Frozen in time

12:39pm Wednesday 6th August 2008

A row of quaint, thatched cottages, their front gardens abundant with flowers and trees, nestle in the curve of the road as it meanders towards the church. A cluster of green and brown leaves have fluttered onto the ground opposite, and a handful of pedestrians amble along the pavements.

This tranquil, village-like scene is actually in Oxford city centre, at the junction of St Cross Road and Manor Road, just before the road curls round into Longwall Street, as captured by the watercolour artist J A Shuffrey at the turn of the last century. It is just one of many such scenes, all offering poignant images of an Oxford that has now vanished forever.

Shuffrey was aware that he was creating a unique historical record of Oxford�s most treasured buildings and streets. His paintings all have that same air of tranquillity with their soft tones, balanced composition and attention to detail.

Shuffrey was aware that he was creating a unique historical record of Oxford's most treasured buildings and streets. His paintings all have that same air of tranquillity with their soft tones, balanced composition and attention to detail.

He deliberately targeted buildings and streets that were due for demolition or alteration,thereby leaving a legacy that is not just a collection of watercolours, but an invaluable slice of local history.

He was born James Allen Shuffrey on February 25, 1859 at 7 Narrow Hill, Wood Green, near Witney, the fifth son of Samuel and Mary Sarah Shuffrey.

His forebears were originally Huguenot immigrants from Flanders, who for generations had been closely involved with the Witney blanket and shoe trades. By the time the young James was born, both trades were in decline, and the Shuffrey family's livelihood became increasingly dependent on farming and market gardening.

Educated first at Woodgreen and later in Witney, Shuffrey was a bright child, who left school at 14 having passed the Cambridge Local Examination with third-class Honours. While still at school he discovered a passion for painting and drawing, recalling in his Reminiscences of 1934 the "excellent tuition" he received from a Miss Cropper of Oxford, who gave him "a considerable knowledge of watercolours. I was also well grounded in perspective".

It was the only formal art training Shuffrey ever had; for the rest of his life he was entirely self-taught.

After leaving school, Shuffrey worked for some years on the family farm, but early in 1877 was offered the opportunity to pursue a career in banking. For the next 20 years he worked for the London and County Bank, first in Oxford and Abingdon, and later at branches in East Sussex, Hampshire and Essex.

It was while working at the Arundel branch, from 1882-84, that Shuffrey began selling his watercolours, as well as exhibiting at the Guildhall in London. In 1887, while living at Petersfield in Hampshire, he designed a mug and cup for the town's celebrations of the Queen's Golden Jubilee.

By this time Shuffrey had married Esther Walker, a young lady from Denchworth, near Wantage, whom he had met at a dance in Witney in 1880. The pair enjoyed a lavish wedding at Denchworth on October 31, 1885, with Shuffrey arriving at the church in a "carriage and pair". Their son, Reginald, was born a year later, and a daughter, Barbara, followed in 1892. A second daughter, Dora, was born in 1900.

Sadly, Shuffrey was forced to retire from the bank in 1897, aged only 38, after suffering from persistent ill-health. He moved his family back to Woodgreen, but a year later settled in Bampton, where - as he recalled in his Reminiscences - he did "a good many watercolours of beauty spots near, and the Church and surroundings", often pedalling around on his tricycle because it was "useful for carrying my sketching cases".

He exhibited his work at Bampton School, the Corn Exchange in Witney and the Oxford Art Society Exhibition, and also taught art at Bampton Vicarage.

In 1902 Shuffrey decided to move to Oxford, motivated by the growing demand for paintings of the city's famous colleges and other notable buildings. Postcards were becoming popular, and Shuffrey was commissioned by Robert Peel in 1904 to produce a series of pictures of stained glass windows in Christ Church Cathedral. Other similar commissions soon followed.

Shuffrey was also increasingly in demand as an art teacher, and he taught privately from his home, and later from a room at 6 High Street, as well as teaching twice a week at Summerfield School in Summertown for nearly 20 years.

But his own painting was still his main priority, and he gradually built up an impressive portfolio of Oxford buildings and street scenes, thus providing succeeding generations with a comprehensive visual record of Oxford's past. Some of the long-vanished buildings he captured included the mills at Botley, Iffley and Oxford Castle, the Octagon House in Catte Street, Bliss Court off Broad Street and the Summertown Brickworks.

He exhibited his work regularly in Oxford, Reading, Cheltenham, Worcester and London, among others, and was one of the founder members of the British Watercolour Society.

In the autumn of 1905, Esther Shuffrey died from heart failure, after suffering a severe attack of bronchitis, and was buried at the Holy Trinity Church, Woodgreen. Shuffrey moved his young family to 51 Holywell Street, which he found "very handy for the college gardens for sketching".

Many of his most important paintings of the colleges emerged around this time, including those of Magdalen, Merton, Christ Church, Wadham and All Souls.

"My time then was almost entirely devoted to my work and I did not leave Oxford for days," he wrote.

His second marriage in1908, to Rose Lane, marked the beginning of his long sketching tours, starting with the Lake District, where he spent his honeymoon. For the next 30 years he spent months at a time on sketching tours covering huge areas of the UK, from Cornwall to Scotland, and producing a vast volume of paintings. Yet it is still his Oxford images on which his lasting fame rests.

Away from his painting, Shuffrey had a number of other interests, including cycling, rowing, acting and singing. The latter two, particularly, were lifelong interests; he sang in the church choir at Woodgreen as a boy, and later joined the Abingdon Musical Society, the choir of St Michael's Church and the Abingdon Dramatic Society.

In his Reminiscences, he recalls his solo debut at Abingdon Town Hall, where he was "vociferously encored". In 1907, he and his elder two children took part in the famous Oxford Pageant.

In the last few years before his death in 1939, Shuffrey wrote a detailed and absorbing account of his life, which was handwritten in a notebook and later transcribed by Margaret Shuffrey, the wife of his grandson, Tony. A perfect complement to his paintings, the Reminiscences offer a fascinating glimpse into Oxfordshire life just over a century ago.

The blue plaque unveiled at his Woodgreen home in May this year is a long overdue tribute to a modest and immensely likeable man, who left such a rich artistic legacy.

Shuffrey's paintings can be seen at a special exhibition at the Oxfordshire Museum, Woodstock, until 28th September. Call 01993 811456 Further Reading: Gilmour, Lauren and Shuffrey, Margaret - J.A. Shuffrey 1859-1939: An Oxford Artist's Life Remembered (Rural Publications, 2003)

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