When you think of famous English architects, do you ever think of a woman? No? How about a woman who lived in the 1700’s and whose work you have almost certainly seen and admired more than once? I would like to introduce you to a true unsung heroine, a groundbreaking figure I had never heard of until recently. I hope her story inspires you as much as it did me!
Eleanor Coade was born in 1733 to working class parents in Exeter, England. Her father was a wool trader and her mother was the daughter of a textile merchant. Eleanor’s father declared bankruptcy when she was in her mid twenties and eventually he died penniless. But Eleanor’s humble beginnings did not limit her life. In fact, it may have been her father’s business failures which spurred Eleanor into the business world.
Following her father’s bankruptcy their family moved to London. Records show that not long after that Eleanor was running her own business as a draper. But that was apparently not enough for her. Within a few years she also bought an artificial stone factory and began managing it herself. That set the stage for her great invention and contribution to architecture: Coade stone.
Coade stone was a revolutionary product for its time. Artificial stone already existed, but Coade stone was strong and yet workable; it was relatively easy to turn into sculptures, garden ornaments, detailed facades, and more. Even better, it was durable. Items made with Coade stone still look nearly brand new two centuries later. Hundreds of statues, plaques and buildings made with Coade stone are still in use throughout England. And it was all due to the unique formula that Eleanor perfected, marketed, and made into a household name. There were multiple start up companies that tried to sell artificial stone during Eleanor’s lifetime, but only Coade became successful. Her clients included the nobility and even the royal family itself.
Besides inventing this innovative product, Eleanor set new standards for manufacturing. For example, she insisted on consistent materials and techniques in the manufacturing process so that the finished product was prized for its uniformity and high quality. She also realized that molds used for one product could be used as a base for a similar product, so that an entirely new mold didn’t always need to be cast. By re-using molds she lowered the cost of stone architecture and made it accessible to the middle class.
Eleanor must have been a formidable woman. When her “business partner” began signing contracts without her permission and usurping her authority, she promptly took out an ad in the newspaper to announce his firing. There were no patent laws as we know them today so Eleanor had to use secrecy and confidentiality to safeguard her intellectual property. She did this so thoroughly that even today, there are web sites that insist that the formula for Coade stone died with Eleanor. That’s not true, but she did manage to keep a number of details of the manufacturing process secret throughout the fifty years that she ran her business.
Eleanor was also a devout Christian, a member of the “Dissenters.” She used her considerable wealth to support local charities, especially those for women in need, and contributed to causes aimed at alleviating poverty and suffering in her community. Some of her gifts to less fortunate women included the stipulation that the money could not be used by the woman’s husband. I have to think Jane Austen would have approved!
Eleanor Coade outlived Jane Austen by four years. There is no evidence that the two women ever met, but I like to imagine Austen writing Eleanor into one of her books. Perhaps Eleanor could have had dinner with Elizabeth and Darcy at Pemberley, or complained to Anne Elliott about men writing all the history. Imagine Collins bragging about the cost of a Coade stone statue in Lady Catherine’s garden (and Lady Catherine sniffing, “I should have been a great sculptor, too, if I had ever learnt!”). Perhaps Eleanor Coade could even have designed and built some of the grand sights in Sanditon!
**Special thanks to Sophie Turner for mentioning Eleanor Coade at the 2023 JAFF Reader Writer Get Together during her presentation on Regency architecture. As Elizabeth Bennet would have said, I could not rest until I had learned everything!**
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