Chelmsford & District National Trust Supporter Group

On the evening of 8th November members were delighted to welcome speaker Chris Parkinson for a return visit. Chris last spoke to the Group on 12th December 2012, when his talk had a Christmas theme of stained- glass windows in Essex depicting nativity scenes. This evening his talk was on the development of stained glass from the twelfth century to the present day, with an emphasis on Essex churches, particularly those in and around Chelmsford.

Chris told us that “stained glass” is not an accurate title in many cases, and many church windows are of painted glass. He explained the different techniques involved and how a variety of colours were produced. Features in a scene would be outlined in black paint, then the picture filled in with colour. Much medieval glass appears to be brown as the paint has absorbed corrosion from metal around the window. A yellow stain was invented when it was found that silver on glass turned yellow when heated to a high temperature in a kiln.

Not a lot happened between eleven hundred and fourteen hundred. In the fifteenth century church windows started getting bigger, a trend which continued into the next century, with churches wanting more light. By the second half of that century much coloured glass was being produced by an enamelling process. There are many examples of this in Essex churches, much of it having been imported from the continent.

By now the reformation had taken hold and the administration of church life was no longer under monastic control. The turmoil following the English Civil War also brought change in church life. Again, a long period when nothing really happened. In the nineteenth century came the Gothic revival, with artists like Pugin and Edward Burne-Jones designing windows. Modern windows are unlikely to portray religious images, they are more likely to commemorate the military or industrial history of the area, with pictures of aircraft and coal mines. Chris Bellamy thanked Chris Parkinson for his detailed and beautifully illustrated journey through the history of stained glass windows in Essex churches.