Ernest Bower Norris

• Born                      March/April (?) 1889, Didsbury, Manchester
• Died                       24 April 1969, Durban, South Africa

In a career spanning over fifty years, Ernest Bower Norris designed dozens of new Roman Catholic churches throughout England, and must therefore rank as one of the most prolific church architects of the mid-twentieth century. Although he practised alone for most of his professional life, his work was frequently recorded under the names or styles of his practices. Thus, his designs are variously ascribed to Sandy and Norris/Hill Sandy and Norris/E B Norris of Stafford/Norris and Reynolds /Sandy Norris and Partners and every permutation thereof in both the contemporary press and subsequent architectural guides, notwithstanding that Hill had died in 1917 and Sandy in 1922.

Born in Didsbury, South Manchester in early 1889, Ernest Bower Norris was the son of James Higginbotham Norris, Registrar of Births and Deaths, and Ellen F Norris. Little is yet known of his early life, education and training although he had been a student member of the MSA, winning the junior prize in 1908. He was admitted an Associate of the RIBA by 1922.

Following service in the Royal Navy, in 1920 he was taken into partnership by T H Sandy of Stafford, but this partnership proved short-lived, cut short by Henry Sandy’s unexpected death on 16 January 1922 at the age of 53. Thus within two years of entering the partnership Ernest Bower Norris found himself sole principal of two practices.  He continued to run the Stafford office under the style of “Sandy and Norris,” until his death in 1969. Similarly in Manchester, he continued the office at 9 Albert Square under the style of “Hill Sandy and Norris,” although here Norris later took F M Reynolds into partnership, a partnership dissolved in 1946.

Ernest Bower Norris died on 24 April 1969 at Durban, South Africa and was buried at Southern Cemetery, Manchester on 5 May 1969 following a requiem mass at St Austin’s Church, Stafford. He left estate valued at £103,241.

Address
1922        Ernest Bower Norris (Sandy and Norris) 22 Greengate Street Stafford
1924        Ernest Bower Norris ARIBA (Sandy and Norris) 22 Greengate Street Stafford
1924        Ernest Bower Norris ARIBA (Sandy and Norris) 22 Greengate Street Stafford
1969        134 Newport Road, Stafford

1920        Ernest Bower Norris (Hill Sandy and Norris) 9 Albert Square Manchester
1946        Ernest Bower Norris (Hill Sandy and Norris) 9 Albert Square Manchester

Residence
1911        “Rosemere,”  3 Clayton Avenue, Didsbury Manchester (Census)
1923        Stafford
1936        Avenue House Rowley Park Stafford (Kelly’s Directory of Staffordshire)
1969        Avenue House Rowley Park Stafford (death notice)