Tag Archives: Nick Seversway

Kitty Milroy, St Mark's Church

Kitty Milroy has been commemorated with a plaque in Farnham

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Kitty Milroy, the artist responsible for the murals in St Mark’s Church, has been commemorated with a plaque on the ‘Famous Names of Farnham’ wall in Farnham’s town centre.

The plaque was unveiled on September 21st by Cllr Alan Earwaker, Mayor of Farnham; Nick Seversway, who led the work in organising the restoration of the murals and who is an expert on Kitty Milroy; and Rev’d Lesley Crawley.

The plaque now takes its place on Farnham’s ‘wall of fame’, in South Street, celebrating local luminaries, including writer and politician William Cobbett, racing driver Mike Hawthorn and cricketer Graham Thorpe.

Kitty Milroy (pictured below) was born Eleanor Catherine Milroy in 1885 in Newnham, Hampshire, but lived almost all her life in the Farnham area. From 1906 onwards, she enrolled in the Slade School of Art — a renowned centre for innovation in mural art — which had recently opened its doors to female students, and between 1911 and 1920 she created the murals in St Mark’s. between 1911 and 1920. They represent local scenes and Biblical passages and the figures in them were modelled by locals at the time. In 2021 they were restored by conservators Rickerby and Shekede.

Further information is available here.

Pictured clockwise from top left: Kitty Milroy; members of the parish Arts and Crafts committee at the unveiling – from left: Chriss Green, Nick Seversway, Bob Shatwell, Jean Sanders, Lesley Crawley and Alan Crawley; Kitty’s plaque; apple tree from Kitty’s murals; figures from Kitty’s murals.

Pictured top: the unveiling of the plaque.

Art, St Mark's Church

Calling all Detectives – mural detectives!

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We urgently need information regarding the paintings at St. Marks.

These were painted by Kitty (Eleanor Catherine Wallace) Milroy, the daughter of the Vicar of Carisbrooke when the family relocated to The Oast House in Hale in the early 1900s.

Did you know that the figures in the murals were all local people from Hale? But who are they?

1
Is this Percy Hook?

We have found out that ‘the third cherub from the right’ is Percy Hook.

Even this is a bit vague as it depends which way you happen to be looking as to which is right.

Hilda Mary Butler was a figure ‘dressed in blue’.

Can you remember anything that your Gran or Grandad said about the paintings or whether they were one of the figures or if they mentioned who was?

Anything at all will help us build up a picture so we can have the information when we apply for grants to stabilize the wall paintings.

Percy Hook recalled in the Farnham Herald (publ. Nov 30th 1990)

‘it was done by Miss Milroy, who lived at a big house on the corner of what they call Boxalls Hill. I remember sitting in a hut behind her house while she painted it, but not how it came about’

The paintings themselves are painted directly onto the wall so he must have been referring to her preliminary sketches and paintings not of which seem to have survived. The church paintings were painted with a modified version of the technique known as spirit fresco. It is recorded during the major restoration carried out by Evelyn Caesar in 1946, that she used Kitty Milroy’s technique employing a walnut of beeswax.

Indeed the two figures of Moon and Cloud are part of this restoration. But did you know that the small face above the window was also part of this restoration?  Evelyn used her niece for this portrait, Josephine Jones (nee Caesar).

2

Apparently a Violet Common assisted Kitty with the paintings. Does anyone know if this is this true?

Unfortunately all the parish magazines from 1900-1983 are missing. If you know any that still exist before you dump them please hand them on as they provide a great insight as to what was going on and they may even mention the paintings.

These paintings are a unique part of our heritage and represent an important piece of the history of the short lived church decoration at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th Century.

What can you find out?

Thanks for your help detective.

Please contact

Nick Seversway  

nick.seversway@outlook.com, 07954693191