Lurgashall, West Sussex

The church of St Laurence was originally built in Saxon times. It is set in an extensive and peaceful Churchyard which adjoins fields, woods and the local public house. The parish of Lurgashall is in the county of West Sussex and borders onto Surrey. Unusually, the entrance to the church is through the small door shown in the photograph.

Parish registers of this age are quite challenging to read and the surname spelling found varies between Rafel, Refel and Reffell, sometimes even for the same person. For consistency, all the following are listed here as Reffell. The parish is quite small in population and around this time there were often only one or two marriages a year.

Those known to have been baptised here:

John Reffell, baptism date: 29/11/1680

Mary Reffell, baptism date: 17/4/1682

Sarah Reffell, baptism date: 28/11/1686

Mary Reffell, baptism date: 2/5/1702

Those known to have been married here:

Jane Reffell and Anthony Wallis, marriage date: 27/11/1688

Sarah Reffell and William Chase, marriage date: 15/6/1714

Those known to have been buried here:

Ann Reffell, burial date: 5/6/1687

Mary Reffell, burial date: 6/7/1701

Christopher Reffell, burial date: 11/7/1705

Abigail Reffell, burial date: 11/7/1706