FLIMWELL, East Sussex – St Augustine of Canterbury. 

Memorial tablet and restoration 1920

From the now lost Dart and Francis archive, this letter relating to Flimwell church, dated 1 March 1920, said:

Oak memorial tablet frame moulded and carved as ¼” full size detail with carved inscription on lower rail, fitting and fixing metal panel to be supplied to us free, decorating with part red paint and part gilding in the sum of THIRTY POUNDS, inclusive of packing and delivery to the above.

By the end of April, the estimate had risen to £33.

The said memorial tablet was erected and is typical of Fellowes Prynne’s style. The inscription along the bottom reads:

THANKS BE TO GOD WHO GIVETH US THE VICTORY
THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD

A visit to the church revealed that Fellowes Prynne had a considerable involvement in the restoration, and that this memorial tablet was but a part of a much greater project. The whole chancel restoration was carried out as a memorial after the War, as the plaque behind the oak screen indicates:

THIS CHANCEL WAS RESTORED AND THE SCREEN ERECTED TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND IN MEMORY OF GEORGE J. GOSCHEN WHO GAVE HIS LIFE IN THE GREAT WAR

The aforementioned oak screen is very much in the style of Fellowes Prynne’s screens in this part of England, being simpler and with less elaborate infill of tracery than, say, St. Cleer. The lavishness of the sanctuary mosaic tiling and murals would have been masked by a heavier screen.