101 CATHEDRAL COMMUNICATIONS THE BUILDING CONSERVATION DIRECTORY 2025 METAL, WOOD & GLASS 3.3 on the thickness of the applied clay, but also on the kiln temperature, the kiln atmosphere (reducing or oxidising) and, most importantly, upon the chemistry of the glass it is applied to. Each glass reacts differently and, particularly with mouthblown glasses, the consistency between batches can be unreliable. Some glasses take silver stain very readily and evenly, others patchily, and some glasses are simply not stainable. While silver ions create yellow or amber colours, copper ions can create a red stain. Copper stain is even more temperamental than silver stain and we did not know if Lamberts Restauro UV™ glass accepts either stain at all. To our delight, the glass produces rich ambers and a warm red when stained, albeit quite unevenly. For the Culpeper Memorial Window, we deliberately applied both the silver and the copper stain unevenly to enhance the variations in the resulting colour and to add an element of pleasing chaos and unpredictability. THE DESIGN Very little is known about the original glazing of St Mary’s Church and the glazing of the Culpeper alcove except that the window probably contained some heraldry. The church would originally have been richly decorated with wall paintings, remnants of which survive in a few places as a barber pole pattern of diagonal red and white stripes. The windows would have been filled with stained glass, of which only a small number of fragments survive in a side chapel. After destruction in the Reformation and the English Civil War, the windows were later filled with Victorian stained glass, much of which was damaged during WWII. The plain glazing of the Culpeper alcove window is probably dated to just after WWII. The design was inspired by typical Tudor windows such as those in Holy Trinity Church, Long Melford and St Andrew’s Church, Gatton, combining heraldry with decorated diamond quarries and diagonal strips carrying black letter inscriptions. The Friends of St Mary’s embraced this idea and decided to celebrate the late Queen Elizabeth II by featuring her Royal arms and those of her consort the Duke of Edinburgh prominently in the central two lancets. In addition to the Royal arms, the couple beneath the window were also represented in two shields: Culpeper in the eastern lancet and Culpeper impaling Chamberlayne in the western lancet. While the Royal arms were relatively straightforward to design and the Culpeper arms are clearly shown in several examples on stone monuments in the church, the Chamberlayne part presented a challenge. There are several different branches of the Chamberlayne family, all with different coats of arms. This is not helped by the wide variety of possible spellings for the name, any of which might apply to Constance. Culpeper impaling Chamberlayne is shown on the front of the stone tomb the effigies rest upon. Unfortunately, the tinctures for Chamberlayne have been altered over time, either through erroneous overpainting or through chemical changes to the pigments. More detective work was necessary to identify the correct arms. We sought help from the Suffolk Heraldry Society who narrowed the possible blazon down to two alternatives, and the College of Arms confirmed the correct blazon. In the design, the diagonal strips of black lettering in each lancet carry the Before (above) and after (right); the two figures are now in soft light rather than the harsh and damaging unfiltered daylight.
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