St Oswald's is an unpretentious brick building in the New Bilton area of Rugby. It is easily missed, lacking either tower or spire, and the most visible side elevation on Lawford Road is rather domestic-looking. Nonetheless I have a real fondness for this church.

The original church was built in 1864 and consisted of the present north aisle, which culminates in the distinctive rose window at the east end. The architect was the renowned George Edmund Street, yet this was very much a humble building on a tight budget and does not relate to his better known works. However the church soon required enlargement and another big name architect, George Frederick Bodley, was brought in to add the present, much larger nave and chancel to the south, relegating Street's church to a side aisle. The option of balancing this with a new south aisle was kept open with an arcade and columns embedded into the very temporary-looking south nave wall.

The interior is light and airy, architecturally plain but enlivened by some attractive furnishings and some good stained glass. Worship has clearly leant towards the High Church Anglican, so much so that one could easily assume this to be a Catholic church judging by it's fittings.

My main interest in visiting this church however was the stained glass, which though only found in three of the windows makes a visit here highly rewarding. The earliest piece is the rose window at the east end of the present north aisle (former nave and chancel) with it's seven oculi depicting the Lamb of God surrounded by six half figures of angels, apparently designed by the then vicar of nearby Bilton in 1864 (whether he made it himself or which studio might have done this remains a mystery).

The main east window of the church is by Powell's of Whitefriars c1920 and is a fine example of their work, five lights centred on a Crucifixion and Christ in Glory surrounded by saints, angels and swirling foliage against a blue ground.

The finest piece here however is the stunning late Morris & Co glass in the north aisle, very much in the tradition of Burne Jones but actually the work of his successor as the studio's chief designer, John Henry Dearle, from 1922. The Madonna & Child are shown seated centrally with kneeling adoring angels either side, set against a field of lilies.

The furnishings include a chancel screen designed by Bodley in 1900 crowned by a coloured Crucifixion group, but far more impressive is a second cavalry group at the west end, this time in unpainted wood and on a far larger scale; this was the Crucifixion that formerly crowned the chancel 'rood' screen at George Gilbert Scott's majestic Holy Trinity Church, Rugby, a stunning building I remember well, tragically demolished in 1983. The screen it once crowned is now at the west end of All Saints, Leamington Spa, where the former church's organ can also be found.

St Oswald's more recently was threatened with closure but opted instead for unification with the nearby parish of St Matthew's, a thriving Evangelical congregation closer to the town centre. Following their decision to close their church building in 2011 St Oswald's has become the main focus of worship, and rebranded St Matthew & St Oswald's Church (some use the more text friendly 'm2o'!).

The church is normally kept locked, but I have found them to be a very welcoming parish on both my visits, following a morning mass and on Heritage Weekend open days.

For more detail and images see this church's entry on the Warwickshire Churches website below:-
warwickshirechurches.weebly.com/rugby---st-oswald.html

Tags:   rugby church Warwickshire st oswald's Victorian stained glass window morris & co john henry dearle

© All Rights Reserved

A beautiful and late (1937) window by Morris & Co in the south aisle of St George Tombland, Norwich. The design is believed to be the work of W.H.Knight, though the figures of angels are clearly borrowed from Burne Jones's designs.

St George Tombland, near the entrance to Norwich Cathedral Close, is one of the city's grandest medieval churches and happily also still in use as a parish church.

The building dates mainly to the 15th century and consists of a tall west tower, nave flanked by aisles and chancel. The furnishings are mainly 19th century and later, though the large 18th century reredos has been retained behind the high altar.

There are some small pieces of medieval glass surviving though the bulk of the windows are Victorian. Some notable exceptions are the beautiful 1930s Magnificat by Morris & Co in the south aisle and two eccentric and strikingly coloured 'kaleidoscopic' geometric windows on the north side (1867).

I had never previously found this church open on my visits to the city but believe it is open to visitors more regularly nowadays.

For more information on this fine church see Simon Knott's entry on his superb Norfolk Churches website below:-
www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/norwichgeorgetombland/norwichge...

Tags:   norwich church norfolk st george tombland stained glass window morris & co

© All Rights Reserved

One of a series of impressive windows by London-based artist Alfred Wilkinson in the aisles at St Stephen's, installed in the 1950s as replacements for war damaged glass.

Norwich's grandest parish church after nearby St Peter Mancroft is St Stephen's, an impressive essay in the Perpendicular style, lit by extensive clerestorey windows and dominated by an unusually designed north tower, decorated with distinctive flint flushwork, that doubles as the church's main entrance porch. It remains in use as a fully working church, but not always one that welcomed visitors, I had tried on several previous occaisions to get inside but always found it locked. Fortunately today would be different.

The interior is really splendid, all of a piece, early 16th century East Anglian Perpendicular at it's best (a shame it was so hard to see). Sweeping arcades and clerestoreys flooding the nave and chancel (somewhat tunnel-like with no structural division or change of design) with light. There is notable stained glass here, most significantly the huge east window which contains a medley of figures and fragments in 16th century Continental glass (mainly German, with some English fragments, original to the church, mixed in). There is also a fine sequence of windows from the 1950s by Alfred Wilkinson (replacements for bomb damaged glass).

