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The
Stained Glass Windows of St Saviour's Parish Church, Guernsey
A brief guide and history by Rev. L. G. H. Craske
The
stained glass of the Parish Church of St Saviour has just
claim to be among the most complete and beautiful in the churches
of the Channel Islands. Colour and stained glass were not
encouraged in the churches during the Calvinist period: little,
if indeed any, medieval glass survives in Guernsey. All the
stained glass in St Saviour, with one late Victorian exception,
is of the present century: but the making of a stained glass
window has changed little in a thousand years, and the materials
and tools are for the most part developments of those used
by medieval glaziers.
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Turning
left after entering through the main, North Door of the church,
the first window you encounter is the most recent. It,
and its immediate neighbour, is from the studios of Molly Kettlewell
of East Coker in Somerset who continued the family business
as a designer in stained glass after the death of her husband,
Jasper. The theme of the window is that of the liberation from
the Germany occupation, showing St George and the Dragon in
the right hand roundel and with sylised dark tunnels as a bottom
frieze, representing the hugh complex of tunnels under the church
and parish land mined by the labour of enslaved Todt workers.
The other theme is that of the importance of the horticultural
industry in Guernsey's post-war years with the illustration
of greenhouses, the tomato plant with its flowering hear, and
the freesias in the left hand roundel. The window was given
by the family of Ernest Brouard who was a churchwarden and douzenier
(parish councillor) during the war.
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second window commemorates the giving of the charger
conveying building and land at St Saviour by Robert, Duke of
Normandy (portrayed on the right), the father of William the
Conqueror, to the Benedictine Abbey of Mont St Michel in Normandy
(its Abbot being portrayed on the left). It is probably that
there was already a church on the site before the Norman period:
by the 13th century the island churches were in a poor state
and were rebuilt in the 14th and 15th centuries. The stones
of the main pillars were brought from France: members of the
de Garis family were said to have been among the masons. The
window was given by Renaut de Garis, the widower of Adele: small
figures of early masons may be seen in the bottom left hand
corner. The de Garis were also seafarers and recognition of
this is made by the little Norman ship. The family crest of
the de Garis family surmounts the window with the motto in Latin
"While I breathe I hope". |
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oldest extant glass in England is a section in York Minster
dating from 1150, which is thought to show a king entwined in
the branches of a Jesse tree. The Jesse tree design is based
on the descent of Jesus from the royal line of David, taking
the form of a tree springing from Jesse, the father of David,
and ending with the Virgin and Holy Child, with the intermediary
descendants placed on scrolls of foliage branching out of each
other. Such windows are rare owing to the complexity of design
and the demands for window space. |
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third window is a of a Jesse tree, designed and made
by Hugh Powell, the grandson fo the maker of the windows in
the south aisle. Mr Powell is also a portrait painter who has
had a number of commissions in Guernsey, including the portrait
of Sir John Loveridge, a former Bailiff, which hangs in the
Royal Court. This window was given by Maggie, the widow of Archibald
Hope of Luffness. Colonel Hope was a much loved member of our
congregation who lived in lower St Saviour's. The regimental
crest of his regiment, the Royal Artillery, is seen to the left.
He was of an ancient and prominent Scottish family and a member
of the Queen's Bodyguard of Scotland: he is shown in the dress
of this company in the right of the window. He had a great love
for the hydrangea bush: a blue one is included in the right
hand corner together with the Hope Family Crest. |
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The
fourth window is an exquisite little portrait of St Francis,
given anonymously to commemorate a parish mission in which the
Franciscans took part. The artist is Lawrence Lee, who also
designed the windows in the Chapel of St Apolline in the parish.
He was among an outstanding group of artists who, in a radical
break with tradition, designed the seventy windows in Coventry
Cathedral after the war.
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The fifth window, portraying the resurrection and situated
in the East End of the side chapel is also by Lawrence Lee.
It is typical of his work and again an interesting example of
the New British School that revolutionised stained glass in
England after the war: between the wars artists had kept safely
to their pictorial painterly tradition in stained glass. It
was given by Amanda, the widow of Clifford Moulin, a former
churchwarden and well-known islander. He was an architect: among
his buildings is the Chapel of Christ the Healer (the Monnaie
Chapel) in the Parish of St Andrew. |
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The
east window, above the high altar, was given as a result
of a public subscription in the parish and dedicated in 1956.
The subject matter is self-explanatory. It was the work of Mrs
Rachel Montmorency who, at that time, was on the Council of
the British Society of Master Glass Painters. She was also a
Fellow of the Society and lived in Putney where, presumably,
she worked. The drawings of the window were among the exhibits
at an exhibition of stained glass at the Building Centre in
London in July 1956. Her work is typical of a school of conservative
artists working in light and soft colours who came into prominence
after the war, encouraged by the influence of Milner White,
the Dean of York. She died in November 1961.
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All
the windows in the south aisle are from the studios of James
Powell & Sons and produced at their Whitefriars Glass Works.
The artists employed by this firm were among the best in quality,
their work enriching the Victorian churches of England. The
principles for which they stood continued to be employed by
the Whitefriars Glass House into the Edwardian period. The subjects
are easily recognised biblical stories. The windows themselves,
and the brass plates underneath three of them, give the names
of the donors and a short account of those whom they commemorate.
The last window has no brass plate. This is in memory of Alice
Carey, daughter of Peter Carey. He was Rector from 1843 to 1874.
Alice was among a small group of women who met at St Saviour's
Rectory and painted under the artist, Naftel.
The window in the baptistery is Victorian; little is known of
the history of this window but it was almost certainly put in
at about the same time as th present font which came from the
Town Church of St Peter Port. |
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