Percy Stone

Percy Goddard Stone fsa friba (1856–21 March 1934) was an English architect, author and archaeologist who worked extensively on the Isle of Wight, where he lived for most of his life. He designed and restored several churches on the island, designed war memorials and rebuilt Carisbrooke Castle. His "passion for archaeology" led him to excavate the ruins of Quarr Abbey, and as an author he wrote about the churches and antiquities of the Isle of Wight and contributed to the Victoria County History.

Percy Stone was born in London on 15 March 1856 to Coutts and Mary Stone of Bayswater. His father was also an architect, and after leaving Rugby School Percy Stone qualified as an architect in his home city. He was articled to George Devey for three years from 1875, then served as an assistant in the office of William Emerson, who had married Stone's sister Jenny in 1872. Stone worked in London, joining his father's practice, until either 1884 or the 1890s, when he moved to the Isle of Wight. He lived at Merstone, a hamlet in the centre of the island, where he died on 21 March 1934.

Stone married Fanny Maria Belden Powys in 1879. The marriage produced five children and lasted until Fanny's death in 1898. He later married Amelia Frances Smith of Shanklin. He and two of his children are buried at Shanklin cemetery.

As soon as he moved to the Isle of Wight, Stone began to research its archaeological and architectural history. The Architectural Antiquities of the Isle of Wight from the XIth to the XVIIth centuries inclusive, published in 1891, remains "the definitive survey" of the subject and displayed his skill as a "meticulous draughtsman". He was later invited to write chapters pertaining to the Isle of Wight for the Victoria County History of Hampshire, a scholarly study of the county's ecclesiastical, topographical, architectural and social history, which was published in 1912. William Henry Page, the series editor, acknowledged Stone's contribution specifically, thanking him for his "advice and assistance in all matters connected with the history of the Isle of Wight, a subject he has made so particularly his own". Stone also wrote a book about the village churches of the island.

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