KILBURN, Yorkshire – St Mary. 

“Oak Frame” 1919; unconfirmed other work

The now defunct partial archive of the firm of Dart and Francis of Crediton mentioned this piece, and given the date it was probably for a War Memorial.  There were no details of the dedication of the church, nor anything other than “Kilburn”, so I naturally assumed this related to a church in Kilburn, London.  It was only after finding a postcard of a St Mary’s church, Kilburn (illustrated below) that I investigated further, and found a village called Kilburn in North Yorkshire.  The postcard clearly shows a Norman arch, and the church in this Kilburn does indeed have Norman features.  But most importantly, the reredos and altar rails shown in this picture are so redolent of the work of George Fellowes Prynne that I feel confident to attribute the work to him.

Given that the archive that was held at Dart and Francis at the time of my visit in the 1980s was only partial, it is perfectly possible that they had already worked on an earlier contract here for Fellowes Prynne in the restoration of the sanctuary.