Hadlow Down Book Club Review – November 2023
Black Butterflies Priscilla Morris 2023
‘Have you ever heard of such a thing? A human chain to rescue books, a moment of coming together, of resistance.’
Our book this month has particular poignancy in view of what is happening in the world right now. Priscilla Morris’s novel, shortlisted for the Women’s Prize tells the story of the siege of Sarajevo, based on real-life incidents and experiences from her own family.
Zora Kokovic is an artist and Professor of Art at the University of Sarajevo where she lives with her husband Franjo and cares for her 83-year-old mother. As unrest grows, Franjo and her mother leave to stay with her daughter who lives in England, but Zora decides to stay in her beloved city to finish her painting and join them later. She believes that things will soon settle down and that the tanks gathering in the mountains are for their protection.
Despite difficulties, Zora begins to enjoy her solitude and focus on her recent painting. But soon things worsen, as conflict turns into full scale war. Buildings are shelled, people lie dead in the streets; food, water and electricity become scarce and then vanish. Zora is reduced to catching pigeons on her windowsill and cooking them. Continue reading “Hadlow Down Book Club Review – November 2023”
Remembrance Day 2023
The Remembrance Day service in St Mark’s is at 3.00 pm. Sunday 12th. November.
Armistice Observance is the day before on the 11th. in the churchyard. Meet at 10.55 am for 11.00 am Silence.
Marmaduke Pickthall – Oct. Mini-Bio
Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall 1875 – 1936
Muhammed Marmaduke Pickthall lived in Five Chimneys, Hadlow Down between 1909 and c.1916/17. Electoral Roll records of 1912 show him owning one quarter of the C16 wood framed house now re-fronted with red brick and the central chimney stacks cemented over but finished with brick tops
Pickthall was born in Cambridge Terrace, near Regent’s Park in London on the 7th. April 1875 the elder of the two sons of the Reverend Charles Grayson Pickthall (1822–1881) and his second wife, MaryHale, née O’Brien (1836–1904). Mary, of the Irish Inchiquin clan, was the widow of William Hale and the daughter of Admiral Donat Henchy O’Brien, who served in the Napoleonic Wars, Charles was an Anglican clergyman, the rector of Chillesford a village near Woodbridge, Suffolk The Pickthalls traced their ancestry to a knight of William the Conqueror, Sir Roger de Poictu, from whom their surname derives.
Marmaduke was an English Islamic scholar noted for his 1930 English translation of the Qu’ran, (usually anglicized as “Koran” in Pickthall’s era). His translation is one of the most widely known and used in the English-speaking world. A convert from Christianity to Islam, Pickthall was also a novelist, esteemed by D. H. Lawrence, H. G. Wells, and E. M. Forster, as well as journalists, political and religious leaders. He declared his conversion to Islam in dramatic fashion after delivering a talk on ‘Islam and Progress’ on 29 November 1917, to the Muslim Literary Society in Notting Hill, West London. Continue reading “Marmaduke Pickthall – Oct. Mini-Bio”
Pop Up Vintage Tea Party at the Village Hall
Please join us for a Vintage Tea Party from 3pm on Saturday 28th October.
Afternoon Tea will be served –
expect a cream tea, sandwiches and a delicious selection of cakes
Tickets are £15 and can be booked via the QR Code below
or by calling 01825 830857
There will also be bar!
Feel free to dress accordingly, see you there,
Chin Chin!
St. Mark’s Works of Art
Can anyone cast light on what happened to the beautiful paintings by the notable British Pre-Raphaelite painter Edward Fellowes Prynne that were originally part of the High Altar in St. Mark’s Church?
They seem to have been replaced with infill panels of a green patterned wallpaper!
Please email hadlowdown1@gmail.com if you can help with any information as to the whereabouts of these valuable works of art
Please email hadlowdown1@gmail.com if you can help with any information as to the whereabouts of these valuable works of art
Edward Fellowes Prynne’s original altar paintings.
Current replacements.
SUMMER BOOK CLUB REVIEW
In August the Book Club always takes a break and members read their own choice of book and bring back recommendations to the group. We certainly had a diverse and interesting selection and I for one can’t wait to start reading some of them.
To start with some vintage World War novels, ‘Death of a Hero’ (1929) was written by Richard Aldington and based on his own first-hand experience of World War 1. It is sometimes considered the greatest of all novels about that War and makes a scalding critique of those pre-war voices that helped to make that global catastrophe inevitable. It is that very anger that made this a fascinating read. Nigel Balchin was a psychologist, a writer and deputy scientific adviser to the Army Council. Like Aldington he writes from first-hand knowledge in ‘Darkness Falls from the Air’ (1942) a vivid account of living through the blitz and ‘Small Back Room’ (1943) a story of the backroom boys. Of their time, they are readable, informative and vivid. Continue reading “SUMMER BOOK CLUB REVIEW”
The Grange, Hadlow Down
The Grange, Hadlow DownFurther to the George Fellowes Prynne’s biographical articles published recently in The Hadlow Down Village Magazine and here on the Village Web Site the Hadlow Down Village Trust has come across this interesting architect’s drawing that appeared in The Building News of 17 November 1893 showing The Grange as Fellowes Prynne would build it with the original building, called Buxted Lodge before the transition, in the inset.
It was George Fellowes Prynne’s first secular building.
It was George Fellowes Prynne’s first secular building.
Edward Arthur Fellowes Prynne. Sept. Mini-Bio
Edward Arthur Fellowes Prynne (1854–1921) was a leading British late Pre-Raphaelite painter of portraits and subject pictures, who in later life became one of the country’s best known creators of decorative art for churches. Examples of his work can be found in our own village church of St. Mark the Evangelist.
In 1913 the Hadlow Down church was in essential need of re-building, a project that was duly completed and the church subsequently re-consecrated. The re-building work had been gifted to the parish by local benefactor Mr. Charles Lang Huggins, J.P. of nearby Hadlow Grange. George Fellowes Prynne the brother of Edward Fellowes Prynne was the appointed architect of the project. Continue reading “Edward Arthur Fellowes Prynne. Sept. Mini-Bio”
Race Night Postponed
“Race Night” in aid of Engage TN22 Clubs has been postponed.
The new date for your diaries is Saturday 27th January 2024.
Thank you so much to everyone that has supported the event to date.
If you would like to book tickets and or get involved by sponsoring a race or by buying some horses, please contact
Peter on 01825 830009