A New Church Guide for St John's

A New Church Guide for St John’s I promised the PCC some time ago that I would take on the task of updating the excellent Church Guide written by Derek Shorrocks back in 1992 which is now sadly out of print. The reordering has given a new insight into the history of St John’s, so it seemed that a good start could be made by preparing various sections and putting them on our website in the form of a blog, for readers to make comments on. The 2017 reordering of St John’s made no changes to the windows apart from carrying out a small repair to the arch at the top of the west window. ‘Chris’s Blog’, which kept everyone up to date as the reordering work progressed, made comments on almost every other part of the Church, so it seemed appropriate that some information on the windows might be a good place to start, so here goes …. Windows The major restoration of the church in 1857 made a radical alteration of style by replacing the square-headed windows with the present design. Sadly, there is no stained glass surviving earlier than this date. The first date that Churchwarden’s accounts are available is 1585-6. These early records show that there were regular items of expenditure for 'mending the church windows' over many years, so it is unlikely any ancient glass was in the windows when the 1857 reordering work was carried out. This is disappointing, but on the other hand there is the added bonus that there is information available to document when and by whom particular windows were installed. Under the new work of 1857 the side windows were filled using plain glass with coloured borders as in the photograph and although some still remain, there are several windows that have been subsequently replaced by memorial windows. 'Plain' they may be, but they can be transformed when the right conditions coincide, particularly when the setting sun in midsummer catches the coloured border in the north aisle windows. There were only three windows fitted with stained glass in 1857, the east and west windows, which were both replaced some 50 years later, and the Dove window, the only one still in place, which is on the south side of the Nave opposite the font. This was given in memory of Frederic Cardew who had been employed in the East India Company. Of the other two windows, the west, presented by 1 Dr W E Gillett of Fairwater, has completely gone. According to Gazette 1857 it contained 'six medallions illustrative of events in the life of the Saviour, the head of the window having a cross with a crown of thorns'. The east window survives, but not in its original place nor in its original form, but more on that later. The Victoria Golden Jubilee Window Next in chronological order is the window on the north side commemorating the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887, which was paid for by parishioners. It shows the Adoration of the Magi, thought, presumably, to be an appropriately regal subject. It is a well-executed work with a pleasing, detailed, treatment of the rich vestments. The simple setting of the stable is enclosed by pillars and decorated arches, symbolising the Church, of which Victoria was head; the crowns and Tudor roses of the upper lights are symbolic of her temporal sovereignty. The Cox Memorial Window In 1907 a belated faculty was granted to erect the west window provided by Miss Maria Goodenough Cox of The Chestnuts (a little more information is required here on exactly where The Chestnuts is, or was, as Derek just says ‘opposite the old school’). It was erected in memory of her parents, at some date between 1895, when her mother died, and 1907. It could be that the failure to secure a faculty came to light when one for the east window was sought from the Diocese. We know that the window artist was Charles Eamer Kempe, since it is marked with his three wheatsheaf trademark. His work can be seen in other local churches including Trull and Pitminster. It depicts St Michael with the dragon, flanked by 4 archangels. Its simplicity of style and attention to naturalistic detail owes much to the pre-Raphaelite interest in medievalism and chivalry. Kempe was a very prolific stained-glass artist and interestingly a biography of him will be published early in 2019 which might provide a little more information for our guide. Miss Cox was the Church’s organist, she had also taught for 50 years in the Sunday School, was for many years a principal subscriber to the mission 2 chapel (near to the Tanyard), where she also somehow found time to play the organ. She was founder of the parish almshouses in Greenway Road, founder of the Staplegrove Society, from which proceeds from concerts were donated for the alteration of the organ and the building of the vestry room and, no doubt, countless personal contributions not specifically recorded. (I think Miss Cox could well require a biography in her own right!) The Vaughan Memorial Window This window, at the west end of the North Aisle, is again difficult to precisely date since it is also without a faculty, but it must have post•dated Isabella Vaughan's death in 1885. Her husband, Hugh Vaughan, who died in 1876, was a man of independent means, who lived at Lewis House (sited between the village hall and the duckpond). A separate tablet records the burials in the churchyard of 7 of their children between 1871 and 1932. The glass, with typical pre-Raphaelite angels, also has a tree of life which happily mirrors the one which forms the organ screen opposite. The East Window The east window of 1857 was replaced, and, in its stead, a new window was provided by the principal landowner in the parish, Henry Gribble Turner, and his wife Lady Frances, in 1906. He lived in what had only recently been named Staplegrove Manor, (it had previously been called Pinkhurst). Fittingly, the most striking in the church, it shows as its centre light, the Crucifixion, flanked by two sidelights, the one representing Gethsemane, the other Peter and John by the sepulcher. The lower part records the Emmaus supper (Luke 24.13-31), where two of the disciples meet Jesus after the Resurrection but fail to recognise him until the breaking of the bread. It was made by Arthur Lewis Moore, and is signed with the inscription ‘Del et Pinxit’ below the signature which is a Latin abbreviation for ‘designed and painted by’, and, ‘89 Southampton Row’, which was where his workshops were in London at the time of manufacture. 3 Repositioning the Original East Window The original east window, which had been made by Lavers of Bath, and dedicated to Ann Hindley by her four nieces, was not lost to the church, as so easily it might have been. It was saved and re-erected by Mary Evelyn Scott, who was Ann Hindley’s great-niece and only child of the long-serving rector, John Pendred Scott. Scott was the prime mover of the 1857 restoration, and it would seem appropriate that the family would wish to retain this memorial in the Church. No single space was big enough to retain it whole and, as a consequence, the window was divided and can be seen partly at the east end of the south aisle and partly at the east of the vestry passage. The two original sidelights of the window now form the whole of the east window of the south aisle - they depict the symbols of the Evangelists and various other representations of Christianity. Its original centre light, or rather a truncated and damaged element, showing the Ascension in the form of a vesica (an oval figure frequently used by artists enclosing the figure of Christ), is in the vestry passage. It has as its sidelights the letters 'a' and 'o', Greek letters for alpha and omega, the beginning and the end (Revelations 21.6). The Beatrice Maud Coles Memorial Window A more modern window is located at the west end of the North Aisle. It was given in remembrance of Beatrice Maud Coles, who died in 1951, by her husband. It shows St John and Dorcas, with the added commentary (Acts 9.36): 'this woman [Dorcas] was full of good works and alms deeds'. The flatness of the picture plane is in contrast to the naturalistic modelling of the earlier windows. Interestingly there is a current Church member who is directly related to Beatrice Coles, but sadly, Arthur Coles, also a direct relative, who would have been able to provide more information on Beatrice and her family passed away, aged 92, in 2016. 4 The Millennium Window This, the most recent window, is at the west end of the Nave on the south side. It was dedicated by Bishop Peter Coleman on 26 November 2000. It is challenging as well as beautiful with the theme of God’s continuing revelation through time from the darkness of ignorance to the ultimate glory of God himself. The right-hand panel depicts images from the Old Testament such as the burning bush, the pillar of fire and Hebrew script in which the law was written. The left-hand panel represents New Testament imagery, the Crown of Thorns, the Cross and the Tomb. Above it all is an image of rainbow colours representing God’s ongoing covenant, his promise, to mankind. As well as raising funds to commission the work the congregation matched this sum to support the Diocesan ‘Zambian Link’ to help with the building of a Church at Choma and to construct a borehole to provide a well for fresh water at the Kassenga Mission Station nearby.

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