There's still much to find out about the remarkable Mr Evans

IN researching local history of pre-camera days, the work of painters and illustrators is a vital link. For example, changes to the outward appearance of our parish church can be seen in works by James Lambert (1780), Henrie Pirie (1802), RH Nibbs (1850), William Woodward (1886) and others, to be found in JG Taylor's invaluable book The Parish Church of St. Leonard Seaford, published in 1937, coinciding with the coronation of King George the VI.
By The Newsroom
Published 8th Dec 2005, 12:00 BST
Updated 7th Jun 2018, 22:36 BST

WR Wynter's Memorials of the Town, Parish and Cinque-Port of Seaford (1855) contains illustrations of features 'as they were': the north-west aspect of the 12th century storied capital of the column as one enters the church, for instance, and the chimney-piece 'of ancient date' in the Plough Inn.

This piece would not be complete without reference to the pen-and-ink drawings of one-armed Harry Harison (HH) Evans, depicting local scenes and events of more than a century ago. Research for the Museum's 2001 publication A Seaford Sketchbook, a collection of his work, has uncovered something of his life story and his working methods: it seems that for at least the latter half of his life (he died aged 77 in 1926) he was disabled. To see the intricate work of many of his pictures - each individual stone of a flint wall, every separate stook of corn in a field - done by dipping a pen in a bottle of ink while thus handicapped is a revelation. Moreover, he often subscribed his work with an explanation or brief history of the subject in fine copperplate handwriting. He drew most of his subjects from life or from his own memory and that of others. As AA Quinton did later, he would repeat the same scene as occasion demanded, with different bystanders; he also worked from paintings and photographs.

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There is much still to find out about the remarkable Mr Evans: how I wish we could have met and talked to him.

However, I have had the pleasure and privilege of meeting one celebrated artist - at Charlston Manor (West Dean), the lovely historic home of Lady Rhoda Birley. Her late husband Sir Oswald Birley (1880-1952) was best known as a portrait painter, particularly from the 1930s on. His most distinguished sitters included King George V and Queen Mary, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, our present Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, Sir Winston Churchill (and other Prime Ministers), Lord Louis Mountbatten, General Eisenhower and Field Marshal Montgomery. Lady Birley, the former Miss Rhoda Lecky Pike of County Carlow, Eire, was a patron of the arts including theatre, music and ballet, and no mean painter herself.

In the 1960s she conceived the idea of holding a garden/poetry festival at Charlston and, for one hectic, hilarious summer I worked each afternoon in the idyllic setting of her lovely old house and beautiful gardens, helping her organise the event with tasks ranging from taking bookings by letter or 'phone to arranging seating for speakers and audience when the great day came, with drafting programmes and publicity in between.

Lady Birley died in 1980, the contents of the house having already been disposed of. From the display of Sir Oswald's work in the Great Barn, I remember best his colourful scenes of the Middle East and the Orient, and his portraits of her over the period of their 30 years together, from stunning young dancer to gracious lady of the manor.

Thanks to Joyce at Seaford Library for her help with details of Sir Oswald's work.

PAT BERRY