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Edward Graham Paley, fourth son of a clergyman, and grandson of Archdeacon Paley, famous for the Evidences of Christianity, was born at Easingwold vicarage in 1823. In 1838 he joined Edmund Sharpe as a pupil, becoming his partner in 1845 and from 1851 until 1868 carrying on the firm alone.
An architect with a large and varied output of work he favoured the Gothic Revival style of Middle Pointed or Decorated period for most of his church commissions.
He was a council member of the Royal Institute of British Architects, an examiner and a member of the Royal Archaeological Society. After serving as a town Councillor between 1858 and 1861 and Bridgemaster for North Lonsdale, he steered clear of involvement in public life, preferring to devote his energies to his practice. He was nevertheless involved in a range of local institutions and associations - the planning Committee for the Royal Albert Institution and the Infirmary, Art Education, the Mechanics Institute and later the Storey Institute, the Rowing Club, and the Choral Society.
He was a keen churchman and regular attender at the Priory Church and later at Caton Parish Church. Married in 1851 to Fanny (sister of Edmund Sharpe) he had a son (Harry, who later joined the practice) and three daughters. Soon after his marriage he built a house called ‘The Greaves' between Lancaster and Scotforth and he also had a country house, ‘Moorgarth,' at Caton. He died at ‘The Greaves' in 1895. |
