![[40877] Whatton : Sophia Elizabeth Hall Window](https://www.diywoodworkingprojects.datawarehousecenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/25849172873_772d1e5597.jpg)
The memorial window in St John of Beverley Church, Whatton, Nottinghamshire, was created by Charles Eamer Kempe in 1897. Kempe was a painter of ecclesiastical decoration in the 1860s and started his own stained glass company in London in 1868. He was not a trained artist, but was nevertheless artistic, able to suggest ideas which could be developed by his artists and cartoonists.
Kempe perfected the use of silver stain on clear glass, which leaves a delicate or deep yellow tint depending on the amount of stain. He was greatly influenced by the stained glass of Northern Germany and Flanders from the 16th Century and would frequently travel to Europe with the artists from his firm. After his death in 1907, the firm was run by four of his directors, including his cousin, Walter Tower. The firm’s insignia, from about 1895 until Kempe’s death, was a wheatsheaf, from his family’s coat of arms. After Kempe’s death, the insignia changed to a wheatsheaf with a black tower.
The memorial window in St John of Beverley Church was created to remember Sophia Elizabeth, eldest daughter of James and Catherine Haffenden, and wife of Thomas Dickinson Hall of Whatton Manor, who passed away on June 21st 1896, aged 81. The window is currently on display in the church, remembering Sophia and commemorating her life.