Home » Posts tagged 'Swansea'
Tag Archives: Swansea
Church of St Jude, Swansea
I am grateful to the Glaziers Trust for a small grant to enable the addition of the stained glass from more churches in Wales to the Stained Glass in Wales Catalogue.
I have continued to add and correct information occasionally since the funding for the Stained Glass in Wales Project ran out in 2011, so this represents the first significant batch of new windows on the site for some time, despite the fact that I have continued to visit dozens of churches in the intervening period. Occasionally, users of the site have also submitted new windows for inclusion using the special online form provided since 2012.
After considering my proposals, the trustees asked for the prioritisation of stained glass from churches that have now closed, and also for windows by artists that are not already represented on the resource. Each collection of stained glass at individual churches have their own stories, and sometimes form an interesting narrative in terms of the patterns of patronage, the choice of subject matter, and the changes in style. For an example of this, here are a few observations on the windows from the Church of St Jude, Mount Pleasant, Swansea.
The Church of St Jude closed in 2015. Its final service was held on the 8th of February, just a few months short of its centenary, and I visited in the few weeks before this service. The pictorial glass is all of the work of two studios: two east windows and three south windows that are all from around 1920, and windows of 1949 and 1965 by the local firm Celtic Studios. Three of the five Charles Powell windows are war memorials, and to date this doubles the amount of glass by the artist on the catalogue. In the past I have had some difficulty untangling his work from that of his son, Christopher Charles Powell, as his work demonstrates a clear continuity of style, further underlined by these windows.
The west window is a really impressive early work by Celtic Studios, so much so that I was a little surprised that Maurice Broady didn’t make more of it in his book on the studio (published in 2010 after he died, but based on his unfinished writing). I did much additional photography for this volume, but it wasn’t included on the shortlist drawn up for additional illustrations – but we were not short of choice. If I had seen it prior to completing my Stained Glass from Welsh Churches, I would probably have tried to work it in. With a big Christ figure at the centre, there are four ‘virtues’ at either side, and a set of scenes not only depicting the armed forces, but also a set of scenes depicting the home front: the Women’s Land Army, the fire service, shipping and mining.
In combination with the First World War memorial windows, the amount of war memorial stained glass in the church is greater than of other memorial glass, at least per square foot.
But what will become of this glass now the church has closed?
Glass Conference
I will be involved in a conference being held in Swansea on 11 March at Alex Design Exchange, Swansea College of Art. There will be several speakers in the morning, and after that there will be an official opening of the ‘Glass Beacon’: a new work for the refurbished building.
In the afternoon we will be welcoming Nicola Gordon Bowe, who will talk about the artist Wilhelmina Geddes, the subject of her excellent new book.
For more information and to book please visit:
Lecture at Swansea College of Art
I’ll be speaking at Swansea College of Art on Friday 27th November on ‘Modern and Medieval: tradition and change in 20th Century Stained Glass’. There is also an exhibition of my work on display and I will be giving a short gallery talk after the lecture.
Please visit this event page for more information.
Bristow Wadley & lost windows
With the closure of churches and chapels a little bit of stained glass history can also slip away. Sometimes the buildings retain their windows after changes of use, and in other cases windows are moved to other places of worship. But windows from closed churches have also been sold or destroyed.
When trying to untangle some of the references to the work of the Cardiff firm Bristow, Wadley & Co., in an attempt to trace a history of stained glass firms based in Wales, I came across references to a window designed by Ivor Davies and supplied by Bristow, Wadley & Co. for the Church of St Catwg, Bedlinog. According to the Diocesan Faculty this was designed by Ivor Davies and made at Bristow Wadley’s Swansea studio. However, Maurice Broady lists the windows as by Celtic Studios (who were based in Swansea), and all of the references to a stained glass studio owned by Bristow Wadley’s that I have seen elsewhere locate it in Mill Lane, Cardiff. The firm sold all kinds of decorative supplies, not just glass, but paints, wallpaper etc, and had a number of outlets in the south Wales area.
When I tried to go and have a look at the window I was told that the church had long closed and the windows had been removed. Remarkably, I have now seen these windows, now in frames and for sale at an antiques showroom. This amazing coincidence was brought about by someone who encouraged me to come and see them, not knowing who they were by or where they had come from. The subjects rang a bell with my memory of the foregoing, and when I checked I was amazed to find that the subjects fitted the description of the Bedlinog window. But the solution of the designer/maker is not one that I would have expected. The central figure of Christ is indeed by Celtic Studios with their mark on, but the figures of Brychan and Cadog (or Catwg, Cadoc) are, I am fairly sure, the work of Ivor Davies.
I would welcome any further information on the extent of the stained glass studio at Bristow Wadley’s Cardiff base, or indeed elsewhere.
New stained glass/exhibition
Over the last couple of years while researching for the final two chapters of the book, a few artists have kindly asked if I would like to make a piece of stained glass with them. In these cases time has been a limiting factor, but the subject came up again earlier in the year in conversation with Alun Adams of the Architectural Glass Centre, Swansea, and last week I made my first work in glass with the help of Owen Luetchford at their studio.
The piece will be part of my new exhibition, ‘Patterns, Monsters and Mysteries’ at Oriel Q, Queen’s Hall, Narberth, Pembrokeshire, which opens on Saturday 2 August. For more about the exhibition please visit my website. In addition to the piece, which is based on the pattern of a fourteenth-century tile at the former Cistercian abbey of Strata Florida, a second piece is composed of samples made in June with both Owen and his colleague Stacey Poultney. I will post some images next week after the opening.
As well as the main exhibition, which is primarily digital prints based on various suspects of medieval ecclesiastical visual culture, an exhibition of my photographs of stained glass can be found on the stairs.
My thanks are due to Owen and Stacey for their expertise and craftsmanship, and to Alun for facilitating the collaboration. The experience considerably enriched my understanding of the possible relationships between craftspeople, designers, artists and assistants that underlie the creation of most works in stained glass. Hopefully I will have opportunities to make more work in glass in the future.