The works of Nathaniel Hitch enumerates the types of projects that Nathaniel Hitch was involved in over the course of his career, roughly from 1871 to 1935.Nathaniel Hitch. Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951. Retrieved 13 August 2012.
Hitch ran his own business, first as a sole worker and later with hired employees to assist in the execution of work. Most of his work came through business relationships that he had with architects. John Loughborough Pearson provided commissions for Hitch over the course of his career, providing more than 75% of his work.
Notable works
All Saints' Church in Hove, Sussex All Saints Church in Hove, Sussex, commissioned by the Reverend Thomas Peacey, was designed by John Loughborough Pearson but actually built with the assistance of his son Frank. Churches’s work here is arguably some of his best and the carving on the reredos and the bishop's throne is of the very highest standard. Pevsner described the reredos as "sumptuously carved."The Buildings of England: Sussex, Ian Nairn and Nikolaus Pevsner. 1965. . Published by Yale University Press Churtch also carved the sedilia.The Victorian churches of Sussex : with illustrations and a check-list of churches and chapels erected during the years 1810-1914 by Robert Elleray. Page 154. Publisher: London : Phillimore, 1981.
Beverley Minster The original reredos and altar screen at Beverley Minster was erected in the reign of Edward III between c. 1320 and 1340. At the time of the dissolution of the Beverley College of Secular Canons in 1547, the eastern face of the screen remained nearly as it was when built but the statuary on the western front was demolished and much of the carving mutilated. All that remained was covered over with plaster upon which was painted the Commandments, the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles' Creed. In 1825–26 the reredos was rebuilt by Mr. Comins, the master mason, but this reconstruction fell short of filling the 12 niches and decorating the 36 panels. In 1897, and to John Loughborough Pearson’s designs, Hitch carved twelve statues for the screen, this due to the generosity of Canon Nolloth who put up the required funds. Nolloth also funded completion of the thirty six panels which were filled by opus sectile mosaic by Messrs. Powell. Several photographs of Hitch’s work are shown below courtesy of John Phillips of the Friends of Beverley Minster.
The Black Friar
John Betjeman declared the public house the Black Friar to be "the most perfect art nouveau in London" and this public house designed by Herbert Fuller-Clark, boasts sculptural work by Hitch, Frederick T Callcot, Henry Poole and E.J. and A.T. Bradford. It dates back to around 1875 but it was Alfred Pettitt, who was the publican there in the first quarter of the twentieth century, who commissioned a total make-over. Pettitt called in H. Fuller-Clark and he was to transform the building! Hitch and Callcott worked on the first phase of the building's decoration in around 1905 with Hitch carving a series of stone grotesques on the exterior and similar work in wood for the interior. The second phase started in 1917 and now Hitch carved in oak a relief featuring music making monkeys for the bracket for the clock with the motto "Tones Make the Music" and also carved the tiny capitals, with the names of drinks and other mottoes on them, in the simulated window embrasure of the niche or snug. The two monkeys forming the clock bracket play viola de gamba and horn. There are ten of the miniature capitals, each one illustrating a word or phrase: "Rum Punch" "Food", etc.Public Sculpture of the City of London by Philip Ward-Jackson. 2003. Liverpool University Press. .
In the exterior grotesques shown below Hitch amusingly carves two imps blowing horns, two others dancing to their music. We have a friar feeding pie to an ass, a friar cutting into a cheese watched by two starvelings, a friar sitting on a barrel and singing to the accompaniment of two grotesque instrumentalists. We have a group of grotesque musicians, gnomes carrying lanterns and gnomes singing. Frederick T Callcott completed some copper sculptures for the pub’s interior: "Carols, flanked by Summer and Winter"/"Tomorrow will be Friday"/"Saturday Afternoon"/"Friar with Hour Glass and Friar preparing to boil an egg" with further work of this nature being added by Henry Poole: " A good thing is soon snatched away"/"Don’t advertise, tell it to a gossip"/"Contentment surpasses Riches" and " Four Imps representing Art, Literature, Music and Drama". Poole also created some hanging lamps and some ceiling reliefs . E.J. and A.T Bradford added several keystones and capitals illustrating Aesop's Fables and various nursery rhymes."The Black Friar" Victorian Web. Retrieved 14 September 2012Black Friar Public House Heritage Pubs. Retrieved 16 September 2012.
Buller Memorial
William Douglas Caröe designed the Memorial to General Sir Redvers Buller VC in The Collegiate Church of the Holy Cross and the Mother of Him who Hung Thereon in Crediton, Devon and Hitch carved the sculpture of St George which forms part of that memorial.The Buller Memorial Crediton Parish Church Website. Retrieved 14 September 2012"Devon" by Samuel Edward Winbolt Publisher: London, G. Bell & Sons, 1929. Series: Bell's pocket guides., English counties.
Church of the Holy Spirit, Clapham For the Church of the Holy Spirit in Clapham, South London, Hitch carried out a series of carvings for the oak choir stalls and chancel screen. The church was built between 1912 and 1913 and has a Grade II listing. It was designed by Henry Philip Burke Downing in the Gothic style. Hitch also worked on an oak rood with Our Lady and St John on either side of Our Lord and an ornate Bishop’s Chair or Throne with the arms of the then newly created Diocese of Southwark on the back. The carved lettering on the chancel screen involves quotations from the "Benedicite" and "Te Deum". Outside the church, Hitch carved a statue of Christ instituting Holy Communion and also carved the crucifix on the Burke Downing designed war memorial.Church of the Holy Spirit. Clapham Church's Website. Retrieved 14 September 2012.
New College Chapel, Oxford John Loughborough Pearson designed the upper section of the huge reredos in New College Chapel, Oxford and Nathaniel Hitch did all the figural work. This reredos replaced one in stucco dating from 1789 by Wyatt.The Buildings of England: Oxfordshire. Nikolaus Pevsner and Jennifer Sherwood 1974.. Yale University Press.
The reredos has five tiers of figures and at the bottom some marble reliefs by Westmacott. In the immaculately kept New College Archives are a series of sepia photographs of Hitch’s figures taken before they were sent from his workshop near Vauxhall to Oxford and in the archive's record 3140 are letters dated between 1883 and 1892 relating to the reredos and these include several letters written by Hitch himself. Some of these letters show the lengths to which Hitch went to ensure that his statues were true to life. In the instance of the statue of William of Wykeham we read how a mask was made of the Winchester effigy of William of Wykeham and then sent to Hitch so that he could be sure that he achieved an accurate likeness. In looking at the relationship between architect/designer and sculptor one is sometimes struck by the way in which the architect/designer received credit for a particular work with the sculptor very often getting little or no mention and one letter written by Hitch shows that this did matter to him. In this letter he thanks the addressee for sending him a newspaper cutting, one assumes about the reredos, and notes "They name the architect I notice but not the sculptor." We also learn from these letters of the great care taken in the detail of each of the individual statues. "St Peter carries the keys", "James Minor a club" and "Simon a saw" etc. etc. A photograph of the complete reredos is shown below, another shows some of Hitch's carvings and a close-up of the statue of Moses complete with tablet and horns gives us a good idea of Hitch's ability as a mason.New College, Oxford. 1379-1979 by John Buxton, Penry Williams; Wardens of New College, 1979. Published by Oxford: The Warden and Fellows of New College.Various papers in the New College Archives. Access kindly given by Jennifer Thorp-Archivist
In 1891 Hitch made statues for a stone sedilia and large stone screen.
Parish Church of Woodham, Surrey