Frank Tory and Sons

Frank Tory and Sons were an English family firm of Sheffield based architectural sculptors whose work enhances some of the city’s finest late 19th century and early 20th century buildings. Apart from stone carving the family also worked in wood, marble, bronze and fibrous plaster. The firm operated from the early 1880s until the 1950s and consisted of Frank Tory and his twin sons Alfred Herbert and William Frank.

Frank Tory (1848–1939) originated from London and trained at the Lambeth School of Art, he came to Sheffield in 1880 to accept the carving contract on the Corn Exchange, a building commissioned by the 15th Duke of Norfolk as part of a comprehensive plan to improve Sheffield’s markets. Tory’s work on the Corn Exchange was to such a high standard that it was suggested that if he stayed in Sheffield there would be plenty of work for him. He set up a studio and workshop in Sans Pavis, a lane amongst the cluttered terraced houses of central Sheffield.

Frank Tory’s twin sons Alfred Herbert (1881–1971) and William Frank (1881–1968) were born in Winter Street, Crookesmoor and attended Broomhill Council School and the Weston Academy for Sons of Gentlemen. They trained under their father who also taught at the Sheffield School of Art and had a strong will to follow in their father‘s footsteps and they eventually entered the family firm, ultimately taking it over. Alfred and William were identical twins, on the only surviving photograph of the two, nobody knows which one is which. During the 1920s the firm moved premises to Ecclesall Road, at a site which is now the Porter Brook pub at Sharrow. The ageing Frank had a house adjoining the workshop while the sons lived nearby in Banner Cross. When Alfred and William retired in the 1950s the firm was wound up, with the change in architectural styles meaning that sculpture was out of fashion on modern buildings.

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