Church Stained Glass Windows

St Mary’s Church, Fairford

Seeing St Mary’s Church stained glass windows in Fairford is an amazing experience. I’ve always been a huge fan of medieval stained glass painting, but this is something else – a huge scheme of 28 church stain glass windows that make up the most complete set in the UK.

 
It’s very rare in the history of stained glass to find a church that has been glazed all at the same time – around 1500 –with such a coherent scheme of Christian stained glass windows. They were made by Barnard Flower, the Master Glazier to King Henry VII. They were designed to read like a book, with the plot craftily adjusted so that an uplifting image was placed above each altar – the assumption of the Virgin in the Lady Chapel, the Crucifixtion above the high altar, and the transfiguration above the Corpus Christi altar.
 

From Adam and Eve to probably the most famous medieval stained glass depiction of the Last Judgement in the world, this is a fantastically colourful romp through the bible story. It’s been lovingly restored over the last two decades, and is a must for those interested in stained glass history.
 
Don’t forget to look at the devils – they’re the best I’ve seen! Some are positively gleeful. The one above is imprisioned behind red hot bars.
 

 

Window 6 – depicting (from left) the descent from the Cross, the entombment and the Harrowment of Hell
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Resources

A guy called Robin Croft has a couple of slideshows on Flickr that give a detailed look at the church stained glass windows at Fairford. He was obviously as delighted as I was with the Fairford devils as he’s dedicated a whole set to them!
 
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