Catalogue description Papers and notes relating to the Trower sisters of Hollyhurst, Burwash Common, and the development of the church of St Philip Burwash Weald

Georgina Trower (1808-1885), Emily Trower (1809-1890) and Sophia Trower (1823-1905) came to Burwash Common in 1864, and embarked upon an attempt to tame that wild and unruly portion of the parish by the erection of a church, Sunday School and school. In this endeavour they were assisted by their brothers Walter John Trower (1804-1877), an Etonian and fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, successively bishop of Glasgow and Gibraltar, and Charles Francis Trower (1818-1891), a barrister, and the fortune accumulated by their father John Trower (1774-1855) of Weston Grove in Hampshire, enumerated in 1851 as a fundholder with income from property and houses. Another brother, William Baker Trower (1812-1895), went over to Rome and by 1861 had been ordained. Georgiana Trower died in 1885, Emily Trower in 1890 and Sophia Trower in 1905.

Many events in the life of the parish and of the Misses Trower are related in the diaries of the Revd John Coker Egerton, successively curate and rector of Burwash. The diaries, covering (with gaps) 1842-1887, are held as AMS 6193. Extracts, edited by Roger Wells, were published under the title Victorian Village (Alan Sutton, 1992), but the lack of an index renders the book of limited value as a work of reference.

Documents transferred from the library of the Susex Archaeological Society, 24 August 2007 (ACC 3830; for other parts of the same transfer, see PAR 285).

These papers were collected by Derrick Steward of Burwash Common, who was interested in the local history of the area. Other parts of his collection which seem to derive from the church of St Philip Burwash Weald have been placed with the archive of that parish, PAR 285.