Our December meeting not only had a change of speaker (due to our CWGC speaker getting Covid whilst working out in France) but also reverted to a zoom meeting due to the revised Covid restrictions. This did not detract from an excellent talk by Christopher Parkinson on the History of Stained Glass, concentrating on examples from Essex and our locality.
After a brief review of how stained glass windows are designed and manufactured, he talked about the two traditional methods of blowing glass to make panes and also on how to insert colour and the problems that this can lead to in the following decades. We were then treated to a tour of church windows, starting with Saxon and Romanesque churches whose long thin windows that are best suited to a profile of a figure or a stack set of square designs, such as at Rivenhall dating from c1170 and then on through the centuries. Whilst Essex does not have large numbers of examples from all ages it does have good quality ones. Some windows have a history of getting moved about, perhaps starting out in a local hall and then as fashion changed being donated to the parish church. One example started off at Waltham Abbey before going to New Hall, then to Copt Hall and finally ending up in St. Margaret’s, Westminster. He also highlighted the problem for restorers of windows smashed by iconoclasts and trying to recreate the design – do you insert coloured glass to complete the design or just insert blank glass? He showed good and poor results for both options. As with many areas, it was the Victorian period that we have the most prolific cover of designers and manufacturers and these were highlighted in the local churches at Hatfield Broad Oak (Hardman & Co., Henry Holiday, Ward & Hughes), Little Hallingbury (Bourne Jones design) and Hatfield Heath (Powel & Co.). We even have an international connection with the WW2 airbase memorial window in Little Easton church being designed and manufactured in America. A fascinating talk and excellent photographs of the windows that probably benefitted by being viewed on the computer screen. …………………………………………………………. There is no meeting of the History Society in February but our AGM will be in March, details to be announced. Quentin Spear
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