St Mary’s at Fairford is justly famed, not only as a most wonderful building architecturally but for the survival of its complete established of late medieval stained glass, a exceptional survival in an English parish church. No other church has resisted the waves of iconoclasm unleashed by the Reformation and the English Civil War like Fairford has, and as a consequence we can knowledge a pre-Reformation iconographic plan in glass in its entirety. At most churches a single is fortunate to discover mere fragments of the primary glazing and even one comprehensive window is an outstanding survival, so a comprehensive set of 28 of them right here in a far more or much less intact condition would make Fairford church uniquely precious.
The exterior previously promises terrific items, this is a handsome late 15th century constructing totally rebuilt in Perpendicular design and committed in 1497. The benefactor was lord of the manor John Tame, a wealthy wool merchant whose son Edmund later continued the family’s legacy in donating the glass. The central tower is adorned with much carving including unusual figures guarding the corners and a fairly archaic wanting relief of Christ on the western aspect. The nave is topped by a great clerestorey although the aisles under type a gallery of massive home windows that look to embrace the overall setting up devoid of structural interruption apart from the south porch and the chancel projecting at the east close. All all over are pinnacles, battlements and gargoyles, the result is extremely abundant and imposing for a village church.
A single enters as a result of the admirer-vaulted porch and is originally satisfied by subdued lights in just that usually takes a second to adjust to but can straight away recognize the classy arcades and the loaded glowing colors of the home windows. The interior is spacious but the watch east is interrupted by the tower whose panelled walls and arches body only a glimpse of the chancel further than. The glass was inserted between 1500-1517 and demonstrates marked Renaissance affect, remaining the perform of Flemish glaziers (primarily based in Southwark) beneath the course of the King’s glazier Barnard Flower. The high quality is hence of the maximum out there and implies the Tame family members experienced connections at court docket to protected such glaziers.
Getting into the nave 1 is instantly confronted with the greatest and most well-known window in the church, the west window with its superb Last Judgement, finest known for its lurid depiction of the horrors of Hell with exotic demons dragging the damned to their doom. Regrettably the a few windows in the west wall suffered serious storm hurt in 1703 and the Previous Judgement endured further more for the duration of an 1860 restoration that copied relatively than restored the glass in its upper half. The nave clerestories include an intriguing plan further more emphasising the struggle of Fantastic compared to Evil with a gallery of saintly figures on the south facet balanced by a ‘rogue’s gallery’ of persecutors of the religion on the darker north facet, previously mentioned which are fantastic demonic figures leering from the traceries.
The aisle windows type even further arrays of figures in canopies with the Evangelists and prophets on the north aspect and the Apostles and Doctors of the Church on the south. The extra narrative windows are primarily positioned in the eastern fifty percent of the church, starting up in the north chapel with an Aged Testament themed window adopted by extra on the lifetime of Mary and infancy of Christ. The matter issue is generally confined to just one mild or a pair of them, so several scenes can be portrayed within just a single window. The plan continues in the east window of the chancel with its scenes of the Passion of Christ in the reduce sign up culminating in his crucifixion earlier mentioned, when a smaller window to the south exhibits his entombment and the harrowing of Hell. The cycle continues in the south chapel where by the east window demonstrates scenes of Christ’s resurrection and transfiguration whilst two additional home windows relate even further incidents culminating in Pentecost. The last window in the sequence nonetheless is of program the Previous Judgement at the west stop.
The glass has been significantly valued and secured about the generations from the ravages of record, becoming removed for protection throughout the Civil War and Globe War II. The windows underwent a finish conservation involving 1988-2010 by the Barley Studio of York which bravely restored legibility to the windows by delicate releading and recreating missing parts with new function (earlier these had been filled with plain glass which drew the eye and disturbed the equilibrium of light). The most spectacular intervention was the re-ordering of the westernmost home windows of the nave aisles which had been partly crammed with jumbled fragments following the storm harm of 1703 but have now been returned to something nearer to their unique state.
It is vital below not to neglect the church’s other characteristics since the glass dominates its reputation so a great deal. The chancel also retains its initial late medieval woodwork with a great set of fragile screens dividing it from the chapels both side together with a attractive established of stalls with carved misericords. The tomb of the founder John Tame and his spouse can be witnessed on the north facet of the sanctuary with their brasses atop a tomb upper body. All over the church a fine collection of carved angel corbels supports the aged oak roofs.
Fairford church is a nationwide treasure and shouldn’t be skipped by everyone with a enjoy of stained glass and medieval art. It is normally retained open up for website visitors and justifies more of them.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mary%27s_Church,_Fairford
Posted by Aidan McRae Thomson on 2021-04-10 07:38:16
Tagged: , Fairford , church , Gloucestershire
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