern for St. Michael’s Church, Newquay, Cornwall [8 May 1885]
- Set of handsome carved choir stalls made from oak trees near the Church, Hoarswithy Parish Church, Herefordshire [1 June 1885]
- 2 parclose screens in Riga oak for St. Andrew’s Church, Plymouth [1 August & 1 September 1885]
- Carved oak parclose screen, York Town Church, near Farnborough [1 December 1885].
- Reredos made of carved oak with painted panels for St. Peter Mancroft, Norwich [1 January 1886]
- Oak stalls, desks, misereres, screens, St. Peter Port Church, Guernsey (the six carved panels of the backs of the miserere stall were exhibited at the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society, Falmouth, 1886) and a richly carved wagon roof with no less than 370 richly carved bosses at intersections, an oak octagonal pulpit, litany desk and credence table, Newton Ferris Church, Devon [1 March & 1 April 1886]
- Two oak parclose screens, Church of the Holy Cross, Newton Ferris [1 May 1886]
- A finely sculptured reredos, altar, stalls and pulpit, all in oak, as well as carrying out the carving and sculptural work in connection with the Church’s restoration, Wembury Parish Church [1 June & 1 July 1886]
- Choir stalls and clergy desks of massive oak, with carved poppy ends, and large carved oak candlestand, the chapel of the Little Sisters of the Poor at their new home of St Joseph, Hartley, Plymouth [1 June 1886]
- Oak reredos, church of Clyst St George, near Topsham. [1 July 1886]
- Pulpit of carved oak, the Parish Church of St Thomas á Becket, North Lew [ 1 September 1886]
- A carved English oak screen, designed by the rector, Parish Church of St. Swithun, Heabourne Worthy [1 October 1886]
- An unsuccessful for thirty one 17th century carved oak stalls from the ancient Carthusian monastery at Buxheim, Bavaria when they were offered for sale at W. & F. C. Bonham on 1 September 1886 [ 1 October 1886]
- Reredos for St Petrock Church, Petrockstow, North Devon [1 February 1887]
- A tympanum, designed by J. Oldrid Scott, St. John the Evangelist, Clerkenwell [1 March 1887]
- Sculptural carved work, St. Matthias Church, Plymouth [1 April 1887]
- Carved work for Holy Trinity Church, Weymouth [1 May 1887]
- A pulpit, lectern and prayer desk, St. Michael and All Angels, Awliscombe, near Honiton [1 July 1887]
- Stalls for the Church of All Hallows, Barking [1 July 1887]
- Oak benches or the St. Stephen’s Church, Bristol [1 July 1887]
- An oak stalls, St. Sidwell’s Church [1 August 1887]
- Carved work for St. Denis, Warminster
- Reredos for St. Bartholomew’s Church, Welby
- Sculptural work for The Home of Mercy, Lostwithiel [1 September 1887]
- Reredos for St. Mary’s Church, Bickington, near Ashburton [1 October 1887]
- Sculptured oak panels for St. Mary’s Church, Bickington, [1 November 1887]

Drawing of sculptured oak panels in reredos in St. Mary's Church, Bickington, 1887. The Furniture Gazette, 1 November 1887, p. 340.
- Choir stalls for St. Sidwell’s Church, Exeter [1 November 1887]
- Reredos for St. Saviour’s Church, Tormoham, Torquay, illus. [1 February 1888]
- Restoration of the oak screen and supply of a new pulpit for Parish Church, Combeinteignhead [1 March 1888]
- Carved oak chancel screen & altar rails, and additions to the stalls and parclose screens, Noss Mayo Church [1 June 1888]
- Reredos for St. Thomas-a-Becket Church, Lewes [1 July 1888]
- Altar for St. Catherine’s Chapel, Great Berkhampstead Parish Church [1 November 1888]
- Pulpit as a memorial to the late Col. Madden, Strete Church, near Dartmouth [1 November 1888]
- Carving restoration for All Saints Church, Northampton
- New carving and restoration of carving for Church of St. Saviour’s, Dartmouth [1 January 1889]
- Choir stalls for the chancel of Padstow Parish Church [1 April 1889]
- Restoration of the carved oak screen, Staverton Parish Church [1 August 1889]
- Pulpit for All Saints’ Church, Okehampton [15 October 1889]
- Oak misere for a priest’s seat, St. John’s Church, Torquay [15 February 1891]
- Carving for St. Margaret’s Church, Torquay [16 May 1892]
- Reredos for the Church of St Mary the Virgin, Ashbury, Devon [15 June 1892]
- Two priests desks for St. Mary Church, Ilminster [15 July 1892]
Sources: Mapping of Sculpture, Glasgow University; Harry Hems - Ecclesiastical sculptor and wood carver.
Object