East window of the south-east chapel, (c.1660-64), Church of St Chad, Farndon, Cheshire.
Photo: Jonathan and Ruth Cooke
Detail showing William Barnston from the east window of the south-east chapel, (c.1660-64), Church of St Chad, Farndon, Cheshire.
Photo: Jonathan and Ruth Cooke
Other comments
Series of quarries depicting pike and musket drill were popular in 17th-century Cheshire, with several examples having survived. The Farndon window is unique in combining this form of domestic glazing with images of outsize weaponry and individual officers to create a memorial window. The result welds together separate elements that do not entirely cohere as a single piece.
The limitations of enamel paints are well-demonstrated by the uniforms and flags of the regiment which should be bright red but are instead a muddy brown created by over-painting yellow stain with sanguine paint.
Farndon Church was largely rebuilt in 1658 after being badly damaged by Parliamentarian troops during the Civil War. William Barnston, who is commemorated by a wooden panel in the south chapel, was a major contributor to its restoration. The window itself was repaired in 1808, removed from the church in 1869 at the request of a rector who disapproved of its military character, and replaced in 1896.
The church also contains three windows by Trena Cox.
Sources:
P. Hebgin-Barnes, The Medieval Stained Glass of Cheshire, Oxford, 2010, pp. 294-98.
J. W. F. Harriman, ‘A reappraisal of the English Civil War window in Farndon Church, Cheshire’, Journal of Stained Glass, xxvi, 2002, pp. 75–85.
C. Field, ‘Army Uniforms in a Stained Glass Window in Farndon Church Cheshire, temp. Charles I’, Journal of the Society of Army Historical Research, v, 1926, pp. 174–77.