P48/2/2/16

Letter from son of designer of memorial table, reredos etc. to John Hill and Emma Banham including the following information: - list of names of militia called up during Napoleonic Wars written in margin of early 1800s parish register also noting high food prices; - list of Local Defence Volunteers for World War Two included many of the same name, Christian and surname, as those called up during the Napoleonic Wars; - altar etc. executed by Faith Craft Studio of Tufton Street, Westminster, through their studio and workshops in St.Albans; the company having closed down in 1969 and the writer having worked as a designer and craftsman there from 1928 to 1939; - idea for freize above the altar came from snails carved on tomb of Abbott Ramridge in St.Albans Abbey; - animals on the freize, whose initial letters spelled Keysoe, were kingfisher; eft [newt] of which two types bred in pool in garden by glebe hedge, yaffle [green woodpecker], squirrel, owl and ermine (white stoat); - coats of arms on the freize were those of patrons of the living being the Beauchamps of Bedford, Chaicksands Priory, St.Albans and either Lincoln, Ely or Westminster; - shields on the freize were Canterbury, Chi Rho, Virgin Mary and St.Albans; - other reminiscences of working at Faith Craft including signing in an informal choir, installation of altar rails at Keysoe and use of gold leaf originally made for ships of war in the eighteenth century

21 Apr 1970

From: 1970 To: 1970

item

Banham, John Hill,
Banham, Emma,
Faith Craft Studio

Faith Craft Studio, yaffles, kingfishers, eft, ermine, owls, squirrels, church furnishings, Home Guard, militia, KEYSOE