One Friday this September past, a man entered the Shrewsbury Ark charity shop in Shropshire. Amidst the assortment, a certain print of a rural scene in a distant county caught his eye - and a sale was made. The print in question was labelled ‘Henfield Church, Sussex’ and dated 1820, with the as yet unidentified creator’s initials of ‘MS’. The finder got in touch and as images of the church of this early a date are rare, the Friends of Henfield Museum subsequently agreed to purchase the image for the museum collection.
The church is seen in its older state prior to William Borrer’s addition of the 1830s and Nathaniel Woodard’s rebuild project of 1870. A figure with what is up close a slightly forlorn expression reclines in the foreground. The two mature trees it would seem are unlikely to remain. As can also be seen, at this date, the view to St. Peter’s from the west side of the High Street remained open as it had for over a millennium before this point. The brick terrace on land owned by Borrer came within the decade, with a few other buildings going up later in the 19th century and then many of the modern buildings finally completely obscuring this view from the 1960s onwards.
Our thanks go to the finder Paul Mckenna for flagging up his discovery to us. The engraving is now on show in the museum.
Robert Gordon