Welcome to the website page exploring the history of Lurgashall Parish
The Archive room at the Village Hall is next open to visitors on Wed 15th and Wed 29th JULY, 2.30pm – 4.00pm.
Contact: archive@lurgashallvillagehall.org
Baptisms and the font at St Laurence Church – what we learn about village society over the ages
At a wedding in the church last month there was a spectacular arrangement of flowers sitting on top of the font which is located just inside the main door into the church. Two weeks later, a baptism was held at the font in the church – the only one so far this year.
These events got the Archive thinking: what is the history of our church font, who has been baptised there over the centuries, and what, if anything, do those baptisms tell us about how our village society has changed?
There was a font in the church probably from Medieval times, but during the ‘Interregnum’ of Oliver Cromwell from 1649 to 1658, many places of worship were stripped of their artifacts.
In about 1653 the old font, ‘made from a rude block of stone’, was smashed, but some of its pieces are still in the church to this day.
Parish records show that baptisms in the church did continue during the Interregnum, but it wasn’t until 1661, after the Restoration of Charles II, that a new font was provided. Its unusual shape is carved from petrified winkle-stone, known locally as Sussex or Petworth marble, quarried at nearby Kirdford. The new font was first used in March 1662 when a Mary Stone, daughter of William and Elizabeth, was baptised.
In 1776, the year of American Independence, there were 12 baptisms at the church. Some of the family names are recognisable even today – Cheanler (or Chandler), Stevens, Randel, Varndel, Sumafeald, Chalcroft, Luffe, Lickfold, Tribe, Terrey and Chalwin.
By 1826, the occupation of the baptised child’s father was being recorded in the baptism register, and this tells us a lot about the social make-up of the village at the time. Thirty children were baptised that year – among the fathers there were 21 labourers, three bricklayers, two blacksmiths, one miller, one corn chandler and one farmer.
Move on almost a century, to 1921, and there were 11 baptisms in the church, with family names such as Lillywhite, Shotter, Dummer, Potter, Lander, Luff and Coombes. The fathers’ occupations were still those of a very rural, agriculturally-based and quite poor community – mostly farm carters, stockmen and labourers, a gardener and two farmers.
Fifty or so years later, in 1976 and after the mechanisation of farming and the sale by the big estates of farm labourer housing in the parish, the demographic make-up of the parish had radically changed. Six children were baptised that year and their fathers’ occupations included two company directors, a manager, a banker, a management consultant and… one farmer.