Fairford stained glass

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The Fairford stained glass windows (circa 1500) in St Mary's Church, Fairford, Gloucestershire, England, are of national historical and architectural importance as they are the most complete surviving set of pre-Reformation mediaeval stained glass windows in the country, comprising 28 windows displaying biblical scenes, erected by the wealthy wool merchant John Tame (c.1430-1500) and now attributed to the Flemish glazier Barnard Flower (d.1517), glazier to King Henry VII (1485-1509), and also to John Thornton of Coventry and believed to have been made at Westminster.

The traditional story concerning the origin of the windows is related as follows by the Gloucestershire historian Bigland (d.1784) in his Account of the Parish of Fairford:

"About the year 1492 soon after the Siege of Boloigne, a vessel bound to the port of Rome from the Low Countries and laden with painted glass, is said to have been taken by him (i.e. John Tame) who instantly determined on preparing a church here for its reception".

Most of the 28 windows comprise four separate lancets, usually each one displaying a different but related, biblical scene, beneath painted gothic canopy-work. Six smaller lights occupy the space at the apex of the gothic arched windows, usually displaying decorative features of angels, where the scenes below are supportive of the Christian faith, or of devils where opposed.

The glass survived the Reformation when many images in English churches were destroyed. in 1642 during the Civil War they narrowly avoided destruction when the Roundhead army was marching on the nearby town of Cirencester. It was customary at that time for cavalry of both sides to convert churches into temporary stables and barracks with little regard paid to the fabric of the buildings, and the more puritan elements amongst the Roundheads were opposed to pre-Reformation supposedly idolatrous imagery. However, on the quick-thinking order of William Oldysworth, the impropriator (lessee) of the tithes of Fairford, the windows were hurriedly dismantled and the glass concealed before the troops arrived in the vicinity. "To him the lovers of ancient art are indebted for its present existence" (Bigland, 1791). It may have been during the re-erection of the glass after the Civil War when some of the panes were replaced in the wrong positions. In 1725 the glass was protected by the addition of a "lattice of wire" to each window, paid for at the great cost of £200 by Elizabeth Fermor, a daughter of William Fermor, 1st Baron Leominster (1648-1711), by his first wife Jane Barker, a daughter of Andrew Barker of Fairford. Andrew Barker was of the ancient Barker (alias Coverall) family of Coverall Castle and Hopton Castle both in Shropshire, and had acquired the manor of Fairford in about 1660.

Video Fairford stained glass

Descriptions

Descriptions of the history and imagery of the windows is contained in the following sources:

• Bigland, Ralph, An Account of the Parish of Fairford in the County of Gloucester with a Particular Description of the Stained Glass in the Windows of the Church, Engravings of Ancient Monuments with Inscriptions, etc., etc., London, 1791, pp. 6-10 [1]
• Neale, John Mason, (ed.) Illustrations of Monumental Brasses, No.VI, Cambridge Camden Society, Cambridge, 1846, pp. 115-132 [2]

Maps Fairford stained glass

Images

The 28 stained glass windows in St Mary's Church, Fairford, are shown below, numbered and described by Neale, John Mason, (ed.) Illustrations of Monumental Brasses, No.VI, Cambridge Camden Society, Cambridge, 1846, pp. 115-132

Further reading

• Neale, John Mason, (ed.) Illustrations of Monumental Brasses, No.VI, Cambridge, Cambridge Camden Society, 1846, pp. 115-132 [3]
• Joyce, Rev.J.G., On The Fairford Windows, 1872, pp. 15-40, history of Tame family.
• Holt, Henry F., The Tames of Fairford, published in Journal of the British Archaeological Association, No.27, 1871, pp. 110-148.
• Gloucestershire Notes & Queries: Monumental Brasses, pp. 141-149 & 99-103.
• Bigland, Ralph, History of Gloucestershire, Vol.1, p. 571, illustration.
• Bigland, Ralph, An Account of the Parish of Fairford in the County of Gloucester, pp. 11-12 [4]
• Davis, Cecil T., The Monumental Brasses of Gloucestershire, 1899.
• Visitation of the County of Gloucester Taken in the Year 1623 by Henry Chitty and John Phillipot, ed. Maclean, Sir John, London, 1885, p. 260, pedigree of Tame

References

Source of article : Wikipedia