Firebacks

  1. 57

    east_grinstead_church_3.jpg
    1180 x 730 mm

    Description: Rectangular; rope edging on top and sides; central inscription panel; repeated trailing vine decoration from impressed wooden strips — one horizontal line at top, four vertical strips each side of panel, eleven vertical strips below.

    Notes: This fireback came to East Grinstead church from Hurst-an-Clays, a former farmhouse on the edge of the town, in 1933. The inscription is from the same carved pattern used on the graveslab of Anne Forster in Crowhurst church, Surrey; several firebacks have been cast using this panel, each different in other details from the rest. Some of the firebacks using this inscription date from after 1591.

    Inscription: HER : LIETH : ANE : FORST/ R : DAVGHTER : AND : / HEYR : TO : THOMAS : / GAYNSFORD : ESQVIER / DECEASED : XVIII : OF: / IANVARI : 1591 : LEAVYNG / BEHIND : HER II : SONES : / AND : V : DAVGHTERS

    Manufactured: in the late-16th century possibly at Pounsley Furnace, Framfield in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: St Swithun's Church, High Street, East Grinstead, West Sussex, England.

    Citation: Hodgkinson, J. S., 2018, 'The Anne Forster Firebacks', Surrey Archaeological Collections, 101, 99-114.

    Citation: Holgate, M. S., 1918, 'The Anne Forster Grave Slab', Sussex Archaeological Collections, 59, pp. 130-1.