Cowfold Village History Society

Cowfold Village History Society is a thriving organisation with a rapidly growing membership of around 100 who review and investigate the history of Cowfold and the surrounding area.

The organisation meets regularly at the Village Hall and often arranges presentations, events and guest speakers to cascade knowledge, discuss history and  feed a thriving interest in this subject.

Please see our latest newsletter below summarising some of the events and activities enjoyed by members and non-members over the past few months.

Contacts:

Stella Bianco: email: scb@biancoteam.com

Sue Crofts:     Tel: 01403 864602 or email: sucrofts@aol.com

Forthcoming Events:
 
Date:  Friday 20 January 2012
Title:  “Old Tyme Fun Fairs” – a fascinating insight into their history and relevance today.  See: www.harrisfunfair.org.uk/History.html
Speaker:  Robert Harris
Time:  7.15 for 7.30 pm
Venue:  Cowfold Village Hall
 
Date:  Friday 4 May 2012
AGM and talk entitled “For Love and Courage: The Letters of Lieutenant Colonel E W Hermon from the Western Front 1914-17”, who lived in Cowfold
Author and Speaker:  Anne Nason (Lieu Col Hermon’s granddaughter)
Time:  7.15 for 7.30 pm for AGM, 8 pm for talk
Venue:  Cowfold Village Hall
 
Date:  Friday 20 July 2012
Title:   Victorian Education
Speaker:  Sue Millard from the West Sussex Record Office
Time:  7.45 am for 8.00 pm
Venue:  Cowfold Village Hall
 
We are also planning another “Village History Day” in the autumn – date to be confirmed

COWFOLD VILLAGE HISTORY SOCIETY                  WINTER 2011 Newsletter No. 4

‘The History of Fowler Bros’

A new project is underway, thanks to the support of John Fowler and Peter Lang.

 Education in Cowfold 

We are delighted that two teenagers, Emily Harrison and Hollie Dittmer, have offered to do a project on Education in Cowfold, as part of their Silver Duke of Edinburgh’s award. They have already visited St Peter’s School and Horsham Museum. We hope to tell you more in due course.

Horsham Museum Visit 

Sixteen CVHS members met at Horsham Museum on 19 November and spent a couple of hours immersed in the material held there – mostly from the collection gathered by Tom Mills. Some items from WWI are so precious, that two members have offered to type them onto their computers before they are illegible. As it was the first time many of us have seen the material, there will be other visits to assess what would be useful in our own archive and to try and identify some of the unnamed photographs.

“Capturing the Voice of the Village”

A few more interviews have been recorded and we have a long list of people we would like to interview. The idea is to record people’s living memories of Cowfold and the committee would welcome more members, who would like to be trained to use the recorder by Bob Farren and to conduct some interviews.

Talk by Allan Johnston-

Allan started by recalling an interview with an elderly resident who was asked: “Have you lived here all your life? His reply was: “not yet, I aint!” Allan proceeded to tell us lots of stories about farming in Cowfold, horses, generations of tractors, local farms, milking, crops, harvesting, personalities, Land Girls, POWs, prices and taxes; hunting, shooting and fishing – all supported by some splendid old farm implements and photographs projected from a modern laptop!

Talk by John Chamberlin

John told us about the vast ‘work in progress’ on the church roof and showed photographs of the amount of scaffolding inside and outside the building and some rotten beams, before talking about the church marks and the churchyard. The original marks date back to 1682, but they have been replaced over the centuries. The names of the farms were inscribed onto the wooden fences around the churchyard to indicate the owners’ share in the cost of repairs required.

CVHS Vacancies

If you would like to help with the Fowler Brothers project, “Capturing the Voice of the Village” project, photographing some of the “Ten Objects” that are unique to Cowfold, or anything else, we’d be delighted to hear from you. Please contact Sue or Stella – see below.

THANKS 

….to Sally Yonge for ‘writing up’ her life in Cowfold since 1957.

.. to our members for your support and please note the dates of our 2012 events in your new diaries!

The members of the committee send you their Seasonal Greetings.

Contacts:

Stella Bianco: email: scb@biancoteam.com

Sue Crofts:     Tel: 01403 864602 or email: sucrofts@aol.com

Meanwhile, we are photographing the “Ten Objects” chosen to represent Cowfold, continuing our Oral History project “Capturing the Voice of the Village”, working on the 1911 Census and a project about Fowler Bros …

  The Cowfold “Top 10” are as follows:

-              The church marks around the churchyard  

The ‘church marks’ are the inscriptions on the wooden fence surrounding St Peter's church. The fence is inscribed with the names of landowners/farms in the area at the time and represents a tythe paid by the landowner to support the upkeep of the church.

 -              Prior Thomas Nelond brass in St Peter’s Church

This brass is to be found within St. Peters Church and is the most elaborate examples of its kind in West Sussex. The brass was originally found on the tomb slab of Thomas Prior, the 25^th Prior, and was buried in the Priory Church. It is believed that during the dissolution of the monasteries, it was moved to Cowfold church in an attempt to keep it safe. To this day it has remained here. It is unknown who may have moved such a heavy slab over 24km in the depth of winter, having no direct descendants. The prior had been dead for over 100 years before it was moved so it is unlikely to have been family. It may always remain a mystery.

-              The “Godman” book which belongs to St Peter’s Church (awaiting image/information)

-              The Millennium map in the Village Hall (awaiting information)

-              The two War Memorials in the churchyard and St Peter’s Church (only one photographed here)

This memorial includes the names of 23 service men from around the area. Some are buried elsewhere whereas some are buried in St. Peter’s churchyard. Through this memorial, many people pay their respects to those who fought and died for their country.

-              The Village Sign outside the Village Hall

-              The bell at St Hugh’s Monastery, Charterhouse

-              The firemark affixed to Margaret Cottages, Station Road

-              The church lych gate

-              16C barn (c1536) from Averys, Cowfold - dismantled in 1980 and reconstructed in 1988 at the Weald & Downland Museum (who have kindly supplied the images below)

This timber-framed barn, most likely built around 1536, was mainly used for storage of wheat, oats, rye or barley. It is most likely the barn was given a major overhaul in 1891 as this date has been scratched into 2 separate places on the building. The reason this late-medieval building has survived when so many others didn’t is probably because at this time, barns were built by expert carpenters (due to the critical value of the goods stored therein), whereas other buildings were constructed by less skillful workmen such as the farmers themselves. So, when better technology and building skills were discovered, the less sturdy buildings were replaced with newer ones whilst the barns remained.

Watch this space where we will publish photos and information relating to these objects; if you have further information or images relating to these objects please discuss with Stella or Sue below for possible inclusion here. If you are interested in joining Cowfold Village History Society, please contact Stella or Sue as follows:

Stella Bianco: email: scb@biancoteam.com

Sue Crofts:     Tel: 01403 864602 or email: sucrofts@aol.com

If you are interested in more history as well as general information about Cowfold and West Sussex follow this link http://www.westsussex.info/cowfold.shtml  with lots of information about what to do and where to go.

Other interesting images reflecting the colourful history of Cowfold: