Biographies of notable village residents and contributors to the social history of Hadlow Down past and present will be added to these pages as they are researched or acquired by the Trust.
If you can offer an existing biography or have written one or can offer additional information we will be pleased to add it to the pages.
A Village Trust Mini Biography – Dollina Margaret Ford (1891- 1912)
Dollina Margaret Ford (1891- 1912)
When the Titanic passenger liner sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on April
15, 1912, after hitting an iceberg on the maiden voyage, there were a number
of Sussex people on board.
Dollina Margaret Ford was born to on the 13th of June 1891 in Hadlow Down
to Margaret and Edward Ford. Her father registered her birth on the 29th of
July. She was the couple’s first child and was Baptised at the Parish Church of St. Mark the Evangelist on the 23rd of August 1891. Dollina was named after a maternal aunt. Continue reading “A Village Trust Mini Biography – Dollina Margaret Ford (1891- 1912)”
Alice Catharine Day 1848 – 1930 Dec. Mini Bio
Alice Catharine Day was born in 1848 to William Day (1787 – 1849) and Anne Elliot Le Blanc (1806 – 1896) of Hadlow House in Hadlow Down which was then a part of the parish of Mayfield. She was baptized in St. Marks Church, Hadlow Down on the 26th. September 1848. Her father within a year of her being born.
*Please note that throughout this article the writer has purposely used Miss Day’s correct spelling of her name Catharine spelt with an ‘a’ and not with an ‘e’.
Many Hadlow Down villagers know of Miss Day due to the reproduction of her book Glimpses of Life in Rural Sussex During The Last Hundred Years, which was first published in 1927, in the Millenium village book project of 1999. In one of her ‘glimpses’ she recalls visiting a village family in 1883, there are other dates of interviews with villagers including one in 1922 In her book she says she is ‘writing principally of my experiences among them [The Wealden People] during the years from 1874 till 1892’, as the book was published in 1927 a few years before her death at the age of 82, when compiling her book she was no doubt drawing on lots of notes made throughout her time living in Hadlow Down as well as her personal recollections as a young lady. Continue reading “Alice Catharine Day 1848 – 1930 Dec. Mini Bio”
Marmaduke Pickthall – Oct. Mini-Bio
Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall 1875 – 1936
Muhammed Marmaduke Pickthall lived in Five Chimneys, Hadlow Down between 1909 and c.1916/17. Electoral Roll records of 1912 show him owning one quarter of the C16 wood framed house now re-fronted with red brick and the central chimney stacks cemented over but finished with brick tops
Pickthall was born in Cambridge Terrace, near Regent’s Park in London on the 7th. April 1875 the elder of the two sons of the Reverend Charles Grayson Pickthall (1822–1881) and his second wife, MaryHale, née O’Brien (1836–1904). Mary, of the Irish Inchiquin clan, was the widow of William Hale and the daughter of Admiral Donat Henchy O’Brien, who served in the Napoleonic Wars, Charles was an Anglican clergyman, the rector of Chillesford a village near Woodbridge, Suffolk The Pickthalls traced their ancestry to a knight of William the Conqueror, Sir Roger de Poictu, from whom their surname derives.
Marmaduke was an English Islamic scholar noted for his 1930 English translation of the Qu’ran, (usually anglicized as “Koran” in Pickthall’s era). His translation is one of the most widely known and used in the English-speaking world. A convert from Christianity to Islam, Pickthall was also a novelist, esteemed by D. H. Lawrence, H. G. Wells, and E. M. Forster, as well as journalists, political and religious leaders. He declared his conversion to Islam in dramatic fashion after delivering a talk on ‘Islam and Progress’ on 29 November 1917, to the Muslim Literary Society in Notting Hill, West London. Continue reading “Marmaduke Pickthall – Oct. Mini-Bio”
The Grange, Hadlow Down
The Grange, Hadlow DownFurther to the George Fellowes Prynne’s biographical articles published recently in The Hadlow Down Village Magazine and here on the Village Web Site the Hadlow Down Village Trust has come across this interesting architect’s drawing that appeared in The Building News of 17 November 1893 showing The Grange as Fellowes Prynne would build it with the original building, called Buxted Lodge before the transition, in the inset.
