Middleton Cheney

Kitchens in Churches by Sasha Ward

The sloping cover at Winterbourne Earls and Great Cheverell.

The first time I opened one of those church cabinets with sloping covers I was astonished to find a fitted kitchen inside and to realise that the slope was to accommodate a new shiny tap. Usually the fitted kitchen is no more than a sink, a draining board and a huge amount of storage space in a prime position in front of a window or a monument. These four sloping examples (above and below) are all from Wiltshire, and the slope means that they’re not useful for climbing on to take good close ups of the windows they block.

The sloping cover at Seend and West Lavington.

The alternative to the slope is the sink and tap cover I found in the lovely church at Hatherop (below) that makes you wonder why a source of water should be so ugly that you need to cover it up.

Discrete tap cover at Hatherop, Gloucestershire.

I have found more ramshackle examples of kitchens in churches. At Brinklow you have everything you need in a small wooden cabinet dwarfed by the organ and at Savernake there is a modesty curtain around a very substantial counter. At Shipton under Wychwood there was no attempt to hide the perfect combination of welcome note, water in a bottle for the kettle, tea bags and a plastic tray for your cups (left to right below).

Left to right: Brinklow, Leicestershire; Savernake, Wiltshire; Shipton under Wychwood, Oxfordshire.

The Wantage church kitchen is in the north transept and the huge amount of storage space here - including a fridge and wall units - means that the folding doors cut across the stained glass window. There are no cookers in these kitchens that I can see, and as yet no extractor fans set into the stained glass above.

Open and shut at Wantage, Oxfordshire.

The kitchen at Middleton Cheney church was in use when I visited and I see from my photo (below left) that so was the toilet. These facilities are installed in the west end of the church, directly underneath the most beautiful Burne Jones window, which I’ve described previously on my blog (link here). On my first visit I was shocked that a banner on the balustrade blocked a clear view of this important window, on my second visit I was invited up on to the bellringing platform to get a really good look at the stained glass.

West wall at Middleton Cheney, Oxfordshire with window by Edward Burne-Jones.

My conclusion from these examples is that kitchens and stained glass don’t look good together, if kitchens in churches is a craze I hope it ends soon.

Finding Details by Sasha Ward

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People are always telling me that their favourite church windows are the simple leaded lights in pale coloured glass that allow you to see the world outside. In St Mary, Warwick, most of the aisle windows are of this type (above) showing off some great shapes in the tracery. However there is one window in the regimental chapel that is filled with light fresh colours in the upper part and delicate local details in the lower (below) where rows of soldiers march across the panes. As a lover of skilled glass painting, I always look out for a good bit of detail, then get drawn into an appreciation of the whole window in terms of colour and composition, and after that I think about the subject matter and what it means.

Regimental chapel windows, St Mary, Warwick by Philip Chatwin 1952.

Regimental chapel windows, St Mary, Warwick by Philip Chatwin 1952.

The main visit of the day was to the beautiful church at Middleton Cheney, Northamptonshire, which has a superb collection of windows by Morris & Co from different periods and with panels by most of the artists associated with the firm. By all accounts the best is the west window (below), although it’s difficult to get close enough and to see past a huge sign partly covering the bottom of the three princes in the fiery furnace. The fiery flames around the Burne-Jones figures are what drew me in here, then I appreciated the overall glow of the predominantly brown painting (so difficult to persuade clients they want a brown window but so good to see!) and only then did I think about the subject matter.

West window, All Saints, Middleton Cheney, Edward Burne-Jones 1870.

West window, All Saints, Middleton Cheney, Edward Burne-Jones 1870.

In fact the best subject matter was only revealed by the camera’s zoom lens, where I saw that the shadowy angels are sharp and delicate figures holding globes showing the first days of the creation, a classic Burne-Jones device. The backgrounds to the figures, which are painted on large pieces of glass in brown iron oxide and silver stain, are not clear but covered in a scaley pattern that modulates the incoming light.

Row of creation windows from the centre of the west window, Middleton Cheney.

Row of creation windows from the centre of the west window, Middleton Cheney.

The east window (below) includes details designed by William Morris, Philip Webb, Ford Madox Brown, Simeon Soloman and Edward Burne-Jones. The overall design of this window is striking and subtle in a different way, with the usual gorgeous backgrounds, familiar figures (such as WM posing as St Peter) and angels in the tracery. The detail I picked out is at the top where Burne-Jones’ brown and yellow crowned heads make a wonderful patterned ring around a piece of rich dark red glass with the adored lamb on top.

East window, All Saints, Middleton Cheney by Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. 1865.

East window, All Saints, Middleton Cheney by Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. 1865.

There are a pair of windows in the chancel (below) where you can get close and really appreciate the quality of Burne-Jones’ stained glass figures . These are from a later period and show scenes from the life of Christ. The one that caught my eye again uses the most sombre colour scheme, with the white robes of Lazarus standing out from a rocky background, all beautifully painted with contour lines and shading.

North chancel window, All Saints, Middleton Cheney, with details by Burne-Jones 1892.

North chancel window, All Saints, Middleton Cheney, with details by Burne-Jones 1892.

East window, St Peters, Barford by Holland of Warwick 1845.

East window, St Peters, Barford by Holland of Warwick 1845.

Last stop of the day and another example of rows of figures in the church in the Warwickshire village of Barford. The east window (above) is in a colour scheme typical of its period and overwhelming as a whole. But when you break down the colour combination, and repeat it in different variations along the row of angels at the bottom of the window it begins to work, with the patterns and symbols linking the glass pieces together and with a slightly different expression on the face of each angel.

Angels from the bottom of the Barford window

Angels from the bottom of the Barford window