Church of St James the Apostle, Grafton Underwood, Northamptonshire
Address
Church of St James the Apostle, Main Street, Grafton Underwood, Kettering, Northamptonshire NN14 3AARecommended by
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‘The Windows of Light’ - Three windows in the north and south chancel wallsArtist, maker and date
Thomas Denny, 2020Reason for highlighting
The three windows allow, in Denny’s words, ‘the chancel to become a casket of light’ and are designed, not for a quick response, but for meditation on the theme of light using the many vignettes he includes. Typical of his work is a careful selection of relevant passages from scripture and research into and incorporation of aspects of the local landscape, in this case Northamptonshire. In his notes on the window, Denny emphasises acid etching flashed glass in combination with painting and silver staining along with the yellow gold colouring allowing the three windows to hold together visually.
A two-light window on the south wall based on Genesis 1: ‘Let there be light; and God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night’.
Adjacent to it a three-light window based on Christ as the Light of the World: figures in the other lights follow but some look down and others choose to ignore the light. In the tracery lights scenes of Calvary and the Transfiguration.
On the north wall a two-light window based on the scripture ‘Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works.’ Vignettes include a sower, a couple offering bread. and a bright light in the bow of a boat as a beacon guiding people in from a storm.
Artist/maker notes
Thomas Denny FMGP (b.1956) is one of the most distinguished of contemporary artists, whose work can be found in cathedrals and churches throughout Britain. He studied painting at Edinburgh College of Art and exhibited in London and New York, before concentrating on stained glass. He works with materials and techniques that are largely the same as those used in the fourteenth century, along with the nineteenth century technique of acid etching flashed glass. This, he believes, helps to incorporate his windows in their settings. He notes that the “treatment of imagery can be very different, but colour, texture and the intransigence of lead and glass all make connections with what is already there, whether it is other stained glass, or the forms and surfaces of surrounding architecture and artefacts. Stained glass must be interesting and beautiful in its own right, but it must always acknowledge its context.”
Source: Thomas Denny website
Other comments
The windows were commissioned by the late David Laing, a local resident, head of the John Laing Construction Company and Lord Lieutenant of Northamptonshire. The family motto is ‘Let Your Light Shine’.
Online in a mesmerising 30-minute documentary on the making of the windows called Let Your Light Shine produced by Alex J. Wright Films.
There are just two other windows in the church, both in very different styles. The Victorian east window (1884+) is by Ernest Suffling, while the east window of the south chapel is a memorial window (1977) to the American 384th Bombardment Group by Brian Thomas.