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!