The Minstrel Window is on the north side of the north transept of St Peter's, Bournemouth. Designed by Clayton and Bell and installed in 1874, this five-light window is unusual in its theme, its scenes showing music-making through both the Old and New Testaments, and in the Church year. Episodes represented here range from Exodus (lowest row, far right) to carol-singing, and are full of incident and atmosphere. Click on this image, and those below, to enlarge them.
Two details from the lower part of the window. Left: The Song of Miriam, after the crossing of the Red Sea: "And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her, with timbrels and with dances" (Exodus 16, 20). Right: The Psalms of David, who does look disconsolate here.
Left: Rejoicing as David brings the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6, 15). Right: Carol singers. This is crisp wintry scene, with snow on the ground. Someone listening at the window, while the singers (one with a crutch) stand outside the rather fine gate, and a little dog listens, too, in the right-hand corner. Every scene here is worth looking at in close detail: it is a tour de force on the praise given to God in the Scriptures and Christian worship.
Related Material
- St Peter's, Bournemouth, with links to other stained glass windows there
- St Peter's, Bournemouth (Chancel and Sanctuary, Keble Chapel and Fittings)
Photographs by Alwyn Ladell, originally posted on Flickr, and kindly made available on the Creative Commons Licence (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)). The main picture has been corrected for perspective. Text and formatting by Jacqueline Banerjee.
Bibliography
Eberhard, Robert. "Stained Glass Windows at St Peter, Bournemouth" (recorded by Brian Woodruffe). Church Stained Glass Windows. Web. 5 May 2020.
Ladell, Alwyn. Text on Flickr helping to identify the scenes.
Created 9 May 2020