Bothwell Parish Church, South Lanarkshire
Address
Bothwell Parish Church, Bothwell, G71 8EXRecommended by
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East window of the quireArtist, maker and date
Designed by Edward Burne-Jones and made by Morris & Co, 1899Reason for highlighting
A stunning Burne-Jones/Morris window on the theme of the Nativity.
Artist/maker notes
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1833-1898) was born in Birmingham and studied at Exeter College, Oxford where he met William Morris, with whom he developed a lifelong friendship. Together they created hundreds of stained glass windows that collectively stand as one of the finest artistic achievements of their time. The stature of this formidable artist and designer was recognised after his death when he became the first artist to be given a Memorial Service at Westminster Abbey.
Sources:
Burne-Jones Special Issue, The Journal of Stained Glass, Vol. XXXV, 2011
The Last Pre-Raphaelite: Edward Burne-Jones and the Victorian Imagination by Fiona McCarthy, Faber & Faber, 2011.
Morris & Co. (1875-1940) was the successor to original business of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. William Morris had always been the driving force behind the Firm and he finally determined to remove his earlier partners and to take the business into his own hands, with Burne-Jones as principal designer. The business flourished and continued after Morris’s death, when it also continued to use Burne-Jones designs. It finally closed in 1940.
Sources:
For a brief overview of the two companies see Morris & Co on Wikipedia
The Last Pre-Raphaelite: Edward Burne-Jones and the Victorian Imagination by Fiona McCarthy, Faber & Faber, 2011.
William Morris: A Life for Our Time by Fiona MacCarthy (Faber & Faber, 1994)
Burne-Jones Special Issue, The Journal of Stained Glass, Vol. XXXV, 2011
Damozels & Deities Pre-Raphaelite Stained Glass 1870-1898 by William Waters and Alastair Carew-Cox (Seraphim Press Ltd, 2017)
Other comments
There is a second window to a design by Burne-Jones and made by Morris & Co (1907) adjacent to the east window in the south wall.
Other windows of note include the centre of the west window, The Parables, by Cottier & Co to a design by JE Millais (1880); the Gilchrist window by Douglas Strachan (1936) and the Life of St Bride window by Gordon Webster (1954). Further details of these and other features of the church can be found on the church’s website at Bothwell Parish Church – History