HIS business card described him as “an ecclesiastical and domestic decorator”, the sort of chap who would knock up a headstone for your grave or Farrow and Ball the walls of the downstairs cloakroom, but in truth William Forsyth was a lot more than that.

The modest title he gave himself belied the reality because WF was one of the Victorian era’s greatest monument sculptors.

The factory in The Tything, Worcester, which he shared with his equally-talented brother Robert, despatched masterpieces all over the world.

From a memorial in “the best Sicilian Marble with sculptured lilies” that was shipped out to Cairo to adorn the grave of General Baker Pasha to the magnificent fountains at Witley Court which took a team of 20 shire horses to haul from Worcester to Great Witley.

Walking along The Tything today you pass the Grade II Listed building at numbers 4-5 that was the Forsyth workshop with barely a second glance.

It stands adjacent to the Saracen’s Head pub, on the Castle Street side, and in more recent years has been converted into two ground-floor shop units with several flats above.

There is no outward sign of the artistic powerhouse ii used to be.

William Forsyth was born in Edinburgh in 1834, the fourth child of a talented family, and first came to public notice in 1849 when he worked on a scheme to decorate Eastnor Castle, near Ledbury.

In fact, his efforts so impressed Viscount Eastnor he invited William to live at the castle and carry out further improvements.

It was during this time he met and married Elizabeth Cobham from Upton whose uncle ran the Somers Arms pub which was within walking distance of the castle.

However, the young couple didn’t stay local and instead moved to London where, at the age of only 22, William won second prize in a national woodcarving competition.

This brought him to the attention of leading architect Edmund Elmslie and the pair worked together on several commissions in Malvern.

William moved back to live in St John’s, Worcester, but Elizabeth died following the birth of their third child in 1858.

Two years later he married Delilah “Lucy” Rushton with whom he had a further five children, living first in Chestnut Street and then above his studio in The Tything.

It was from there William Forsyth’s output continued apace and there is barely a part of the county that hasn’t been touched by his genius as a carver of wood or stone.

In those days Dudley was in Worcestershire and one of his best-known works was a fountain that was formally presented to the people of the town by the 1st Earl of Dudley, who lived in Witley Court, in a grand ceremony on October 17, 1867.

Standing 27 feet high, it is made of Portland stone and red and grey granite and was a drinking fountain for both people and animals – the people supping from the smaller basins while horses and cattle drank from the larger troughs.

Many a county church – and churchyard – contains fine examples of William Forsyth’s intricate work, including Astwood Cemetery in Worcester where he was buried in 1915, still working at the age of 81.

There his headstone is not far from numerous customers like BMA founder Sir Charles Hastings and industrialists Thomas Rowley-Hill, Richard Padmore and George Williamson who all received a grand send-off thanks to Worcester’s supreme 'domestic decorator'.