The english abbey

F. H. Crossley, died at Hoole, Cheshire, on 6 January 1955. Crossley was born in Yorkshire, but he came to Cheshire as a young apprentice farmer in the Knutsford area. In 1892 he joined a village wood-carving class at Over Tabley, and six years later, after studying at the Manchester School of Art, he became an instructor of drawing, design and wood-carving in Cheshire. Church architecture and furnishings became his life's work, and he roamed the country making countless sketches and becoming an ardent photographer. Later he accepted commissions for designing and carving church woodwork at Over Peover, Bunbury, Plemstall and other Cheshire churches. In 1921, con- jointly with Thomas Rayson of Oxford, he designed the War Memorial at Chester Cathedral, and in 1938 and 1939 he restored the Cathedral Refectory. But his work in Cheshire is small compared with the volume of work he did in churches outside the county. For many years he served on the Chester, Liver- pool and Lichfield diocesan committees for the repair of churches, as well as on the London Central Council and the Northern Provincial Committee for the care of churches. Crossley was the author of many books and articles. His books include English Church Woodwork (1917), English Church Monuments (1921), The English Abbey (1935), English Church Craftsmanship (1941), English Church Design, 1040-1540 A.D. (1945), Timber Building in England (1951), and Cheshire (1949), one of the most popular volumes in the County Series published by Messrs. Robert Hale. His articles and papers are too numerous to list, but they will be found in the volumes published by the Lancashire and Cheshire Anti- quarian Society and The Chester and North Wales Archaeological Society, as well as in the pages of other learned societies up and down England and Wales. He became a member of this Society in 1915 and was elected to honorary membership in 1946.