The Royal Marble Works

The Woodleys

Daniel Woodley, born around 1770, was an experienced monumental mason when he arrived in St Marychurch in the early 1800s from Broadhempston. He was a manufacturer of grave markers but little else is known of him except that he may have taken the lease on Petit Tor quarry as early as 1806. 

Woodley established a marble works in 1809 and passed it to his two sons, Daniel and John, around 1836. By 1851 they may have employed over 50 masons, marble masons, carpenters and labourers. They also turned the Petit Tor quarry around, from shipping directly from the beach, to supplying their factory in St Marychurch overland. 

It was John Woodley that became the most recognised artisan among his contemporaries, creating magnificent specimen marble tables for the wealthy. He exhibited at the Great Exhibition in 1851 with his prize winning tables judged as of “very great merit.” In 1852 he had a surprise visit by Prince Albert resulting in the supply of stone items to Queen Victoria at Osborne House. With that, the Royal Marble Works was born. 
 

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Hilborough House, the marble works and Fore Street, St Marychurch. John Woodley received the Royal Warrant around 1862 and added a giant Royal Coat of Arms which can still be seen on the building to the left today.

PR6020

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The Kensington table at the Natural History Museum in London. This is perhaps the most spectacular of the surviving tables made by Woodleys. It is likely that it was shown at the Great Exhibition.

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This was made for Queen Victoria after the Prince Albert visited Woodley’s Marble Works at St Marychurch in 1852. The platter may have been at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight and was certainly housed at Buckingham Palace. The connection to Prince Albert is through the goldfinch which was his favourite bird. 

V5047 Mid-19th century, Gift J. G Horton

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The Blacklers

John Woodley had no children and the St Marychurch business was sold at auction in 1865 to Andrew Blackler. He was from a family of stonemasons and was already a successful marble mason with a business at 19 Strand in Dawlish. With the purchase he also gained the most celebrated quarry of them all, Petit Tor.

Blackler invested heavily to modernise and expand the business increasing the size of the workforce and installing a steam engine to power belt driven machinery by which stones of up to four tons could be shaped into finished marble columns. 

The late 19th century was a time of high Victoriana and there were many contracts for the embellishment of building interiors to project wealth and prestige through the use of marble. Andrew Blackler died in 1892 with All Saints Church at Babbacombe perhaps his finest interior. The business was passed to his son Thomas, but it did not survive past World War I.        
 

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An Andrew Blackler specimen label for Dark Ashburton (Mottled) Marble.

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Babbacombe Bay pietra dura Landscape Plaque

This intricate picture is made entirely in stone many local to Torbay. This work is termed pietra dura - a method of inlaying coloured marbles or semi-precious stones into a stone base. The designs can be geometric or floral or like this one a detailed landscape. The Babbacombe Bay Landscape follows the Florentine style that achieved a highly realistic ‘painted effect’ using only hardstones developed in Florence during the Renaissance.

This plaque is not unique and may represent the ultimate in tourist souvenirs. We do not know who the artist was but it is likely it was made at the Royal Marble Works in St Marychurch either by the Woodley’s or Blacklers.    

V6587 Mid-19th Century, Gift Mrs. Blackler
 

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