Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Tarring, John

by Campbell Dodgson

TARRING, JOHN (1806–1875), architect, was born at Holbeton, near Plymouth, in 1806, and worked there as a carpenter or plasterer till he migrated to London in 1828. He studied at Brown's academy in Wells Street, and obtained a Royal Academy medal for a measured drawing. He became a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1845. He built numerous chapels for nonconformist bodies in London and the provinces, and was styled ‘the Gilbert Scott of the Dissenters.’ He restored Combermere Abbey, Shropshire, and Thornton Hall, Buckinghamshire, and designed many private residences, including Wickham Park and Springfield, both at Banbury, Oxfordshire. He died at Torquay on 27 Dec. 1875.

[The Builder, 1876, xxxiv. 30; Dict. of Architecture.]

C. D.