A nicely-illustrated article from last Sunday, September 6, on the website of East Grinstead Online discusses the carved and painted shields on the pew ends at St. Swithun's Church there.
According to the article, a 1946 Guide to St. Swithun's says: "Shields of old-time Sussex families, carved by East Grinstead Boy Scouts, are fixed to the pew ends." The 1975 Guide adds that the shields were the work of the Boy Scouts in the 1930s under Dr. Spencer Lewis Walker.
Dr. Walker was a local GP who began his practice in East Grinstead in 1910 and became the Scoutmaster of the newly-formed Boy Scouts until 1947. He died in 1967 at the age of 89.
The article goes on to discuss some of the rules of heraldry, and a little more about the history of the shields in St. Swithun's.
You can see the whole article, with additional photographs, on the website of East Grinstead Online at http://bluebelldigital.co.uk/eastgrinsteadonline/2015/09/06/history-boy-scouts-heraldry-shields-at-st-swithuns/
What a great way to commemorate the local armigerous families there!
I visited St Swithuns a couple of months ago looking for any trace of my ancestors who lived in East Grinstead 500 years ago. Imagine my delight to find the ancestral arms decorating the end of a pew (not pictured in the article - argent on a chevron sable a fleur de lis argent)!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great find! It's always so uplifting to run into something serendipitous like that.
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