Historic Churches 2023

24 BCD SPECIAL REPORT ON H ISTOR I C CHURCHE S 30th ANNUAL ED ITION members of her household. Formal training was at the Central London School for Arts and Crafts where her father taught, followed by an apprenticeship at her father’s studio. In 1922 the two became partners in the firm of Whall & Whall Limited, with studios in Ravenscourt Park, West London. Following the death of Christopher Whall in 1924 at the age of 75 she took the helm and managed the company for almost 30 years with her eldest brother, Christopher J Whall. During that time she had over 40 commissions, mostly in England, but several in New Zealand and North America too. The window at All Saints’, Maiden Bradley in Wiltshire illustrated here is among her best, reflecting the influence of Christopher Whall senior in its construction and composition. The two lights lack formal gothic tracery of an earlier generation of artists and craftspeople, but the composition respects the architecture with single figures dominating the main part of each light and with angels above. Each scene is contained, following the form of the masonry. The subject is a young man Top: transmitted light (top) and reflected light on the surface of a section from the bottom of the left light, revealing how the opaque black has been stippled on thickly over the leaves of the wild rose and around the acorns, blotting out all transmitted light. In the plain areas a background pattern is created by using finely brushed lines Detail of the reaper – the leadwork is a vital element of the composition, emphasising elements such as the sickle and creating elements such as the sunburst sowing the land in one light, and another reaping the harvest in the next, reflecting a New Testament narrative. It follows a similar design developed for a church in Ewhurst, Surrey which was installed in 1926, but here the design has been refined to suit the medium, and the flow of colours is far better controlled. The use of stippling to create shade (and its removal to create highlights) suggests the influence of the photographic image. This is particularly apparent in the softly shaded faces. All the shading is executed in monochrome on glass with little or no colour, and few pieces of the glass (quarries) contain more than one colour. There are areas of formalised flat pattern, such as the textural bands of corn heads and stalks behind the reaper’s sickle, but Whall’s scenes and those of her contemporaries have none of the formal, flat surface patterning introduced by the Gothic Revival. The ears of corn are neatly arranged in the same plane to form a band of flat patterning but they take their form from nature, not from a back catalogue of gothic motifs. Even the pattern of the angels’ dresses (see the cover illustration) are based on natural and organic forms, without any reference to medieval decoration. In this window Whall transforms earthy figures into divine beings. The thick black lines of the leading are an integral part of the design, and in the sunburst behind the reaper, the leading radiates from the figure, who is dressed in white, transforming him (or possibly her) into an angelic being. The poise of the figure and the nonchalance with which the sickle is held adds to the divinity of the subject. Leading is also used to delineate and accentuate the visual components of the design. This is particularly effective in the lines of the sickle – a delicious curve of white glass against a dark background of corn stalks and blood-red poppies. The window commemorates the 16th Duke of Somerset who died in 1923, and it was probably completed in 1927. Like all memorials, its significance extends beyond its value as a work of art alone, particularly to the descendants of the deceased. Historically, it is a product of the artistic tastes and endeavours of a particular generation, and the fact that it is the work of a female artist is of cultural and socio-historical significance too. Sadly, many churches and chapels today face an uncertain future as congregations dwindle and funding is increasingly scarce. Being on the external envelope of the building, stained glass windows are particularly vulnerable, as illustrated by the case study on the next page. The principal source of grant aid for heritage conservation today is the National Lottery Heritage Fund, but since the closure of its dedicated grants program for places of worship in 2017, funding has fallen from £46 million per year to just over £11 million in 2022–23. One of the many tragic consequences of the current wave of church closures and conversions to private houses is that fabulous stained glass windows and countless other treasures are being lost to the public. Alternative models for the use of places of worship are being explored through programs such as Stones Shout Out in North Wales, which retain religious use and promote secular access. Other developments include the extension of community activities, tourism and other initiatives to help keep these places open, used and valued, and to help safeguard the fabulous works of art that they contain. JONATHAN TAYLOR is the editor of Historic Churches . Opposite page: ‘We plough the fields and scatter the good seed on the ground’ – Whall romanticises a natural way of life that was fast disappearing.