Samuel Pountney Smith

• Born      2 November 1812
• Baptism  17 December 1812
• Died       5 November 1883

Samuel Pountney Smith, was born on 2nd November 1812 and he was baptised on 17th December. His parents Edward and Anne kept an inn at Munslow near Ludlow, and he learned his trades as builder and architect with his uncle John Smalman at Quatford near Bridgnorth, before moving to Shrewsbury about 1840.

His major commissions were mostly in Shropshire, with occasional works in the neighbouring counties of Herefordshire and Denbighshire and were mostly ecclesiastical in nature. He was strongly influenced by A. W. N. Pugin, and as a result his designs were generally in the Early English style. His domestic commissions included Llantysilio Hall, Denbighshire, a new mansion for Charles Beyer of Beyer, Peacock and Company, locomotive builders, of Gorton, Manchester, and Pale Hall, Merionethshire for H Robertson together with the remodelling of The Limes, in Belle Vue, Shrewsbury, for his own use.

At Bowdon, Cheshire (now GMCA), he prepared designs for a church for the Earl of Stamford, the scheme abandoned with the foundations still incomplete. Presumably at the behest of Charles Bayer he prepared designs and invited tenders for the rebuilding of Gorton Parish Church (St James). Again, he was replaced as architect, in this case by G and J R Shaw of Saddleworth.

He was a JP for the borough of Shrewsbury and was for a time a Conservative borough councillor, serving as Mayor of Shrewsbury in 1873-74, until narrowly losing an election in 1876. However, he was elected alderman from outside council in 1877 and served until his death, three days before the end of his six-year term of office.

Samuel Pountney Smith died at The Limes, Shrewsbury, on 5 November 1883 aged seventy-one, after suffering paralysis for three months. He was buried in the Shrewsbury General Cemetery in Longden Road. He was architect of its church and ancillary buildings.