William Frame

Frame was born at Melksham, Wiltshire in 1848.[2] Training as an architect, he was articled firstly to William Smith of Trowbridge,[1] he then became assistant to John Prichard of Llandaff.[1] In 1868, he entered the office of William Burges and worked with Burges at Cardiff Castle and Castell Coch.[1] Following Burges's death in 1881, Frame remained in the service of John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute and continued Burges's work at both castles, as well as designing the Grade I listed Pierhead Building in the docks built by Bute's father.[3]

Frame also continued to work on Bute's Scottish home, Mount Stuart House, on the Isle of Bute.[4] He undertook the building of the Animal Wall, in the grounds of Cardiff Castle, for which Burges had got no further than drawing the designs.[5] Burges's favourite sculptor, Thomas Nicholls, executed the carvings.[6] During these years he won the Royal Academy's gold medal and the Soane Medallion.[1] Later in his life, Frame also produced a small number of very well regarded grandfather clocks in the village of Larkhall, Scotland that were commissioned by some of the aristocratic class of his time.[7]

Frame died in April 1906, his latter years marred by alcoholism.[1] His drinking had been problematic for some time; in 1890, Bute noted in his diary, "Frame … drunk again … had to dismiss him".[8]

• Crook, J. Mordaunt (2013). William Burges and the High Victorian Dream. London, UK: Frances Lincoln. ISBN 978-0-7112-3349-2.
• Hannah, Rosemary (2012). The Grand Designer: Third Marquess of Bute. Birlinn. ISBN 9781780270272.
• Williams, Matthew (2016). The Animal Wall at Cardiff Castle. Cardiff, Wales: City of Cardiff Council. OCLC 1062307948.