Did you know a Norfolk church has the only window showing a bishop being led away by a skeleton after a board game?
Did you know Norfolk has more places with medieval and early modern stained glass than anywhere else in the country? Or that its medieval glass is among the best in Britain?
Stained glass expert David King (whose family made stained glass in Norwich for three generations from 1927 to 2002) and photographer Paul Harley search out historic windows across the county and throw light on the people who created, funded and feature in the stained glass art.
Some of the glass still shows saints and angels in gorgeous landscapes and jewelled palaces . Some is just fragments, cherubs floating free of their heavenly surroundings.
The very earliest, now in Saxlingham Nethergate church, shows St Edmund, and was originally made around 1250 for nearby Caistor St Edmund – where the chancel windows are an exact fit.
Norwich was a centre of stained-glass production for centuries, its workshops creating some of the highest-quality and best-preserved medieval stained glass in Britain. Much was destroyed by protestants and puritans but David and Paul highlight the beauty of what remains – in churches, mansions and museums.
They also trace glass made in Norwich and still glowing from buildings outside the county, and centuries-old glass imported to Norfolk from France and Germany in the 19th century.
Stories in Glass: A Guide to Medieval Stained Glass in Norfolk is a comprehensive survey of Norfolk’s unmatched medieval glass, highlighting 60 of the best places to find it and illustrated with 200 colour photographs.
The vibrant pictures take us into the world of our medieval ancestors when people funded windows to tell bible stories, glorify God, show off wealth and family histories, ask for prayers for their souls or even play politics. Angels are a recurring theme, feathered wings glowing as they float across windows linking the light inside and out, heaven and earth.
David began researching Norfolk stained glass more than 50 years ago and is working on a complete catalogue of the county's glass.
Both David and Paul particularly love the medieval stained glass in East Harling parish church.
Norfolk’s most important collection of medieval glass tells the story of the Virgin Mary.
Around 1460 wealthy Anne Harling funded a Lady Chapel for the church and commissioned the stained glass from the Norwich workshop which made most of the glass for St Peter Mancroft, Norwich.
The East Harling windows begin with the angel Gabriel telling Mary she will give birth to Jesus and continue through to her crucified and risen son ascending into heaven.
However, they also tell Anne’s own story. She longed for children and her windows are a prayer for a baby of her own. A picture of Anne is placed close to the angel telling Mary she is pregnant, and the windows also include the pregnant Mary visiting her cousin Elizabeth who announces she too is expecting a child.
There is also a political message, with subtle symbols revealing the Harling family as supporters of Yorkists against Lancastrians in the Wars of the Roses.
The glass was saved from destruction because the family who became lords of the manor were catholics and removed the glass to their own house rather than see it smashed.
When it was returned to the church it was installed in the east chancel window, becoming part of a remarkable collection of works of art across the county, still illuminating the past as sunlight shines through coloured glass.
Stories in Glass: A Guide to Medieval Stained Glass in Norfolk by David King and Paul Harley is published by Lutterworth Press
