St Mary's Church - Fairford

Visited July 2007

This item is a celebration of the medieval windows in the Fairfield Church. As a reminder of the History of the windows the following extracts come rom the Church Guide Book.

"The twenty-eight windows of this church have been used to express and teach by pictures the Christian faith for nearly 500 years. No other parish church in the land has retained a complete set oflate medieval glass."

"The overall plan of the windows is probably due to Richard Fox, Lord Privy Seal and Bishop of Durham, later of Winchester. The glass was made between 1500 and 1517 under the direction of the King's Glazier, Barnard Flower, largely in his workshops at Westminster. A number of the glaziers and glass painters came from the Netherlands. Releading has taken place at various times and there are signs of patchwork repairs. During the Reformation (about 1550) and in Cromwellian times some of the lights may have been whitewashed over; in the latter period some of the heads of figures were probably removed."

"After severe storm-damage to the three west windows in 1703, most of the glass was replaced in the great west window; in the first half of the eighteenth century the main lights were decipherable although the upper part was in a bad state of repair. In 1863 Chance Bros were commissioned to repair the latter but new glass was installed. During 1889-90 twenty-six windows were repaired and re-leaded under the direction of N.H.J. Westlake, though the driving force was the Vicar, the Reverend F.R. Carbonell. In July 1940 the main lights were removed by Oscar Farmer for safe keeping during the war and stored in the cellars of Fairford Park; they were reinstated between 1945 and 1947 when minor repairs and re-leading were also undertaken. In 1986 it was decided, in view of the corrosion of the glass and the accumulation of dirt, that cleaning and conservation measures were necessary; this work to be undertaken by Keith Barley. Since 1988 the majority of the windows have been cleaned, repaired with some restoration, re-leaded and protected."

Photos of 12 of the 28 windows Make up the montage below. Clicking on individual pictures when the mouse pointer has changed to a + symbol, results in an enlarged picture for bertter viewing. Clicking on it again returns it to its original size and position.