These are the original apse windows at the Grade I listed church of St Mary the Virgin, Great Warley in Essex, built in 1902-04. They must have been installed a little later: in his highly appreciative essay on the church, the contemporary art critic A. L. Baldry provides only the cartoon for one of them. These windows are all the more precious because so much of the original stained glass was lost during World War II, and also because they were designed by William Reynolds-Stephens himself, as part of his whole carefully thought out decorative scheme for the church interior.
One of the panels in its setting.
The windows show just two of the many angel forms in the church, the one on the left with the communion cup or chalice, and the other with the communion bread or wafers, highly appropriate for this setting especially considering the vine and grape designs on the apse dome and elsewhere in the church. The rich colours also harmonise with colours elsewhere, the red of the upper parts of the wings echoing the bright red fruits and hearts seen on the beautiful chancel screen and in so many other elements of the church decoration. Simon Jenkins describes the windows as being "in the Morris style" (218).
Photographs by John Salmon and text by Jacqueline Banerjee. You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit John Salmon and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one. Click on the images to enlarge them.
Related Material
- Sketch cartoon for the right-hand window
- A Notable Decorative Achievement by W. Reynolds-Stephens
- St Mary the Virgin, Great Warley, I: Exterior
- St Mary the Virgin, Great Warley, II: Interior
- St Mary the Virgin, Great Warley, III: Fixtures and Fittings
- West Window to designs by Heywood Sumner
- Praise Him in the Height and O Praise the Lord of Heaven, a pair of windows to Sumner's designs
- South Chapel window by Morris & Co. to designs by Edward Burne-Jones
Reference
Jenkins, Simon. England's Thousand Best Churches. London: Penguin, 2009.
Baldry, A. L. "A Notable Decorative Achievement by W. Reynolds-Stephens." The Studio. 34 (1905): 1-15. Internet Archive. Web. 23 June 2015. [Whole text on the Victorian Web.]
Created 23 June 2015