Eric Francis (architect)

Eric Carwardine Francis
Born	30 August 1887 Chepstow, Monmouthshire, Wales
Died	26 January 1976 West Monkton, Somerset, England
Nationality	British
Occupation	Architect

Eric Carwardine Francis (30 August 1887 – 26 January 1976) was a British architect and painter who designed a number of notable buildings, particularly in Monmouthshire, Gloucestershire and Somerset, in the early and mid-twentieth century, many in the Arts and Crafts style.

He was the son of George Carwardine Francis, a solicitor of Chepstow. He was articled in 1909 as an architect under Sir Guy Dawber, before becoming an assistant to another leading member of the profession, Detmar Blow.

He then began working with the writer and architectural historian Henry Avray Tipping, who, after inheriting a family fortune, bought land in 1911 at Mounton near Chepstow on which to build a new home. While Tipping described himself as the designer of Mounton House, Francis was responsible for its details and materials. He also worked with Tipping in designing houses on the new Rhiwbina housing estate in Cardiff.

Francis then designed the "unusual, neo-Baroque" War Memorial in Beaufort Square at Chepstow, unveiled in January 1922, before working for another private client in the area, Charles Clay, of the family that owned the nearby Piercefield estate. Francis designed Wyndcliffe Court at St Arvans, a large private house completed for Clay in 1922 and described as being in the "Cotswold Tudor style, relaxed and sophisticated". In 1922/23 he undertook work at Chepstow Castle for its owner, W. R. Lysaght, including refacing some of the walls in red sandstone. He also worked again with Avray Tipping, designing and constructing with him Tipping's retirement home, High Glanau near Trellech. The house is built in the Arts and Crafts style, set above formal gardens. In 1925, Francis designed and built his own house, East Cliff, situated above the River Wye at Tutshill near Chepstow.

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