Stained Glass

Although we at South Cliff cannot claim the distinction unique to St. Martin*s of windows and interior decorations largely designed and executed by William Morris and his associates. we have a fine set of stained glass windows of slightly later period showing clearly the influence of William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones.

It was the undated Hartley window, the Walk to Emmaus, which first attracted my attention, for in the bottom right hand corner it bears the inscription, "Morris, Burne-Jones and Co.". This led me into a little detective work, for I wrongly assumed that this window must date from the life-time of William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones. In fact, it is the latest of the windows. Trust records show that in 1930 permission was finally given to Mr. Frank Hartley to proceed with the insertion of the window, but the matter had been under discussion for several years, and in 1927 the Trustees had accepted his offer of a window depicting the Three Marys at the Tomb. There is no reference to a change of subject, nor to the firm who submitted the original design. Why the change? During what period did the firm "Morris, Burne-Jones and Co." exist under that name, to which I can find no reference?

The Walk to Emmaus is the most recent window, but the Pre-Raphaelite influence is evident in them all, and in so far as this window alone omits architectural canopies at the head of the lights it is the most characteristic. But the three windows in the body of the church all have typical and delightful detail in, for example, leaves and flowers in the foreground, and all show the use of lead lines to outline figures and other important features in the true medieval fashion revived by the Pre-Raphaelites. Particularly pleasinq is the delicate shading of colours in the sky, using individual. small pieces of glass as the medieval craftsman did, rather than larger pieces enamelled with a range of colour on each, as had often been the practice in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

It was in October 1913 that permission was given to Mr. Turner to place the first window in the church as a memorial to his wife and daughter. "For all the saints who from their labours rest, Thy name, 0 Jesu, be for ever blest", this window shows a group ranging from a deaf old man, on the left to a richly dressed child on the right, all gathered around Jesus in adoration. Of particular interest is the head in one of the top trefoils, for it is the head of Mr. Turner*s daughter. But which one?