History of Christ Church Fairwarp- Christ Church and the parish in the 1920s and 1930s

In July 2023, the FADLHS held a talk on Christ Church, our village church,

presented by Fr John Caperon.

There were few ‘homes for heroes’ when those who’d served in the forces returned home after the War.  For ordinary village folk, things were much as before, but with low national economic growth in the 1920s came high unemployment and strikes; though the general strike of 1926 probably had little resonance as far away from the industrial centres of the country as Fairwarp!  But these were not prosperous years; rural poverty prevailed.

But the moneyed lives of those in the ‘big houses’ continued, and in 1920 Oldlands Hall

Oldlands Hall

came into the ownership of Frederich Eckstein, a successful businessman of German-South African heritage, whose considerable wealth had come from the South African mines and from financial dealings.  Just as Alexander Nesbitt, the first owner of Oldlands, and Elphinstone Barchard of Horsted Place, had been decisive for the foundation of Christ Church in the 1870s and 1880s, the Eckstein family were to be a major influence on the church and the wider Fairwarp community from the 1920s and 1930s onwards.

The Nesbitt memorial windows as originally installed in three lancets

Before looking at the contribution of the Ecksteins, though, let’s take a retrospective look at Alexander Nesbitt and Elphinstone Barchard as they were remembered in the fabric of Christ Church.  1886/7 saw the provision of three lancet windows at the old East end of the church in Nesbitt’s memory.  They were striking in appearance, and a powerful focus of worship, though now they are hidden from the view of most who attend church.

The picture opposite gives some indication of the original appearance of the windows: they’d been designed by Henry Holiday (1839-1927), a friend of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, and a close associate of Burne Jones; and other windows by Holiday can be found in Worcester College Oxford, and in Westminster Abbey.  The style is dramatic, the colours classic Pre-Raphaelite: it’s quite startling to find such work in a small rural church.

The Barchard memorial windows, still in place at the West end of Christ Church, and only this year fully restored and re-leaded and replaced by local craftspeople, are very different.  Installed in 1894 and designed by George Measures Parlby (1856-1944), these windows are traditional in design and reflect a fairly common Victorian stye. 

Also by Parlby, and very similar in style, are the South transept windows installed in 1901, in memory of Cecilia Nesbitt of Oldlands.  Depicting the Annunciation and Nativity, their inscription reads: ‘Her many gifts to this church and her loving kindness will endear her name for ever in this parish.’  Lovely words.

It was into this already well-ornamented church that Frederich Eckstein and his son Bernard came, perhaps with designs of their own already in mind.  In 1929 Frederich Eckstein was made a baronet, for his contribution to the development of the cotton industry in the Sudan, becoming Sir Bernard ‘of Fairwarp in the county of Sussex’.  But in 1930 he died after complications from appendicitis, his son Bernard inheriting the title.  How could Sir Bernard best memorialise his late father and keep his memory alive?  The church perhaps provided the obvious answer.