William Henry Lambert was not a professional artist, but his sketches and paintings of a bygone Silsden have left an important artistic legacy to the town.
He was born in April 1861, in Silsden. He was one of seven children that survived infancy to parents, Edward, a local blacksmith, and mother, Mary, also from Silsden.
William became a clerk/book-keeper, rising through a series of progressions to become a cashier – an important post, comparable to an accountant -with a local textile manufacturer.
In August 1893 William married local woman, Mary Moore, a local milliner and dressmaker (see left below) and they lived in a spacious Edwardian semi-detached house that he had designed, ‘Craig-en-Darroch’, on Skipton Road; they had a daughter, Barbara, born in 1895 (see right, below)..
William was a talented, largely self-taught, artist. In the late 19th century he visited Europe on a ‘grand tour’ of principal cities, including Venice, and later painted scenes from memory or using other paintings as a guide to his own recollections.
William also made a number of pen and ink sketches of scenes around Silsden and neighbouring areas (see example below of Silsden Town Hall that he later contributed to the ‘Airedale Magazine’. A number of these were also reproduced in the book, ‘Silsden Primitive Methodism’, by Rev. W.J. Robson, in 1910.
Flesher’s Bridge and Cottage, Silsden, 1891. Image: Silsden History Group.
He also painted local watercolour views, including in 1891 a scene from memory of the old packhorse bridge at Silsden (above), and in 1900, a view of Lumb Bridge, Silsden – a popular picnic spot – that was swept away in a flood that same year. The painting, with its fine stonework detail (see below), was either completed before, but more likely, after its destruction – perhaps as a permanent remainder of the scene for generations to come. The painting is now in the art collection of Silsden Town Hall.
He died on the 8th August 1943 and is buried in St. James’ graveyard, Silsden.
(With thanks to Janet & Alison, great-grand-daughters of the artist for their help in preparing this profile.)