Clough Williams-Ellis 944250 222868704 2008-07-01T14:38:15Z Strobie 122656 grammar/punctuation [[Image:Clough Williams-Ellis.jpg|thumb|200px| Clough Williams-Ellis]] {{For|a complete list of works|List of works by Clough Williams-Ellis}} '''Sir Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis''' ([[May 28]], [[1883]] - [[April 9]] [[1978]]) was an [[England|English]]-born [[Wales|Welsh]]-based [[architect]] of Welsh extraction, known chiefly as creator of the Italianate village of [[Portmeirion]] in North [[Wales]]. ==Career== Clough Williams-Ellis was born in [[Gayton, Northamptonshire]], [[England]], but his family moved back to his father's native Wales when he was four. He married the writer [[Amabel Williams-Ellis|Amabel Strachey]] in 1915. [[Image:Village Hall, Stone.jpg|thumb|left|Village Hall, Stone. Clough Williams-Ellis, 1910]] Though he read for the [[natural sciences tripos]] at [[Trinity College, Cambridge]], he never graduated. After a few months at the [[Architectural Association]] in London in 1903/4 (which he located by looking up "Architecture" in the London telephone directory) he worked for an architect for a few short months before setting up his own practice in London. In 1908, he inherited a small country house, [[Plas Brondanw]] in Merionethshire, from his father, restoring and embellishing it over the rest of his life, and rebuilding it after a fire in 1951. He served with distinction in [[World War I]], and began work on [[Portmeirion]] during the 1920s. A fashionable architect in the inter-war years, Clough's other works include buildings at [[Stowe, Buckinghamshire|Stowe in Buckinghamshire]], and groups of cottages at Cornwell in Oxfordshire; [[Tattenhall]], Cheshire, and [[Cushendun]], [[County Antrim]], [[Northern Ireland]]. He is also known for his design (in the 1930s) of the former summit building on [[Snowdon]], which - after unsympathetic alteration in the 1960s and a long-term lack of maintenance - was described by [[Charles, Prince of Wales|Prince Charles]] as "the highest slum in Wales". Clough also served on several government committees concerned with design and conservation and was instrumental in setting up the [[National Park|British National Parks]] after 1945. He wrote and broadcast extensively on architecture, design and the preservation of the rural landscape. He was [[knighthood|knighted]] in 1971 for "services to architecture and the environment". Clough's elder daughter, [[Susan Williams-Ellis]], used the name [[Portmeirion Pottery]] for the company she created with her husband in 1961. ==External links== * [http://www.portmeirion-village.com/en/features-detail.php?id=19&MID=38 Portmeirion piece on Clough Williams-Ellis] * [http://www.northantrim.com/CloughWilliamsEllis.htm North Antrim website] with designs by Clough Williams-Ellis * [http://www.portmeirion-village.com/ Official Portmeirion site] * [http://www.virtualportmeirion.com/plasbrondanw/plas.htm Plas Brondanw] {{Lifetime|1883|1978|Williams-Ellis, Clough}} [[Category:People from Northamptonshire]] [[Category:Welsh architects]] [[Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge]] [[Category:Old Oundelians]] {{UK-business-bio-stub}} [[cy:Clough Williams-Ellis]] [[fr:Clough Williams-Ellis]]