St Stephen's, after years of being locked outside of services now has limited opening hours, being open each morning 10 - 12 .

For more see Simon Knott's excellent Norfolk Churches website below:-
www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/norwichstephen/norwichstephen.htm

The church is currently (Jan 2011) closed for structural repairs and the east window glass has been removed during an underpinning operation for the east end (following being structurally compromised by a burst water main). It will remain inaccessible to visitors and congregation until the works are completed (discoveries are being made during the extensive works, including a lost medieval brass).
ststephensnorwich.org/about/

Tags:   norwich church st stephen's norfolk stained glass window alfred wilkinson

© All Rights Reserved

Window by Hardman's c1890 in the north chapel depicting the Presentation in the Temple.

St Bartholomew's is Edgbaston's ancient parish church, dating back to medieval times when this was a mere village, rather than a suburb of Birmingham's sprawling mass.

Very little of the medieval building survives, prinicpally the 14th century base of the tower and some of the (re-used) stonework in the north wall, otherwise the church has been entirely rebuilt, the top of the tower dates from the 17th century rebuilding following Civil War damage, whilst the remainder is 19th century enlargement (including two south aisles), mostly by J.A.Chatwin in the 1880s, in a form reminiscent of late medieval town churches.

This was clearly a wealthy parish with several wall tablets and most of the windows filled with Victorian stained glass, much of it by the local studio of John Hardmans.

The church is normally locked but opened on select afternoons, luckily I was passing by on one of them.

Tags:   edgbaston church birmingham west midlands victorian stained glass window hardmans

© All Rights Reserved

Millennial Window by the late John Hayward in the north transept at Norwich.

Norwich Cathedral is one of England's finest buildings and greatest cathedrals; It is one of the most complete examples of Romanesque architecture in the country (arguably the least altered Norman cathedral), has the second tallest spire in Britain and it's vaulted ceilings contain the largest collection of carved medieval roof bosses anywhere.

Surprisingly for so grand a building it is relatively inconspicuous from the city itself, standing on low ground and concealed within the old Cathedral Close, an enclave of tradition and relative peace apart from the noise of the city beyond it's gates. It's monastic past is much in evidence, particularly the magnificent cloisters, the largest and some of the finest in the country.

As stated most of the building dates from the 12th century and therefore exudes that solid Norman aesthetic, massively built but still graceful and beautiful. The central tower is unusually designed with arcading and windows beneath a double row of oculi, the tapering spire above it is a 15th century addition, aside from this the only major alterations to the ancient fabric externally are the tall 14th century clerestorey and flying buttresses of the choir and the gothic enlargement of various nave and aisle windows, principally the great perpendicular west window that takes up most of the west facade.

The interior is predominantly Norman too, except for the elaborate gothic vaulted ceilings that cover nave, choir and both transepts with a uniform design (originally these higher celings would have been of wood, stone vaults were added in the late medieval period to protect against fire, a job they performed well when the transept roofs were hit by incendiary bombs in World War II). These vaults display an unrivalled collection of narrative roof bosses, carved and coloured with Old & New Testament scenes (mainly in the nave and transepts, the choir bosses are mostly decorated with the emblem of their donor, Bishop Goldwell).

The cathedral has surprisingly few major monuments and sculptures compared to most of it's peers, but does have more exceptional medieval art in it's 14th & 15th century painted altarpieces, the most important being the Despenser Retable in the south east chapel, a unique survivial, hidden from danger during the Reformation & Civil War by being converted to the underside of a table. Further altarpieces here are formed of salvaged panels from redundant city churches. The medieval choir stalls also survive with a full set of carved misericords.

The stained glass by contrast is mostly Victorian and quite mixed (very little medieval glass survives). Striking modern glass by Keith New and John Hayward was installed in the north transept to commemorate the Millennium.

The cloisters to the south of the nave are one of my favourite places, all four walks are covered by yet more vaulted ceilings with over 400 more carved and repainted bosses (lower down and much easier to study than those inside the main body of the cathedral) spanning the long period of the cloister's construction throughout the 14th & !5th centuries.

Norwich Cathedral is special to me as being the subject of my earliest memories, recalling having been taken around the cathedral and cloisters as a 3 year old, which left a vivid impression on me and lead me to pursue an interest in church art and architecture years later, ultimately towards my present career in stained glass. Norwich Cathedral will always therefore have a touch of that nostalgic magic to me.

For more details see the Cathedral website below:-
www.cathedral.org.uk/historyheritage/Default.aspx

For more images and details see Simon Knott's entry on his Norfolk Churches website below:-
www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/norwichcathedral/norwichcathedr...

Tags:   norwich cathedral norfolk stained glass window modern contemporary john hayward

© All Rights Reserved