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A rough hewn grey granite block with a flat, polished, raised rectangular centre that holds the inscription in carved letters painted black. This stone replaced the original that was placed on Mouse Lane as part of the Milennium celebrations and was damaged when a lorry backed into it. It was subsequently moved to its current location on the exterior wall of the Museum. On the stone is a poem, ‘Chance Memories’ by John Stanley Purvis, who wrote under the pseudonym of Philip Johnstone. Purvis was an army lieutenant during the First World War and was invalided out of the army having been wounded during the Battle of the Somme. He wrote this poem from the trenches. Following the war he returned to Cranleigh School in Surrey where he had previously taught.

Title

Commemorative Stone for Canon John Stanley Purvis (1890–1968)

Date

2006

Medium

grey granite

Measurements

H 68 x W 97 x D 23 cm

Accession number

BN44_CP_S014

Acquisition method

commissioned by Steyning residents

Work type

Sign or marker

Owner

Steyning Parish Council

Custodian

Steyning Parish Council

Work status

extant

Access

at all times

Inscription description

inscribed on the stone: I can't forget the lane that goes from Steyning to the Ring / In summer time and on the downs how larks and linnets sing / High in the sun. The wind comes off the sea, and oh the air! / I never knew till now that life in old days was so fair. / But now I know it in this filthy rat-infested ditch, / Where every shell must kill or spare, and God alone knows which, / And I am made a beast of prey, and this is my lair - / My God, I never knew till now that those days were so fair, / And we assault in half-an-hour and it's a silly thing: / I can't forget the lane that goes from Steyning to the Ring./Written by John Stanley Purvis (using the name Philip Johnson) / 5th Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment, on 2nd December 1915 in a / trench behind the Somme. The original stone was placed in the / lane by the people of Steyning in the year 2000 AD in celebration of their / inheritance, and replaced, after damage to the original, in 2006 A D.

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