Appraisal
Hughes considers that Sharpe was never in the "first division" of 19th-century church architects; his designs were "basic, workmanlike, and occasionally imaginative, though hardly inspiring". There is no such thing as a "typical" church designed by Sharpe. He was an innovator and experimenter, and throughout his life a student of architecture. The architectural styles he used started with the Romanesque, passed through "pre-archaeological" Gothic to "correct" Gothic, and then back to Romanesque for his last church. The sizes of the churches varied, from the small simple chapels at Cowgill and Howgill to the large and splendid church of Holy Trinity, Blackburn. During Sharpe's earlier years in practice, between 1838 and 1842, Britain was going through a period of severe economic recession, which may have been why he designed many of his churches to be built as cheaply as possible.
As an architectural historian, Hughes considers Sharpe to be "in the top rank". His drawings of authentic Gothic buildings were still in use a century after his death. The architectural historian James Price states that Sharpe was "considered the greatest authority on Cistercian Abbeys in England". Some writers have regarded Sharpe as an early pioneer of the Gothic Revival, although in Hughes' opinion this is "probably more for his books than for his buildings". In 1897, 20 years after his death, Sharpe was considered to be sufficiently notable to merit an entry in the Dictionary of National Biography. In the article, the author refers to his being "an enthusiastic and profound student of medieval architecture". As a railway engineer he was "hardly an unqualified success"; but his administrative and persuasive skills were considerable, as is shown in his planning of railways in Northwest England, and in the sanitary reform and water supply of Lancaster. As an amateur musician his "gifts were prodigious". Hughes considers that Sharpe "used his talents to the full", and in view of the ways in which he employed his many gifts, Price describes him as Lancaster's "Renaissance man".
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