As a result of contacts made at our 2007 Exhibition (see below) we have received an email from Afghanistan with the promise of some fascinating information about our little parish.
The email came from Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, HM Ambassador in Kabul. His ancestors had acquired the estates of Ditcham and Sunworth in 1545. The estates remained in the Cowper family until 1767, when Richard Cowper, the last male heir died. The estates passed to his first cousin, John Coles and the families of Cowper and Coles were thus united. In 1865, after the death of John Coles’s grandson, the Reverend John Coles, the estate was sold to the Cave family.
