Patrick Comerford
I was writing enthusiastically on this blog about the images of Christ the King in Lichfield Cathedral earlier this week. Later that same day (29 November 2023), I was in Lichfield Cathedral for the funeral of a friend who had died at the age of 65.
Both Lichfield Cathedral and the Chapel of Saint John’s Hospital in Lichfield have been like spiritual homes to me for more than 50 years, since I was in my late teens. As on every return visit to Lichfield, I visited both places this time too for prayer and spiritual refreshment.
I never cease to wonder at how I can see things with fresh eyes each time I visit either place. And, on this latest visit to Lichfield Cathedral, I found myself viewing three windows with Advent and Christmas themes that are appropriate at this time of the year.
In the past, I have blogged about many of Charles Eamer Kempe’s windows in Lichfield Cathedral and Saint John’s Chapel, including the great Kempe window in the south transept of the cathedral, which I described last Wednesday. But the facing window in the north transept and the great West Window are both by Clayton and Bell, in whose studio Kempe studied and trained.
Many people are very familiar with the west front of the cathedral, with its rich collection of statues of Biblical figures, saints and kings. But few people notice the rich west window which can only be appreciated from inside the cathedral, and they people may only catch a glimpse of it as they glance up from the nave as they are leaving the cathedral.
The west window, with its depictions of the Nativity cycle, was designed by Clayton and Bell and was inserted after the window tracery was redesigned by Sir George Gilbert Scott in the 1860s.
The large West Window has undergone several changes in its tracery, and the present window differs considerably from the mediaeval window. There is no record of the glass that filled the West Window before the English Civil Wars, and the tracery was destroyed in the Civil Wars. Some accounts say the window was filled with glass in the 1670s by the Duke of York, later King James II. Later it was filled with painted glass Brookes through a legacy left by Dean John Addenbrooke, who died in 1776.
However, the west window was regarded as so ugly and unsuitable to the whole spirit of the cathedral that it was removed by Scott in 1869 during his restoration of the cathedral. He replaced the 17th-century window by one he considered ‘more in character, though possibly a little too late in detail.’
The glass in the Great West Window was placed there in 1869 in memory of Canon John Hutchinson, who was the Canon Precentor of Lichfield Cathedral and Rector of Blurton, North Staffordshire. The window was paid for by public subscription.
Hutchinson had been a residentiary canon before being installed as a precentor in 1850. It is said that he, ‘perhaps, of all was most eager for the restoration of the cathedral.’ The wholesale renovation of the interior of the cathedral by Sir Gilbert Scott was due to his energy, enthusiasm and powers of persuasion, inspired by Hutchinson’s visits to Ely Cathedral and some other recently restored churches. He died on 27 April 1865.
The present window was designed by Clayton and Bell, a prolific and proficient stained-glass workshop in the late 19th and early 20th century. The partners were John Richard Clayton (1827-1913) and Alfred Bell (1832-1895). The company was founded in 1855 and continued until 1993.
The west window is a six-light window depicting the Birth of Christ. The figures in the upper register are: the Archangel Gabriel at the Annunciation, Saint Joseph, the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child, and the Three Wise Men. The smaller panels below depict: the Annunciation, the Angel appearing to Saint Jospeh, the Nativity, the Magi on their journey, their encounter with Herod, and the flight into Egypt.
In the south aisle, Clayton and Bell also designed the window in memory of Mary Muckleston, who died in 1873. It depicts Jesus and Lazarus, Jesus with Mary and Martha and Mary Magdalene washing the feet of Jesus.
Clayton and Bell also designed the ‘Tree of Jesse’ Window in the north transept in 1893. The new glass and the new window were given by James Chadwick, a cotton manufacturer, of Hints Hall, near Tamworth.
The five-light north window is known as the Jesse window, and illustrates the account of the genealogy of Christ according to Saint Matthew (see Matthew 1). The figures beginning from the west side represent: 1, Ahaz, Asaph, Abijah; 2, Hezekiah, Solomon, Rehoboam; 3, the Virgin Mary and Child, Salathiel, David, Jesse; 4, Josiah, Johoshaphat, Joram; (5) Manasseh, Jotham, Uzziah. There are angels in the four side lights.
Chadwick also paid for rebuilding Saint Bartholomew’s Church, Hints (1882-1883), designed by John Oldrid Scott, a younger son of Sir George Gilbert Scott, and the adjoining vicarage, now known as Chadwick House.
A third window in Lichfield Cathedral with Christmas-related themes is the window in the south aisle depicting Faith, Hope and Charity.
This three-light window is in memory of Isabella (Birkmyre) Stephen, wife of Leslie Oscar Stephen (1819-1898), a railway director, of Burton on Trent. She died on 9 January 1876, and their son, Sir Alexander Condie Stephen (1850–1908), was a British diplomat who also translated from Russian and Persian, including the poetry of Mikhail Lermontov.
The window was made by Ward and Hughes (formerly Ward and Nixon) in 1876. The figures of Faith and Hope are to each side of Charity, represented by the figure of the Virgin Mary holding the Christ Child, with three children gathered at her feet.
The lettering between two sets of images reads: ‘And now abideth Faith, Hope and Charity, these three. But the greatest of these is Charity.
The three lower panels in this window depict the angels appearing to the shepherds in the field in Bethlehem (Luke 2: 8-20); the Presentation of the Child Jesus in the Temple in Jerusalem (Luke 2: 22-38), with Simeon holding the child, the Virgin Mary offering two doves, and Anna standing to the right; and, linking the Incarnation with the Resurrection, or Christmas with Easter, the Risen Christ appearing to Mary Magdalene.
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