Cadder Parish Church, Bishopbriggs, East Dunbartonshire
Address
Cadder Parish Church, Cadder Road, Bishopbriggs, Glasgow G64 3QARecommended by
Highlight
A pair of windows at the east end of the south (James Watt Memorial window) and north (Marion Bell window) walls.Artist, maker and date
Alf Webster and Stephen Adam Studio, 1914Reason for highlighting
Alf Webster is considered one of the greatest Scottish artists of the 20th century and these are wonderful examples of his work. Tragically, not long after he made these windows, he was killed in Flanders in August 1915, aged 31, having taken a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Gordon Highlanders.
Artist/maker notes
Alfred Alexander (Alf) Webster (1883-1915) enrolled at the Glasgow School of Art in 1903 and the following year joined the studio of Stephen Adam, becoming a partner in 1909 and taking over the studio the following year after Adam’s death. After joining Adam he rapidly proved himself to be an artist of extraordinary talent capable, who, as Donnelly notes, “was producing glass which, for technical control of colour, texture and transparency, alone among his contemporaries, can bear comparison with that other genius of stained glass, the Irish artist Harry Clarke”.
Sources:
Scotland’s Stained Glass Making the colours sing by Michael Donnelly (Historic Scotland, 1977)
A Notable Ornament – Lansdowne Church: An Icon of Victorian Glasgow by Gordon R Urquhart (Four Acres Charitable Trust / Glasgow City Heritage Trust, 2011)
Stephen Adam Studio was established by Stephen Adam in 1870. In 1909 he entered into partnership with Alf Webster, who took over the studio when Adam died the following year. Upon Webster’s tragically early death in 1915, his widow continued to run the business, assisted in the 1920s by Douglas Hamilton, until her son, Gordon Webster, was able to take control in 1929. He retained the Studio name until about 1936, after which time he felt confident enough to use his own name.
Sources:
Scotland’s Stained Glass: Making the colours sing by Michael Donnelly (Historic Scotland, 1997)
Orchestrations of Colour – The stained glass of Douglas Hamilton by Jeff Hopewell (The Coplow Press, 2020)
Other comments
This church has a very fine collection of Scottish glass.
In addition to the above, there are a pair of very poignant First World War Memorial windows, 1921, from the Stephen Adam Studio, that include details directly from the horrors of war.
Also notable are examples from the pioneering firm of Ballantyne and Gardner (1891 & 1896), both very nicely painted, and a memorial window (1961) by Sadie McLellan, a fantastic artist.
Additions this century include a lovely example of the work of Crear McCartney (2001) for the Millennium, and engraved glass panels by Anita Pate (2015) to mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of Thomas Muir (1765-99), elder of Cadder church and political reformer, who has been called ‘the father of Scottish democracy’.
Source:
The church’s own website has an excellent section on the stained glass – Cadder Church Stained Glass. Visitors to the church can also see a copy of a very fine photobook on the windows by the former Minister, Revd. Graham Finch.
Note: The church does not have a postcode. The one given above is for a house on the road beyond the church.