Locked Doors

Getting into churches is a chancey business, often about half the ones on my planned route are locked. Some are locked in a very uninviting way that makes the church look like a building site, such as All Saints, Netheravon, Wiltshire (below), with an arrow to an entrance that looked as if it was never used.

West facing door, All Saints, Netheravon

Two of the churches on this route along the River Avon in Wiltshire had inviting doors, an outer one at Figheldean (below left) and a solid dated interior door at Fittleton cum Haxton (below right). At this stage, after four churches (two open, two locked) I hadn't found any stained glass that was interesting or different from windows that I had seen before, the doors were all that I wanted to photograph.

South porch doors: Left St Michael & All Angels, Figheldean: Right All Saints, Fittleton

However as I was leaving Fittleton church, I looked towards the tower through a filthy glazed screen and saw two brown rectangular stained glass panels (below). As the door to the tower was locked (sigh!) I could only see from a distance the vaguely heraldic pattern in the middle of patterned stars.

A locked door usually leads you to look at the back of the windows. Here they look great (below), such lovely colours and textures in the combination of glass, lead and stone. The glass paint is totally opaque so all you can see are brown tones in a pattern of lead lines governed by the way the glass has been damaged, in a completely different way for each window. They were obviously worth preserving. 

West facing window, All Saints, Fittleton

My last church, open so final score 3-2, had a beautiful interior (below). It is one of those churches with clear glass in the windows and, perhaps as a result, it is the pale coloured stone of the carved arches and columns that glow with light. 

Inside All Saints, Enfold and a squint in the nave wall.

The Outside of Stained Glass

The Vyne (NT, near Basingstoke) and some of its heraldic glass

Fantastic fenestration at The Vyne, those glazing bars that form octagons, triangles, lozenges and diamonds also contain some great heraldic glass. You can tell how good it is - and well restored - from the outside (above).  My favourite panel on the right, the arms of Henry VIII, has lions painted and scratched back in such a way that it is easy to imagine the painter's hand at work. 

C16th glass : the base of the Crucifix and Henry VIII panel

Inside the chapel there is a rare opportunity to get close to the exceptional 16th century glass by climbing the scaffolding that is there while the glass panels are conserved. The crucifix panel (above left) is already in place and the one featuring Henry VIII is on display on a light box in the house, also great for a close up view. Adjacent panels feature Queen Margaret of Scotland (his sister) and Catherine of Aragon.

It easy to see where these three figures, together with gorgeous canopies and name Saints, will go by looking at the leading pattern in the clear glazing installed in the chapel windows before the coloured ones arrive back. Curious idea, but It looks good from the outside (above right) while protecting the precious glass inside. 

How good to get so close up to Henry VIII, portrait at about 30 years old. Glass possibly by Flemish glaziers, commissioned by Lord Sandys of The Vyne in the 1520s.

Painted glass

Baddesley Clinton, a moated manor house in Warwickshire, contains examples of stained glass that demonstrate my two favourite aspects of the medium - enamel painting and pattern making. The collection of heraldic shields in the house and the church nearby date from the sixteenth to the twentieth century.

The Jervais Glass, displayed in an upstairs window at Baddesley Clinton and before conservation by Chapel Studio. (One of the displays calls it "conservation", the other "restoration" so I've used both terms here).

This late 18th century painted glass panel is by Thomas Jervais who also painted the Joshua Reynolds windows at New College, Oxford. These windows were usually the examples chosen in the books I read as a student to illustrate why enamel painting ruined the medium of stained glass until the Arts and Crafts movement rescued it. I love this style of glass painting, light but opaque, but I can see that in combination with lead it is unsatisfactory. The Baddesley Clinton panel has been very skilfully restored, but it is fun to see how it looked before the recent restoration with the breaks leaded.

As regards the heraldic glass, I am interested not in the iconography but in the painting and etching techniques used, and in the same lead effect. Leads inserted where glass pieces have broken follow effortless lines that remind you of what the glass would like to do if we didn't torture it into regular shapes. 

The oldest shield in the house and one from St. Michael's Church nearby.