A painting By my grandfather Dennis Earle of my grandmother Vera Earle {nee Pragnell }

This is an oil painting of my Grandmother by my grandfather . He was Dennis Earle a Royal academy trained painter . My grandmother Vera Earle {nee Pragnell } inherited a fortune from her father my great grandfather Sir George Pragnell .  She bought land in the Sussex downs near Storrington and started a sort of hippie community called ‘ The Sanctuary ” . It was based on the Sermon on the mount in the bible – ‘Ask and it shall be given” . They gave land to anyone who asked for it . It was inconditional charity as a response to the disillusionment of the first world war and victorian values . Laurie Lee lived there in a caravan , HG Wells  and Aleister Crowley were friends . Fascists , communists and anarchists   stayed there along with tramps and eccentrics all of whom were provided for .  My mother Deirdre was their only child . Various books were written about the Sanctuary . The community later morphed into a sort of hotel .