The Long and Winding Road:Part III

I did warn you with the title :)

My last excursion was to Bradford Cathedral. It was a lovely clear day with the bluest skies, so a good day to wander through town. I did not get a curry for lunch as one might suspect! The cathedral is very close to the train station, so I really didn't see much more on this visit.  I went to see the huge William Morris and Company windows, which are in the apse. I wasn't as excited as I had planned to be. It was a very big window, with tiers of Saints and more Saints, which were hard to appreciate with so many featured together. See what you think,

Street level entrance to the cathedral grounds

Ribbed vaulting.

William Morris and Comapany windows.

Originally this was one huge window, before the East facade was renovated. 

There was a lot of interesting bits and pieces throughout the cathedral

Part of an 18th century memorial plaque

Carving on the pulpit

A sheep in the glass; it is lambing season!

Part of a larger window, but I liked this little scene. Reminds me of Bolton Abbey,

which is not too far away.

Mason's Symbols on a Memorial plaque.

A creepy memorial plaque. Carved babies always look odd to me.

The Yorkshire Rose; part of the WWI Memorial to the West Yorkshire Regiment.

This window had some really lovely details.

 The West window in the setting sun. Time to go back to York!

In case you missed it, I chose Henry Holiday and the Virtues window for my essay topic. Henry Holiday was a Victorian artist,  who coincidentally did a lot of stained glass windows for clients in America. :)

The Long and Winding Road Part II

Leaving Knaresborough

Sofia and I travelled by train to Bingley on a Saturday to spend the night with my Auntie Pat. The local parish church is at the bottom of the hill from her house, which I had passed a dozen times, but had not been in. After reading that there was some hidden glass by William Morris and the East window by Henry Holiday, his contemporary, I decided I should investigate. I was not disappointed! This church also dates back to the 12th century at least, but lost all of its Medieval glass during the Reformation. Lucky for us, the Gothic Revival inspired some great replacments. See what I found!

Saxon era font, found on site.

16th century partial box pew

Carved pew post

 My new favorite window, The Virtues by Henry Holiday.( Isn't that a great name!)

and some details....

Truth

Love

Patience

Charity

This is a WWI Memorial window. Many churches feature these memorial windows, because so many towns were devastated by the losses of so many of their men. Often, father and sons would have been lost in a single family. I really liked this window, for its grisaille look and minimal use of color. Notice the angels in yellow praying behind the Crusader.

Here is another memorial window for two brothers who were also killed in WWI. The faces are actual portraits of the men.

Imagine, all of the details painted by hand!

Last but not least, this is by William Morris and Co. and was found behind the organ, through a hidden door in the rood screen. The organs here are often quite massive and often have windows behind them, sometimes completely or partially hidden from view.

Here are some more of my tombstone obsession...

Mason?

In Memory of...

Reminds me of Pennsylvania Dutch motifs.

All Saint's Parish Church Bingley

I may have found my inspiration, but alas, I already had a train ticket to Bradford for Tuesday morning. So I carried on to see which was better. Stay tuned for Part III Bradford!

The Long and Winding Road...part I

     It seems like the Spring term just started and it is already over, in a whirlwind of essay writing and day trips. I have one of three essays finished. The first, for my class on International Issues in Conservation, I wrote about the Conservation of Modern Buildings and Heritage; think of Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Waters and the Guggenheim Museum as examples. The second essay will cover our Spring Master's class. We had speakers from several European and English museums (including the V&A in London!) talking about the presentation of stained glass in the museum setting. This shouldn't be too difficult to write, as its only about 2500 words. The third essay, for "Painting on Light" is going to be a challenge. We can write about a topic of our choice.
     At first glance you might think it would be easy to write about anything you choose, but coming up with your own topic is actually quite difficult. There is a fine line between not finding any research materials to use, and something that's been written about so much that there's not much point in going there again. Then there is the inspiration factor. It' a lot easier to research and write about something that inspires and excites you. So for the last 2 weeks I have been looking for inspiration. I have been to Knaresborough, Bingley, and Bradford to look at William Morris and Company stained glass. Here are some photos of what I found in my travels, starting in Knaresborough, at Saint John the Baptist church, which has been a place of worship since the 12th century at least.  
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Knaresborough (pronounced Naresbro)



Famous train bridge over the river



St. John the Baptist, Knaresborough

14th century Baptismal Font with 16th century carved cover


Some glass? Of course!

My favorite, blue glass

Anna in blue with William Morris's signature use of yellow stain to create the green pattern

For those sailors out there

(oddly, this is memorial window for someone who drowned?!)

Some lovely purple glass

The Corporal Acts of Mercy, a popular theme.

The Presentation by William Morris and Co.

Saint John the Baptist by William Morris and Co.

The Yorkshire Rose

An original Norman arch

A grave marker, ironically removed from its original position, along with all the others, and used as a paving stone for a walkway around the "lawn" (aka graveyard), when it was landscaped in 1973. Weird.

 I love the architecture!

Unfortunately, I did not find the inspiration I was looking for in Knaresborough, so I continued on to Bingley. Stay tuned for more from my visits to Bingley and Bradford!