Five Ashes – Good Shepherd

Most outlying parts of Mayfield parish have become parishes on their own or were joined with parts of others.  Five Ashes, a sizeable settlement on the road to Eastbourne, remains a chapelry of  Mayfield.  The wooden chapel, boarded outside and panelled within, is a remarkable survival.

The structure was originally a hut, erected during World War I for the Army at Eastbourne and afterwards acquired to be adapted as a chapel here (see church website).  It was moved in 1920-21 and much of the original structure survives, including the timber casement windows with small panes on the north side.  Those to the south have been renewed in metal.  The roof has rather thin trusses that must also be original.  The most significant changes were the bellcote with a steep spirelet on the west gable and the diminutive glazed porch beneath.  At the east end two small windows of a vaguely ecclesiastical form are unlikely to predate the reconstruction here.

Fitting:

Glass: (Two east windows)  Made by Lowndes and Drury, 1938, designed by J Crawford.(www.stainedglassrecords.org retrieved on 22/2/2013).

My thanks to Nick Wiseman for the photographs of the interior and the stained glass

 

 

 

 

 

Category: