Choirboys

This afternoon I made my usual wee pilgrimage to Buxted Church (see extra). It’s a lovely walk through a nature reserve and View Woods up to Buxted Park. I picked some wild garlic in the woods to cook for tea. There were some lovely kingcups in the wetter parts and blackthorn blossom too.

I’m not sure why I like visiting this church so much. It’s ancient (13th century, though the yew in the churchyard is over 2000 years old) It is named for St Margaret of Scotland - there are plenty of daisy motifs (marguerites). An old country church where generations have come to pray and to be christened, married, buried.

The door to the vestry was open and I peeped in. On the wall was this photo which I found incredibly poignant. I wondered if these were the only 3 boys in the choir and if they liked it?

I did a bit of research and found out that Frederick, Rowland and Nelson were brothers, born in 1896, 1898 and 1901, all in Buxted ( so the date on the photo must be out by a few years). Nelson lived to be 77, Rowland died in Suffolk in 1941 and I couldn’t find anything else out about Frederick.