It was George Fellowes Prynne’s first secular building.
It was George Fellowes Prynne’s first secular building.
Edward Arthur Fellowes Prynne. Sept. Mini-Bio
Edward Arthur Fellowes Prynne (1854–1921) was a leading British late Pre-Raphaelite painter of portraits and subject pictures, who in later life became one of the country’s best known creators of decorative art for churches. Examples of his work can be found in our own village church of St. Mark the Evangelist.
In 1913 the Hadlow Down church was in essential need of re-building, a project that was duly completed and the church subsequently re-consecrated. The re-building work had been gifted to the parish by local benefactor Mr. Charles Lang Huggins, J.P. of nearby Hadlow Grange. George Fellowes Prynne the brother of Edward Fellowes Prynne was the appointed architect of the project. Continue reading “Edward Arthur Fellowes Prynne. Sept. Mini-Bio”
Fellowes Prynne, George H. (2nd April 1853 – 27th May1927)
The Church of St. Mark the Evangelist provides an impressive first view of the village as you approach Hadlow Down from the West on the A272. The person responsible for its present day imposing appearance is George Halford Fellowes Prynne (1853–1927) a Victorian and Edwardian English church architect, part of the High Church School of Gothic Revival Architecture.
He was born on 2 April 1853 at Wyndham Square, Plymouth, Devon, the second son of the Rev. George Rundle Prynne and Emily Fellowes. His elder brother was the painter Edward Arthur Fellowes Prynne. He also had another brother, Albert Bernard (known as Bernard), and two sisters. His father was a well-known figure in religious circles of the time, being outspoken in his support of the revival of so-called high churchmanship in the Anglican Church and espousing the views of the Oxford Movement. Continue reading “Fellowes Prynne, George H. (2nd April 1853 – 27th May1927)”
Standen, Gerald ( – 22nd September 1999)
The New Inn
Awaiting input
Pilot Officer W. H. G. (Scotty) Gordon (1920 – 1940)
Pilot Officer W. H. G. (Scotty) Gordon
The intention of including ‘Biography’ pages in the ‘Village Trust’ section of the Hadlow Down web site (www.hadlowdown.com) was to provide readers with an informative collection of notable people who by residency, birth, marriage or contribution to its social history were associated with Hadlow Down.
An exception to the normal criteria for inclusion is that of P/O W.H.G Gordon who was sadly shot down over Howbourne Farm fields, Hadlow Down while piloting a Spitfire on September 6th 1940, during a ferocious dogfight with three German Messerschmitt 109’s. Continue reading “Pilot Officer W. H. G. (Scotty) Gordon (1920 – 1940)”
Noble, Peter (29th. September 1939 – 23rd May 2023)
Peter was born and raised in Tooting, South London and had a long and successful career as a bank manager before moving to Hadlow Down after taking early retirement, later moving to Buxted.
Along with others residing in the village he was a founder member of the Sussex Egyptology Society being a keen Egyptologist he visited Egypt on archaeological trips fourteen times. Continue reading “Noble, Peter (29th. September 1939 – 23rd May 2023)”
Hendry, Charles (6 May 1959- )
Charles Hendry CBE PC born 6 May 1959 in Cuckfield, Sussex was a British Conservative Party politician. Formerly the member of parliament for High Peak between the 1992 and 1997 general elections, he was returned as the MP for Wealden in 2001. In May 2010 he was appointed Minister of State for the Department of Energy and Climate Change and served until 2012. He stood down at the 2015 general election.Charles Hendry was Minister of State for Energy at the Department for Energy & Climate Change from May 2010 to September 2012. He was elected Conservative MP for Wealden on 7 June 2001.
Lived in Wilderness Lane, Hadlow Down. Continue reading “Hendry, Charles (6 May 1959- )”