Gwynneth Holt and Thomas Bayliss Huxley-Jones (sculptors)

Location

321 Main Road, Broomfield

About

Gwynneth Holt was born in 1909 and educated in Birmingham. She studied sculpture at the Wolverhampton College of Art, where she met her husband, Thomas Bayliss Huxley-Jones. Holt was offered a place at the Royal College of Art, but turned this down to avoid impoverishing her younger sisters. At this time, she continued to exhibit work at the Royal Birmingham Academy.

In 1949, Holt and her husband moved to Broomfield where they both achieved success. Gwynneth specialised in sculptures for local churches including the Church of Immaculate Conception, Downham Church and Stock Harvard Parish Church. She also produced pieces for churches within Essex, Cambridgeshire and London.

Her husband worked as a lecturer, as well as having publicly-commissioned sculptures such as the statue of Helios at BBC Television Centre and the Joy of Life Fountain in Hyde Park. He also created the Mother and Child statue within the Central Park Memorial Garden in Chelmsford.

In 1952, Holt was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptors. She also produced works in the United States when she visited the Hopkins Centre at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire in both 1963 and 1968. Holt was also known to be one of the Royal Society of Sculptors earliest female members, where she expressed frustration at the sculpture profession being dominated by men. Following her death, Holt’s work has been showcased in many places by both the Royal Society of Sculptors and Chelmsford Museum.

Following the death of her husband in 1968, Holt remarried and relocated to Eynsham where she died in 1995.